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) |
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]
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]
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]
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