12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend - War Crimes

War Crimes

Several cases of war crimes have been proven to have been committed by the men of the division. Around 156 Canadian soldiers were executed, by men of the division, following their capture. Their murders, and the consequent search for justice, is well documented. In addition two British soldiers, from the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, were also murdered during the killing of Canadian prisoners.

Between 7 June and 8 June 1944, Canadian prisoners were executed by elements of Kurt Meyer's 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment at the Abbey Ardennes just to the west of Caen. As this was Meyer's command post, he, along with several subordinates, were charged with this crime after the war. Testimony at Meyer's war crimes trial, later deprecated, also suggested that Meyer later made it clear he expected no prisoners to be taken during subsequent fighting. The evidence for this (called Exhibit T3, a handwritten testimony) was a set of secret orders given during training that was remembered by SS-Schütze F. Tobanisch who said that receipts of these orders had to be signed by all soldiers. No supporting testimony was provided and the witness was not available to the court. Also on 7 June the bodies of men, from the 21st Panzer Division and staff from 12th SS, were found shot in the head near Rots, which may have been a factor in the execution of the prisoners.

All the charges against the 12th SS are dated between 6–17 June. It is however not the case that any official encouragement of those events has been documented unlike the situation of the Canadian forces where Meyer claims that a "no prisoners" edict was in place as evidenced by documents captured from Canadian officers at the time. According to Meyer, the 12th SS Panzer Division returned three times the level of prisoners as other divisions.

After the war, Meyer was tried and condemned to death by a Canadian military court for collusion in the shooting of Canadian and British prisoners. The main weight of the Prosecution's case rested on Jan Jesionek. Jesionek was a Pole who is alleged to have been forcibly conscripted into the Waffen-SS from which he deserted. Jesionek's testimony was refuted by Meyer and as a result Meyer's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Canadian Major General Christopher Vokes, who considered all evidence against him circumstantial. Vokes recognized that in the heat of battle it was often difficult to decide who had killed an enemy and who had murdered a prisoner. There was no direct proof Meyer ordered the murder of Canadian prisoners but it was clear from physical evidence collected after the fighting that dozens of unarmed Canadians had been murdered after being interrogated by Meyer, who at the time, was the commander of 25th Panzer Grenadier Regiment. This can also be considered retaliation for what Canadian soldiers did to three captured German officers by tying them to their vehicles. Two were subsequently shot and killed while passing through the lines; the third one managed to crawl back to his lines were he subsequently died 3 days later. As the unit's commander, Meyer - while not guilty of the murders - was held fully responsible for the crimes committed by soldiers under his direct command.

On 7 September 1954, with the support of several Canadian and British officers who had faced him in Normandy, along with the mayor of his home town; he was released.