The Truth, and Untruth, of a German Atrocity

In a horrific war in which millions perished, the massacre at Malmedy does not figure large. In the history of fake news, however, it is a landmark deserving of recognition.

On December 17, 1944, as Hitler made his last stab in the Battle of the Bulge, 84 American soldiers were captured and slaughtered. The perpetrators were members of the 1st SS Panzer Division, a combat unit belonging to the Waffen SS, an especially vicious force integral to the Nazi campaign of genocide. Some 43 Americans crawled away from the carnage, made it back to American lines, and told their horrific story of machine-gun spray followed by German soldiers shooting their wounded comrades point-blank in a field in Belgium near the village of Malmedy.