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The Malmedy massacre trial (''U.S. vs. Valentin Bersin, et al.'') was held in May–July 1946 in the Dachau concentration camp to try the German Waffen-SS soldiers accused of the Malmedy massacre of December 17, 1944. The highest-ranking defendant was the former SS general Sepp Dietrich. ==Malmedy massacre== (詳細はprisoners of war and Belgian civilians during the Battle of the Bulge. Though the main massacre nearest Baugnez (Malmedy itself was not the location of any massacres) resulted in the murder of over 80 American POW and was the primary subject of the eventual trial, it was only one of a series of atrocities and executions committed by Kampfgruppe Peiper between mid-December 1944 and mid-January 1945.〔Malmedy massacre Investigation–Report of the Subcommittee of Committee on Armed Services. United States Senate Eighty-first Congress, first session, pursuant to S. res. 42, Investigation of action of Army with Respect to Trial of Persons Responsible for the Massacre of American Soldiers, Battle of the Bulge, near Malmedy, Belgium, December 1944. 13 October 1949.〕 In total, over 750 POWs were murdered, mostly executed at close range by gunshots to the head (though the eventual U.S. Senate investigation would tally the official total at 362 POWs and 111 civilians).〔 Most of the testimonies provided by the survivors state that about 120 Americans from the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion (FAOB), with only light armament, were surprised by the German armored advance on Baugnez, and surrendered. They were gathered in a field near the Baugnez crossroads, at which time the SS troops suddenly fired on their prisoners with machine guns.〔〔 Several SS prisoners later testified that a few of the prisoners had tried to escape. Others claimed that a few of the prisoners had recovered their previously discarded weapons and fired on the German troops as they continued their progress toward Ligneuville.〔(Wholesale Slaughter at Baugnez-lez-Malmedy, Willy D. Alenus )〕 Of the 84 bodies recovered a month later, most showed wounds to the head, seemingly much more consistent with a deliberate massacre than with self-defense or with injuries inflicted on prisoners who were attempting to escape.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mortuary Affairs Operations At Malmedy—Lessons Learned From A Historic Tragedy )〕 As soon as the SS machine gunners opened fire, the American POWs panicked. Some tried to flee, but most were shot where they stood. A few sought shelter in a café at the crossroads. The SS soldiers set fire to the building, and shot all who tried to escape the flames.〔 Some in the field had dropped to the ground and pretended to be dead when the shooting began.〔 However, SS troops walked among the bodies and shot any who appeared to be alive.〔〔 On January 13, 1945, American forces secured the areas where the killings occurred. The bodies were recovered on January 14 and January 15, 1945, with the cold weather preserving the evidence and keeping the bodies and their wounds mostly intact. The autopsies revealed that at least twenty of the victims had suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head, inflicted at very close range.〔 These were in addition to wounds made by automatic weapons. Another 20 showed evidence of small-calibre gunshot wounds to the head without powder-burn residue;〔 10 had fatal crushing or blunt-trauma injuries, most likely from rifle butts.〔 Some bodies showed only one wound, in the temple or behind the ear.〔Roger Martin, L'Affaire Peiper, Dagorno, 1994, p. 76〕 Most of the bodies were found in a very small area, suggesting the victims had been gathered together just before they were killed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Malmedy massacre trial」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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