During the Second World War there were many war crimes committed during the conflict by
different armies and militaries.
After World War 2, there were a number of war crimes trials that aimed to bring about
the perpetrators of these atrocities to justice, and the most high profile of these were the
Nuremberg Trials.
The remaining members of Hitler’s inner circle and his government were brought in
front of a judge, and at the trial many of the senior military figures were accused of
being responsible for the crimes of the soldiers under their leadership.
Evidence was put forward about many of the massacres committed, but other war crimes
trials did take place too.
One war crime that was incredibly shocking was the killing of 20 Canadian soldiers inside
the garden of the Ardennes Abbey, a highly religious building that was founded in the
11th century.
Despite being a building of local religious worship, the Abbey was the site of the terrible
and bloody massacre.
So join us today as we look at, ‘The BRUTAL Executions Of Canadian Soldiers At Ardennes
Abbey.’
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The Normandy Massacres were a series of war crimes committed by German soldiers shortly
after the start of the Normandy campaign, and the subsequent allied invasion.
Overall as many as 156 Canadian soldiers were executed in cold blood by the Germans, and
the massacres are considered one of the worst war crimes committed against Canadians.
One of the earliest and most significant battles that took place between the Allies and the
Germans took place at Caen, with the Allies fighting for control of the city and the surrounding
areas.
Caen and the land to the south is flat compared to the Normandy bocage, and it was seen as
a good place for the Allied Air Forces to establish bases to get planes to France.
Because of this they wanted the area capturing.
British and Canadian forces fought together, and the British 3rd Infantry Division was
to seize Caen on D-Day to prepare for an attack if the Germans prevented the city from being
captured.
The city was not captured by the Allies on D-Day, but in the following weeks the British
and Canadian soldiers continued to attack in the area against the Germans who used a
large amount of their panzer divisions to defend the city.
On the 18th July, 6000 tons of bombs were dropped Eastern Caen, and the town was liberated
on the 19th July, however there was a significant death toll which dozens of thousands of soldiers
killed, and 3000 civilians killed by the bombing.
But during these engagements Canadian POWs were killed in particular at the ardennes
Abbey in a horrific war crime.
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During these engagements, Ardennes Abbey was being used by the Waffen-SS Standartenfuhrer
Kurt Meyer for his regimental headquarters.
Meyer was the commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjungend.
This division was armoured and was made up mostly of junior enlisted men who were taken
into military service from the Hitler Youth.
This division was mostly made up of soldiers who were born in 1926, meaning at the time
of the Normandy Invasion the soldiers were 18 years old, however through their training
in the Hitler Youth they had been prepared for service for many years.
The Division was made up of over 16,000 recruits and they were indoctrinated heavily with the
Nazi ideologies.
It was said, ‘In the Waffen-SS you couldn’t do anything if an Unterfuhrer hit you during
the training.
The purpose of the training is to make you just as they are; it’s just pure sadism.’
In March 1944, the division had been transferred across to Caen in Normandy, and was attached
to the 1st SS Panzer Corps, and they were equipped with a significant degree of military
vehicles and tanks.
The division was known for committing massacres, and atrocities even before they saw combat
with the enemy.
On the 1st April 1944, in Ascq in France, the German soldiers committed a terrible massacre
of French civilians.
The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Youth travelled by rail for Normandy, and as their train as
approaching Ascq, an explosion blew the train line apart, and two cars of the train derailed
carrying the German soldiers.
The commander of the convoy of soldiers, told his men to go and search for the perpetrators
and to arrest all fo the men who were living in the houses found on both sides of the train
track.
They rounded up in total 86 men who were all lined up along the train line and were then
shot, being massacred by gunshot.
It was said by the German Military Command who justified the massacre, ‘The population
must know that any attack on German units or soldiers will be responded to by all means
required by the situation.
The example of Ascq must be a lesson.
Responsibility lies with the criminals who make such attacks.’
After this, they were involved in the defence of Normandy and were close to the landing
beaches, and they were moved to defend Sword and Juno.
With their tanks they were then moved to help defend Caen, however during the fighting with
the British and Canadian soldiers, they captured a number of Prisoners of War.
During the battle and fighting around Caen, a number of Canadian soldiers were taken prisoner
by the SS division, and they were then taken back to the headquarters set up by Kurt Meyer
inside of the Ardenne Abbey.
