War is, in essence, immoral and from time immemorial mankind has attempted to fashion rules to mitigate the more barbarous aspects of the craft. The most prominent of such efforts has been the Geneva Conventions beginning in 1864 which, among many other things, provide very precise guidelines for the treatment of prisoners of war.
While violations of the Conventions were not unknown on the Allied side, generally their spirit was upheld. Not so with the Japanese and many Canadians suffered terribly in POW camps in the far east, see Hong Kong and MS Sampson. The Germans and Italians were more circumspect than their Japanese allies, but a major series of atrocities were committed during the invasion of Normandy by the Hitler Youth, the 12th SS Panzer Division. In Conduct Unbecoming, Howard Margolian has documented the cold-blooded murder of no fewer than 146 Canadians, 17 of them from Saskatchewan. There were undoubtedly others whose stories will never be known.
Two days after D-Day the Royal Winnipeg Rifles were deployed at Putot-en-Bassin west of Caen when the Hitler Youth, hastily brought forward as reinforcements, launched a counterattack. Although the Winnipegs fought well against long odds, the counterattack was successful and the regiment suffered 256 casualties, at least 150 of them prisoners taken when Panther tanks overran their positions. Late that afternoon the slaughter of unarmed POWs began at Château d’Audrieu, among them were WJ Booth, GA Brown, RJ Harper, HA Labrecque, FO Ryckman and JA Thompson. http://mintoarmoury.com/history/chateau-d-audrieu.
The next day, 19440609, it was the turn of the Regina Rifles who were deployed at Bretteville-l’Orgueilleuse and Norrey-en-Bassin during the same counteroffensive. As with the Winnipegs, their positions were overrun by swarms of tanks and infantry. When they recaptured the positions the following day the Johns were horrified to discover that dozens of their mates had been shot at close range after being captured. Among their number were HE Anderson, RJ Gurney, DT Moloney, NJ Morin, E Povol and J Sawatzky.
On 19440611, AR Owens of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and J Ionel and another sapper of the Royal Canadian Engineers were executed in cold blood. They had spent three days wandering in no-man’s land after getting separated from their platoon during a mine-laying patrol. Finally, three Saskatchewan troopers – JD Dumont, LI Preston and GH Scriven of the 1st Hussars – were among the prisoners captured during a disastrous tank attack on German positions near Le Mesnil-Patry. They were summarily executed by their captors. See Mark Zuehlke, Holding Juno (2005).
As fanatical as the Hitler Youth were, the real responsibility for the despicable acts in Normandy rests with the officers who condoned and sometimes directly ordered and participated in the illegal killings. Yet of the three officers on whose watch Saskatchewan boys were murdered, only one – the infamous Kurt Meyer – was ever brought to trial. And he escaped lightly, spending five years in Dorchester penitentiary and another three in a German prison before returning to a hero’s welcome in his home town. Of the other two, Gerhard Bremer went absolutely free, disappearing from view in the 1950s. Wilhelm Mohnke did spend ten years in the Soviet gulag, but lived to a ripe old age selling cars at Lübeck. Their names live in infamy, but perhaps the memory of the brave men whose lives were forfeit to their cruelty deserved a more severe reckoning.