Dunkirk

[Dowding]

Any Brits see the docu-drama on BBC2 last night?

Perhaps it has been shown in the States already, like that Terry Jones thing?

[Momus--]

I saw it last night; found it very hard to sleep after the scene where the SS massacre the British POWs.

[Dowding]

Yes, it was particularly harrowing. It would appear that even in the early days of the war, the scum rose to the top in the German army.

As far I know there was no German prosecution of the perpetrators, in the same way there was no prosecution of Totenkopf officers responsible for a similar atrocity at La Paradis. The guy responsible for the machine gunning of 90 British/Canadian POWs received three Knight's Crosses. A real hero. Prior to WW2 he worked at Dachau and later served on the Russian front. That particular animal was hung in 1949 by the British. Having said that there was some investigation by members of the Germany army, and a doctor was on the scene within 48 hours, but the whole thing was dropped.

[ravells]

Damn... I missed it, but I'll be watching the second part tonight.

Did you get it on Vid, Dowding?

Cheers

Ravs

[Hortlund]

Are you talking about the Le Paradis massacre?
(Totenkopf division massacre POWs)

[Dowding]

Sadly no - I only have a DVD player. There was some good dramatisation of the conflict within the war cabinet between Lord Halifax and Churchill - one advocating negociations for peace, the other for fighting to the last man and not negociating. Churchill had an amazing grasp for motivating people - that 'never surrender' speech always gives me goose pimples.

[Dowding]

Yes, Hortlund. That wasn't mentioned though in the show. It showed the Warwickshire Regt. murders - might also have been perpetrated by the Totenkopf nutcases.

[Momus--]

I believe it was the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler.

[Nashwan]

The Warwkishire pows were murdered at Wormhoudt by members of the 1st SS Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler". The massacre at Le Paradis took place the day before, and was carried out by members of the 3rd SS "Totenkopf".

I don't think they ever caught the perpetrators of Wormhoudt.

[MJHerman]

"Towards the end of May 1940 the 2nd Bn of The Royal Norfolk Regiment were stubbornly holding Le Paradis and the neighbouring hamlets of Le-Cornet Malo and Riez-du-Vinage against overwhelmingly superior forces, trying to block the enemy's road to Dunkirk. On May 27th, their ammunition expended, and completely cut off from their Bn and Bde HQ, 97 officers and men of 2 R Norfolk surrendered to No 4 Coy of the 1st Bn of the 2nd SS Totenkopf (Deathshead) Regt. They were disarmed, marched into a field, mowed down by machine-guns, finished off by revolver shots and bayonet thrusts and left for dead.

By a miracle, two of them, Bill O'Callaghan and Bert Pooley, escaped death, hid in the neighbouring farm of Madame Duquenne-Creton. At great risk to herself, the brave Frenchwoman cared for and fed the 2 injured men. But Bert's leg wounds were severe so they gave themselves up and became prisoners of war, Bert being repatriated in 1943. His story of the massacre was not believed but in 1946 he returned to Le Paradis and set in motion the wheels of justice which, on 28 Jan 1949, brought to the gallows the German officer who gave the command for this massacre, Fritz Knoechein.
It also led to the publication on 1956 of 'The Revenge of Private Pooley' by Cyril Jolley.
Right, arriving in Hamburg. "

[gofaster]

Massacres and Attrocities of World War Two with pictures of the memorials and scenes of the crimes.

[Replicant]

I watched Dunkirk last night and tonight and look forward to watching the final episode tomorrow night.

The murdering of the British POWs was particularly disturbing.

[gofaster]

STARVATION AT REMAGEN

After the capture of the Remagen Bridge, the US Army hastily erected dozens of Prisoner of War cages around the bridge-head. The camps were simply open fields surrounded by concertina wire. Those at the Rhine Meadows were situated at Remagen, Bad Kreuznach, Andernach, Buderich, Rheinbach and Sinzig. The German prisoners were hopeful of good treatment from the GIs but in this they were sadly disappointed. Herded into the open spaces like cattle, some were beaten and mistreated. No tents or toilets were supplied. The camps became huge latrines, a sea of urine from one end to the other. They had to sleep in holes in the ground which they dug with their bare hands. In the Bad Kreuznach cage, 560,000 men were interned in an area that could only comfortably hold 45,000. Denied enough food and water, they were forced to eat the grass under their feet and the camps soon became a sea of mud. After the concentration camps were discovered, their treatment became worse as the GIs vented their rage on the hapless prisoners.  

In the five camps around Bretzenheim,  prisoners had to survive on 600-850 calories per day. With bloated bellies and teeth falling out, they died by the thousands. During the two and a half months (April-May, 1945) when the camps were under American control, a total of 18,100 prisoners died from malnutrition, disease and exposure. This extremely harsh treatment at the hands of the Americans resulted in the deaths of over 50,000 German prisoners of war in the Rhine Meadows camps alone in the months just before and after the war ended. It must however be borne in mind that with the best will in the world it proved almost impossible to care for the prisoners under the strict terms of the Geneva Convention. The task of guarding these prisoners, numbering around 920,000, fell to the men of the US 106th. Infantry Division. The Remagen cage was set up to accommodate 100,000 men but ended up with twice that number. On the first afternoon 35,000 prisoners were counted through the gate. About 10,000 of these required urgent medical attention which in most cases was completely absent. All roads leading to the camps were clogged with hundreds of trucks bringing in even more prisoners, sent to the rear by the advancing 9th.US Army.

Tourists, cruising down the Rhine today can pick out a small memorial and plaque built on the site of the former POW cage. In the Remagen cemetery there are 1,200 graves and at Bad Kreuznach, 1,000 graves.

Anybody know if there were war crimes trials for this?