Here it’s believed that they were interrogated for information about further Allied advances,
and at the time in the conflict for the Germans, any information was of paramount importance.
The invasions had caught them by surprise at the sheer scale of them, and Kurt Meyer
and his men at the Ardennes Abbey needed any information they could get from the Canadian
soldiers.
Initially, a day after the D-Day invasions, on the 7th June 1944 11 Canadian Prisoners
of War who were kept at the Ardennes Abbey were taken into the garden of the Abbey and
the graveyard.
The soldiers were from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, and the 27th Armoured Regiment
The Sherbrooke Fusiliser Regiment.
They were lined up in the garden, and then each of the men were shot in the back of the
head at close range.
This at the time violated the Geneva conventions, shooting POWs when they should have been treated
humanely and protected.
But the executions did not stop there.
The following day, 7 more POWs were transferred to Ardennes Abbey, all Canadians again from
the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, and they were interrogated and then when deemed to
use were executed in the same manner, with them being shot in the head.
The bloodshed at the abbey continued, as on the 17th June two more Canadian soldiers were
killed on the Abbey’s land, both of them had been looking for disabled German Tanks,
and during this they went missing and had been seized by the Germans.
It was said how the two Canadians had been evacuated to the abbey for first aid before
interrogation, and then later gunshots were heard coming from the abbey at two different
times, with the two other Canadian soldiers being killed.
The bodies of the Canadian soldiers were discovered on the 8th July 1944 after the Abbey was captured
and seized by the Canadian Army.
First they found the body of one soldier, and some of the bodies were found by the villagers
in the garden of the Abbey.
The bodies of those men killed killed in the earlier massacres were not found until winter
1944 and spring 1945.
The examinations of the remains showed how the men had either been shot straight through
the skull, or had been buldgeoned to death with a rifle butt of a spade or entrenching
tool.
The remains were then taken and reburied in a cemetery, but after the Canadian War Crimes
Commission sought to find out what had happened at the Abbey, and who specifically had killed
the 20 Canadian soldiers.
As the commander of the regiment, Kurt Meyer was the prime suspect, and he was deemed responsible
for the actions of his soldiers.
Ultimately he had set his Headquarters up at the abbey, and at his trial he was accused
of 5 charges.
These were, ‘inciting and advising soldiers under his command to refuse quarter to Allied
troops, commanding his troops to kill POWs on the 7th June 1944, Commanding his troops
on the 8th June to kill 7 POWs at Ardennes Abbey, Responbility for the killing of 7 Canadian
POWs at Ardennes Abbey, and Ordering the Killing of 11 Canadian POWs at Ardennes Abbey.
It was said at trial, that Meyer instructed his soldiers to not take any prisoners, and
the citizens of villages in French towns confirmed the atrocities committed against the Canadian
soldiers.
A polish prisoner who was forced into service with the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Youth
stated how, ‘each prisoner was questioned by an officer, a name was then called out,
and a prisoner walked up from the passageway leading to the garden in the abbey.
As soon as the prisoner turned, they were shot in the head by the officer with a machine
pistol.
This was repeated for the remaining 6 prisoners.
After the officer and guards left, the polish man examined the bodies lying in the garden
surrounded by bloods.
The Canadians relaised what was happening, with each prisoner shaking hands with his
fellow prisoners.
Before walking into the garden and being shot.’
Meyer claimed he had no knowledge of the executions In the abbey, and he stated he was though
aware of the presence of the bodies but saw them after the killing.
He claimed he was disgusted and ordered the bodies to be buried, however this was denied
by other witnesses.
Meyer himself was found guilty of inciting his soldiers to commit murder, and for being
responsible for the killings at the Abbey.
He was sentenced to death but this was later commuted to life imprisonment, but was released
9 years later.
So the massacre of Canadian soldiers inside of the Ardennes Abbey was nothing short of
a war crime, which was committed with horrific brutality.
The men seemingly accepted their fate as they made their way out to the abbey into the garden
when they were executed at point blank range.
Today a memorial marks the spot of the executions inside the garden of the Abbey, it reads ‘On
the night of June 7th and 8th, 18 Canadian Soldiers were murdered in this garden whilst
being held here as prisoners of war.
Two more prisoners died here or nearby on June 17th.
They are gone but not forgotten.’
They are truly never forgotten.
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