The killing of 84 American POWs by Waffen-SS troops at Malmedy was among the most notorious German war crimes on the Western Front in World War II.
Key Facts
- Date of massacre
- 17 December 1944
- U.S. POWs killed
- 84 persons
- Perpetrators
- Kampfgruppe Peiper, Waffen-SS
- Location
- Baugnez crossroads, near Malmedy, Belgium
- Trial held
- May–July 1946 (Malmedy massacre trial)
- Broader context
- Battle of the Bulge (16 Dec 1944 – 25 Jan 1945)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
During the German Ardennes offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge, Kampfgruppe Peiper—a fast-moving Waffen-SS armored formation—captured a group of American soldiers. Rather than detaining them as prisoners of war under the laws of armed conflict, the SS soldiers chose to summarily execute the captives at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy.
On 17 December 1944, Waffen-SS soldiers herded approximately 84 U.S. Army prisoners of war into a farmer's field and opened fire with machine guns. Survivors of the initial volley were individually executed with gunshots to the head. The broader definition of the massacre extends to subsequent Waffen-SS killings of civilians and POWs in surrounding Belgian villages and towns.
The massacre provoked outrage among Allied forces and stiffened American resistance during the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, the perpetrators were prosecuted at the Malmedy massacre trial (May–July 1946), part of the Dachau trials series. The case became a landmark in the prosecution of war crimes and a symbol of Waffen-SS atrocities committed on the Western Front.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent
Joachim Peiper.