Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Summary Execution
Two of the Nazis have their hands up, but one in the middle has his arms crossed and his body language seems to ask, "What are you going to do if I don't raise my hands, shoot me?"
In defense of this indefensible action, this was at Dachau on April 29, 1945 when the infamous concentration camp was liberated by soldiers of the Rainbow Division (42nd Infantry). Lt. William Walsh began shooting prisoners and set up this machine gun firing squad which killed 17 before a clearer thinking, higher officer stopped it. The slight irony is that these Waffen SS troops were not the camp guards (who had fled), but were troops transferred from the eastern front specifically to surrender the camp to the Americans.
Courts martial were instigated but the charges quashed and kept fairly secret until the 1980s. No American was punished for these executions, called the Dachau Massacre.
Labels: Americans Shooting Nazis, WWII history: European Theater; War Crimes
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 8:59 AM 
