During a recent trip to Arimont, Bee and I decided to stop at a recent addition to the local scene.
We discovered the Baugnez 44 Historical Center. Here is the link: http://www.baugnez44.be/
It is a very well put together story of World War II with an emphasis on what happened in the area during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.
The museum itself is situated only 100 m away from the American Memorial in Baugnez, on the road between Malmedy and Waimes.
I did not have a camera, and the weather was not great, so I have had to borrow other people’s photos, for once…
Photo borrowed from Wikipedia
This is the site where 80 American Prisoners of War were massacred by their German captors during the earlier phases of the campaign. This event was recreated in the movie “Battle of the Bulge” from 1965. This was not the only such war crime perpetrated by the German troops, but it caused the largest loss of American POWs lives in one incident.
Several soldiers survived the massacre by “Playing Dead” and their interviews can be heard in the museum. The memorial itself is, as always, sober and peaceful.
Following the massacre, there was a trial in Dachau in 1946. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the subject:
In what came to be called the “Malmedy massacre trial“, which concerned all of the war crimes attributed to Kampfgruppe Peiper for the battle of the Bulge, the highest-ranking defendant was General Sepp Dietrich, commander of the 6th SS Panzer Army, to which Peiper’s unit belonged. Joachim Peiper and his principal subordinates were defendants. The Tribunal tried more than 70 persons and pronounced 43 death sentences (none of which were carried out) and 22 life sentences. Eight other men were sentenced to shorter prison sentences.
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