Murder at Audrieu
In the spring of 2002 I was at the cemetery at Beny sur Mer, near Juno beach in Normandy. I was with a team photographing headstones for a millennium project (link below). While we were moving from stone to stone, an elderly French gentleman was sobbing as he looked at the shockingly young ages of the Canadian dead from D-Day and the days beyond. He asked us if we knew about Audrieu. Despite most of us being amateur historians, no one twigged. So he lead us to nearby Chateau Audrieu.
This was the location of the murders of Canadian prisoners of war. Chateau Audrieu, and the Abbay des Ardennes, were the sites where Canadian soldiers who had surrendered to German forces, in particular the 12th SS, were taken for interrogation. After interrogation, our boys were led into the woods and shot dead. These are known as the Normandy massacres.
The numbers cited vary. But the memorial plaque at Audrieu (below) lists nearly 70 names, mostly from the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.
The commander of the 12th SS was Kurt Meyer. After the war Meyer was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. “Life” turned out to be eight years, as Meyer was released in 1954. The lenient treatment was a result of cold war concerns about Soviet aggression in Europe. NATO was anxious to have West Germany’s support. And it has been said that the West German military was seeking to tap into Meyer’s expertise in tank warfare.
Because it was Canadians who were murdered few people have ever heard of Audrieu. Americans know about Malmedy, where dozens of U.S. soldiers were murdered during the Battle of the Bulge. Because Americans value their history. Canadians don't seem to.
http://www.mapleleaflegacy.ca/wp/
https://www.normandywarguide.com/articles/the-massacre-of-24-canadian-and-2-british-pows-at-chateau-d-audrieu-normandy
