Throughout the Second World War there were a number of war crimes that were carried out
by the SS or the German Army.
Across different theatres of war, executions and slaughter took place and after the war
a number of generals and commanders were brought to justice for this.
Many more though escaped any form of punishment, but at times the Germans had a tendency to
kill their prisoners of war.
Following D-Day for example there were a number of atrocities committed against Canadian soldiers,
and these became known as the Normandy Massacres.
In different parts of normandy, Canadians who had been captured following landing on
Juno Beach were slaughtered at the hands of German generals and officers.
But one horrific series of executions that were carried out in 1940 was the Chasselay
Massacre, and it was a shocking crime that showed how evil the Germans could be.
Join us today as we look at the executions of the soldiers shot by tanks, and remember
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On the 10th May 1940, the Germans launched their invasion of France following the fact
the French declared war on the Germans 8 months before.
The Germans to begin with in the early stages of the Second World War were focussed on taking
Poland and seizing control of it, but after this they turned their attention to the west
and towards France.
The Germans would quickly using their blitzkrieg tactics rampage into French lands and they
were pitted against the French Armed Forces, many of whom were colonial troops and soldiers.
From many parts of the world soldiers were brought to fight against the Germans and this
included soldiers from Senegal, but the power of the German army quickly overwhelmed the
French army and they were forced to retreat.
In May 1940, the German soldiers would manage to take land in the Somme, and they would
capture many different French Prisoners of war, including soldiers from the African colonies
held by the French.
The Germans treated these particular soldiers with extreme contempt, and they recalled an
event known as ‘The Black Horror on the Rhine,’ which was panic that emerged in
Weimar Germany about crimes allegedly committed by Senegalese and African soldiers who served
in the French Army during the French occupation of the Rhineland.
The right wing press propagated these rumours, and Hitler himself would blame the Jews for
bringing the Senegalese into the Rhineland area.
Some of the propaganda that emerged in not just Germany but other lands regarding this
was shocking and horrific, and many German soldiers who captured African soldiers fighting
for the French would decide to treat them awfully.
At the time the German High Command, the oberkommando Der Wehrmacht had not issued orders to specifically
target colonial soldiers and troops, but they did nothing to stop German soldiers being
barbaric towards them.
The high command knew that many atrocities were being committed by Wehrmacht and Wafer
SS troops during the invasion of France.
The waffen-ss in particular indoctrinated by their nazi ideology were eager to murder
and slaughter those who were considered sub human.
They would carry out a terrible atrocity on the 27th May 1940, as soldiers from the SS
Deaths’ Head Division would murder 97 British soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment who
had surrendered in what became known as the Le Paradis massacre.
But the Germans had deemed the colonial troops as feared enemies for some time, and many
fought against them during the First World War, and fought bravely.
But Hitler and the Nazis deemed those specific soldiers as sub-human and as deserving of
no mercy or compassion, and they would in 1940 suffer a terrible massacre which showed
the barbarism of the German forces and how they were willing to slaughter people based
on the colour of their skin.
As the French forces suffered heavy losses in May and June 1940, Senegalese soldiers
were caught up int he fighting.
They wanted to fight and they were often commanded to fight battles they could not win and they
were forced to withdraw from the front line or surrender.
On a number of occasions the regular soldiers of the German Army would execute black soldiers
for no reason.
On the 17th June 1940, Marshal Philippe Petain stated in an announcement that he would look
to bring the hostilities to an end and to sign an armistice with Adolf Hitler and the
Nazis.
The Germans were too strong and powerful for the French and to minimise damages this is
what the French proposed.
But two days after this a German group of soldiers from the Grossdeutschland division
and the 3rd SS Panzer Division launched an assault on the city of Lyon.
Those who were defending the city were the 25th Senegalese Tirailleurs Regiment, and
they were based in the north west of the city to fight against the Germans.
But it became clear that the Germans were yet again too strong, and the Germans captured
many French soldiers, and they executed many of these.
Around the 20th June, the Germans were facing a lot of resistance, but they managed to wipe
out all of the resistance around Lyon.
The 25th Regiment who were based in the village of Chasselay would run out of ammunition and
because of this they decided to surrender to the Germans.
But the Senegalese and Black soldiers who were captured were treated very badly.
The Germans rounded up the French POWs and split them into colonial and non colonial
POWs.
The colonial POWs were then moved by the German soldiers towards a quiet and isolated road,
and then they were led into a field.
Inside of the field the Senegalese soldiers and their white officers were split up, and
the officers were led to the side and were told to lie face down.
The Senegalese were then ordered to gather in front of two German tanks.
These tanks were manned by tank crews, and the soldiers were then ordered to run away
from the vehicles.
As this happened, the German panzer crews opened up their machine guns on the soldiers.
Many of the men were killed there and them as the machine guns sprayed into the men,
but there were many who were injured and wounded.
The tank crews then took matters further into their hands and they drove their tanks over
the wounded killing them and mutilating them horrifically.
The soldiers who committed the massacre were seen before hand looking relaxed and calm
before they committed the action.
One German soldier shot and wounded a French officer, but the white French POWs were unharmed
and were then marched away.
These were then sent to prisoner of war camps, but after the massacre the German soldiers
ordered the local people not to bury the bodies, and one said ‘the German army command does
not like and expressly prohibits the decoration of the graves of these soldiers.’
But when the germans moved on the men were then buried inside of a mass grave.
Later a cemetery would be made commemorating those men who were slaughtered, and the bodies
of 188 soldiers were buried there as more massacres were carried out similarly to the
crimes in Chasselay.
But the crimes that were carried out that day inside of the French field were compounded
by the Nazis beliefs on race and their ideology.
It was a brutal slaughter as the men were mown down by machine gun fire, and they were
then ran over by tanks from the panzer division.
It was a terrible and horrific sight and scene, and it showed how evil the German army could
be.
These man should have been taken as prisoners of war, but there were many other crimes committed
by the Wehrmacht and the SS as the Second World War continued.
They would be responsible for the deaths of millions in the deadliest conflict the world
has ever seen.
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