OBJECTIVE

It is important to get from the prisoners as much information as possible about the Allied artillery postions! Protect the City Hall at all costs and if the Hamlet of Wereth is in danger of falling into the possession of the Americans, shoot the prisoners!

Historical Information

MURDER AT WERETH (December 17, 1944)

In the small hamlet of Wereth, about a mile north-east of St Vith in Belgium, members of the 1 SS Division attached to Kampfgruppe Hansen, accepted the surrender of eleven Afro-American soldiers. They were then tortured and murdered, their bodies left to be covered by snow. The bodies were discovered by Wehrmacht soldiers some days later after the Battle of the Bulge. It was established that the victims were members of the US 333rd Artillery Battalion. The perpetrators of this crime were never identified.