Gardelegen (war crime)
On
April 13,
1945 (less than a month from the end of the
Second World War),
German SS and
Luftwaffe troops, retreating from the
Allied advance, murdered 1016
political and
military prisoners near the
German town of
Gardelegen. The crime was discovered two days later by the
U.S. 102nd Infantry Division, 405th Regiment, 2d Battalion, F Company.
Discovery of the massacre seems to be by chance. Consensus is that American
Lieutenant Emerson Hunt, a liaison officer (____unit____) between Ozark HQ and the 701st Tank Battalion was captured by German forces on
April 14, 1945. Lt. Hunt bluffed the German forces defending the town of Gardelegen into believing that American tanks were approaching the city, leading the German commander to surrender to American forces. The Americans arrived at the site before the Germans had time to bury all of the bodies.
On Friday,
April 13, 1945, 1016 political and military prisoners were locked inside a barn on the Isenschnibbe estate and burned to death. Victims who escaped the burning barn were shot.
About 700 of the bodies were buried in
mass graves near the site. American troops arrived before the evidence was completely hidden.
An investigation was undertaken by Lt. Col.
Edward E. Cruise, Investigating Officer,
Ninth Army War Crimes Branch.
Text of Lt. Cruise's report and text of other exhibits are stored in US Army file 000-12-242.
Several days after discovering the atrocity, American troops forced the German residents of the town of Gardelegen to rebury the dead in individually marked graves.
Gardelegen is now a national memorial.
The sign at the cemetery reads:
Gardelegen
Military Cemetery
Here lie 1016 allied prisoners of
war who were murdered by their
captors.
They were buried by citizens of
Gardelegen, who are charged with
responsibility that graves are for-
ever kept as green as the memory
of these unfortunates will be kept
in the hearts of freedom-loving men
everywhere.______________
Established under supervision of 102d
Infantry Division. United States Army
Vandalism will be punished by max-
imum penalties under laws
of military government.
Frank A. Keating
Major General, U.S.A.
Commanding
*
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust Encyclopedia on Gardelegen*
Article within the 102d Infantry Division history pages*
From the "Holocaust Encyclopedia"*
Holocaust Forgotten*
The Gardelegen Massacre at scrapbookpages.com*
The official Gardelegen site
