War Crimes by US Forces

The German newspaper Schwaebische Zeitung published an article on 23rd April 2025:

When the Americans massacred German POWs in Lippach on 22nd April. They were 16/17 year old boys.
Some of the details are too cruel.
In August 1986 General Raymond Haddok confirmed this.

 

Is this the article?
Oft verschwiegen: Als die Amerikaner deutsche Kriegsgefangene niedermetzeln

 

Wiki here
Lippach massacre - Wikipedia

 

yes indeed.

 

Hmm.
The last line is probably meant to stir up some pathos in the listener but I've a real problem with the last word.

"Even today, on remembrance day, many Lippach residents visit the graves of the young soldiers in the cemetery, honouring the victims of what was meant to be their liberation."

Men in military uniform who had weapons until that is they were captured, or civilians who'd probably celebrated conquests of other countries, were supposedly ... anticipating their liberation? Or is defeat of the Germany of then a problematic word when considering the Germany of today, since the goals and effects of Nazism are so plainly abhorrent?

As someone who is related to veterans on both British and German sides, to civilians on both sides who suffered loss and privations, IMO the last word shouldn't apply, not even in hindsight. I don't recall any of my family members saying that they fought for the liberation of Germany.


(Before anyone wonders why I didn't first express opinions on the topic of killing of POWs, rape of women, etc - I've read enough & heard enough from veterans themselves not to be surprised that such events happened during a war. It was fought by human beings after all but it ended in the defeat a heinous regime more than willing to ignore/encourage/justify/legitimise similar actions. My comments on such matters are already littered all over the forum: we're fortunate to be able to discuss such topics 'warts and all'.)

 

Amazing, that there is a You Tube video.
I will inform the German Newspaper

 

I trained for four years with an expert on the M2 .50 call Browning machine gun. I could kill at two miles with a supersonic bullet impacting the bag guy's forehead. Or where it was a second ago. The wars I fought were not very nice, and got worse when I joined the military.

 

Nowadays, the word ‘liberation’ is often used in Germany.
For most people, however, the war was only over when an Allied tank stood in front of their house
And at best, people were happy that their house was still standing - but hardly anyone felt liberated

Too many prefer instead to feel liberated today and at the same time complain about bomb terror, displacement and the like: how incredibly convenient - if you generously ignore the cause/effect principle
This, and to be outraged about allied war crimes against innocent boys all too obviously serves as a convenient excuse to avoid having to deal with one's own filthy history

Fun fact: When Berhard Wicki made the anti-war film ‘Die Brücke’ in 1959(!), the team was met with hostility from the locals: Because they allegedly wanted to ‘make the Führer look bad’.

As for the enormous German war crimes in comparison:
People were all too happy to take refuge in the excuse that the Führer didn't know any of this - just like themselves
And after that, they just as submissively served the new rulers
However, the German courts had no problem absolving even the deputy commandant of Auschwitz of his responsibility as a simple ‘ supporter’ after the war.

The only thing I can criticise the Allies for from my subjective point of view: That they didn't make short work of many more proven Nazis after the capitulation.

 

Hmm that YouTube video carries a fair few contradictions within it. It talks of a US investigation finding bodies here and there but also says that the bodies were buried immediately after they were slain. I guess we need sight of the original eye-witness statements, the relevant War Diaries and the reports from the 1945 investigation as well as the 1995 investigation to make some sense of all this.

 

I can't imagine what folks in the neighbouring countries previously occupied by Nazis, make of this late insertion into the Liberation of Europe.

And perhaps it is also now more 'comfortable' to commemorate victims of a crime rather than those, even in one's own family, who otherwise 'died for the Führer'.

 

However,
no matter who committed the war crime, a crime is still a crime.

 

Don't see any contradiction here. By anyone.

If you're still not convinced, see the Tags which I added when I first replied to your thread / moved it to this sub-area.