Interesting. I always thought he was “Panzer Meyer†because he lead a Panzer Division.
Thanks for clearing that up.
And as always the choice of pictures was well done.
As far as his trial and punishment goes, part of our tour of Normandy was the Ardenne Abbey.
It wasn’t on a battlefield that these Canadians prisoners were shot. They were shot well behind the lines at Meyer’s HQ.
If he didn’t give the order it’s hard to believe he didn’t know what was happening. It was happening within feet of him.
“During the Normandy Campaign, Waffen-SS Standartenführer Kurt Meyer, commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, used the Abbaye d’Ardenne for his regimental headquarters, as its towers gave a clear view of the battlefield. In June 1944 at the abbey, 20 Canadian soldiers were murdered by members of the 12th SS Panzer Division.
The Ardenne Abbey massacre occurred during the Battle of Normandy at the Ardenne Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery in Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe, near Caen, France. In June 1944, 20 Canadian soldiers were massacred in a garden at the abbey by members of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend over the course of several days and weeks. This was part of the Normandy Massacres, a series of scattered killings during-which up to 156 Canadian prisoners of war were murdered by soldiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division during the Battle of Normandy. The perpetrators of the massacre, members of the 12th SS Panzer Division, were known for their fanaticism, the majority having been drawn from the Hitlerjugend or Hitler Youth.â€
- Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org