Several prominent members of the German clergy led a movement for clemency. Most of the West German public believed the convicts and saw the case as victor's justice. Everett accused the investigators of widespread systematic torture. The convicts said they had been starved, beaten, had their families threatened, placed in solitary confinement, and subjected to mock executions. The convicts said the interrogators had coerced confession from them via brutal torture. The trial and the interrogations became highly publicized, contested, and politicized. What happened next remains a source of interest and research. They were transported to Landsberg Prison to await execution or serve their sentences. Forty-three of them, including Peiper, were sentenced to death, 22, including Dietrich, were given life terms, and the rest got prison terms ranging from to 10 to 20 years. The remaining 73 defendants were all found guilty. They were going to prosecute Boltz themselves, but dropped the case since they didn't think the evidence was strong enough. Another, Marcel Boltz, had his case withdrawn upon the request of the French government since he was a French national. One of the defendants, 18-year-old Arvid Freimuth, killed himself before the trial started. Poetschke was was killed in action on March 24, 1945. Werner Poetschke (the officer who personally gave the order to carry out the massacre) Joachim Peiper (outright told his men to take no prisoners) Sepp Dietrich (discouraged taking prisoners) The three officers who hold command responsibility for the Malmedy massacre: A total of 75 SS soldiers and officers were charged with their complicity in the massacre. military had established a war crimes commission. They were transported to the former Dachau concentration camp, where the U.S. military for their roles in the Malmedy massacre. The 84 victims were the 'main event' of the Malmedy massacre, but Peiper's men also killed another 274 American POWs and 111 Belgian civilians in the Ardennes.Īfter the war, Peiper and dozens of his men were arrested by the U.S. He was also responsible for the Boves massacre, in which 23 Italian civilians were killed, and the Malmedy massacre, in which 84 American POWs were killed during the Battle of the Bulge. The massacres in the Soviet Union were not Peiper's only crimes. Even old Genghis Khan would gladly have hired us as assistants.' In March 1943, Peiper wrote to a friend: 'Our reputation precedes us as a wave of terror and is one of our best weapons. In August 1944, an SS commander captured in France said Peiper was 'particularly eager to execute the order to burn villages'. As a revenge, Peiper ordered the burning down of the whole village and the shooting of its inhabitants.' An SS sergeant in Peiper's ration supply company stated, 'In the village, the two petrol trucks were burnt and 25 Germans killed by partisans and Soviet soldiers.

Joachim peiper death photo