Opinion with Michael Coren We’ve recently commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day and it’s important to remember that during the Second World War, Canada punched substantially above its weight. More than a million Canadians and Newfoundlanders (the province didn’t join the national federation until 1949) served, and 45,000 lost their lives. Canadian pilots excelled in the Battle of Britain and then in Bomber Command and, by 1945, the Canadian navy was the fourth largest in the world. Eighty years ago, on D-Day, five beaches were invaded – two by the Americans, two by the British and one – Juno – by the Canadians. Quite extraordinary for a country of then fewer than 12 million people. Something that is perhaps less well-known is that Canadian soldiers were also the victims of one of the worst military atrocities of the entire Second World War. In the days following the invasion, between June 7 and 11, 156 men were executed after surrendering. That figure represents one in seven of all Canadians who died in the first week after D-Day. It’s a quite extraordinary statistic. This includes the single killing of unarmed and often wounded men, as well as the mass execution of prisoners who were protected under the Geneva Convention and posed no threat to their captors. The perpetrators of these atrocities were soldiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division (Hitler Youth) but only one of those responsible, Colonel Kurt Meyer, was ever charged. In other words, the crime went largely unpunished. The murders began on June 7, when a number of North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Sherbrooke Fusiliers were captured after the battle of Authie. That night, 11 Canadians were taken into a garden and shot in the head. Seven more were murdered in the early hours of the following morning. On June 8, 64 Canadians – many from the Royal Winnipeg Rifles – were taken prisoner. They were taken to the Château d’Audrieu under the command of the 12th SS Panzer and 45 of them were slaughtered in separate batches. After the battle of Bretteville-surOdon, 36 Canadian prisoners – mainly from the Cameron Highlanders and Regina Rifles – were executed, some shot at point-blank range and others by machine gun fire. On June 11, Canadian troops from the 2nd Armoured Brigade and the Queen’s Own Rifles were defeated in an attack close to the village of Le Mesnil-Patry. