Summary
The Jungholzhausen massacre was a war crime committed by the 63rd Infantry Division of the US Army on 15 April 1945 during the Western Allied invasion of Germany. Between 13 and 30 Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht prisoners of war were executed by the division's 254th Infantry Regiment after heavy fighting near the village of Jungholzhausen.[1][2]
| Jungholzhausen massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Braunsbach, Schwäbisch Hall |
| Date | 15 April 1945 |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 13–30 Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht prisoners of war |
| Perpetrators | 254th Infantry Regiment, 63rd Infantry Division (US Army) |
Massacre edit
In April 1945, the 254th Infantry Regiment suffered heavy casualties during the battle for the Hohenlohe district.[1] Wehrmacht combat engineers and mostly 17-year old Waffen-SS soldiers from Leoben in Styria engaged the regiment in combat near the village of Jungholzhausen.[1] After the battle, the villagers counted the bodies of 63 German soldiers, out of whom at least 13 and possibly up to 20 or 30 had been killed after surrendering.[1][2] An eyewitness observed the US execution with submachine guns of four Waffen-SS troops during the night.[1] U.S. massacres of German prisoners of war were commonplace in the district of Hohenlohe.[1]
Legacy and 1996 US investigation edit
According to German historian Klaus-Dietmar Henke, the war crimes committed by the US in Germany in 1945 were largely shrouded in silence until the 1990s, when German local newspapers began reporting on them.[1] In 1996, the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command investigated the massacre of 15 April 1945 in Braunsbach-Jungholzhausen but could not identify the perpetrators of the massacre.[1]
Citations edit
References edit
- Henke, Klaus-Dietmar (1996). Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands (in German). Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag. ISBN 3-486-56175-8.
- Zigan, Harald (16 April 2015). "Kriegsende 1945 (Teil 10): US-Soldaten nehmen blutige Rache in Jungholzhausen und Ilshofen". swp.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 29 September 2022.