Malmedy Massacre

Date: December 17, 1944 • Location: Malmédy, Belgium

Nazi troops under Joachim Peiper killed unarmed prisoners of war, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, with machine guns near Malmedy, Belgium.

Joachim "Jochen" Peiper was a German battalion commander in the Waffen-SS. He was known as a Nazi war criminal found guilty of the Malmedy massacre of U.S. Army prisoners of war. During the Second World War in Europe, Peiper served as personal adjutant to Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, and as a tank commander in the Waffen-SS. Peiper fought in the Third Battle of Kharkov and in the Battle of the Bulge, from which battles his eponymous battle group—Kampfgruppe Peiper—became notorious for committing war crimes against civilians and POWs.