Jochen S
I tend to respond to sarcasm with more sarcasm.
I would have no Idea how to contact him personally. It was only after I started looking on here that I realised he had been present on this site. Oldly enough only posting twice as far as I can tell. Secondly I wouldnt want to talk to him. Left wingers make me mad and I find it hard to get them past there rhetoric.
I lost the majority of my books on the subject when my apartment flooded last September. HOWEVER, a short search found this...
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScr ... cre03.html
I found these few things intresting.
"The Malmedy Massacre proceedings were conducted like a US Army court martial, except that only a two-thirds majority vote by the panel of 8 judges was needed for conviction" Hmmmm thats a little off.
"The proceedings lasted for only two months" Kinda short for a mass murder trial, dont ya think.
"Fearful that they might incriminate themselves on the witness stand, their defense attorney, Lt. Col. Everett, who believed that they were guilty, persuaded most of the SS soldiers not to testify on their own behalf." 1 Lawyer for 73 men?!?! Thats absurd!
"The courtroom was in the Dachau complex where the former concentration camp was located. The blackened chimney of the Dachau crematorium loomed in the distance, only a quarter of a mile away from where the Jewish "law member" of the court sat under a huge American flag pinned to the wall. It had been only a little more than a year since soldiers in the American Seventh Army had discovered the horror of the gas chamber at Dachau and dead bodies piled up in the morgue of the crematorium building." Sound like that might have had some unfair influence?
"After only 2 hours and 20 minutes of deliberation by the panel of judges, all 73 of the accused SS soldiers, who were on trial, were convicted." Kinda short dont ya think? Especially for a murder trial
"According to Weingartner, shortly before the proceedings were to begin, defense attorney Lt. Col. Everett interviewed a few of the 73 accused with the help of an interpreter. Although the accused were being held in solitary confinement and had not had the opportunity to consult with each other, most of them told identical stories of misconduct by their Jewish interrogators." Funny how that happens.
Now I didnt get to finish reading but this one is my favorite.
"The accused claimed that they had already had a trial, which was conducted in a room with black curtains, lit only by two candles. The judge was a Lt. Col. who sat at a table draped in black with a white cross on it. After these mock trials in which witnesses testified against the accused, each one was told that he had been sentenced to death, but nevertheless he would have to write out his confession. When all of them refused to write a confession, the prosecution dictated statements which they were forced to sign under threats of violence. There was no question that these mock trials had actually taken place, since the prosecution admitted it during the investigation after the Dachau proceedings ended."
Is it any wonder the trial overturned?!?! Jens Westemeier used these confessions as evidence that Peiper and his men were guilty all the while ignoring the manner in which these confessions were brought out! Please read on.
"It's so long ago now. Even I don't know the truth. If I had ever known it, I have long forgotten it. All I knew is that I took the blame as a good CO should and was punished accordingly." Jochen Peiper, quoted in A Traveler's Guide to the Battle for the German Frontier by Charles Whiting. Col. Joachim Peiper, pictured above, volunteered to take all the blame if his men could go free, but this offer was declined by the court.
Thats why or I wont condem them man as a purely a murderer. Jochen, traits like that are hard to find. That is selflessness at its best. I hate to break it to you but no one is blameless in war. We do things we later regret. The fog of war is such that we cannot help this. I coming to Peipers defense because his trait are ones that I would hope to find in my own commander and because there are few that will defend him. Im willing to hear other views, but you too must provide facts to support it. Ive read both sides and this is the opinion I have of the matter. If theres something you think Im not aware of please by all mean educate me.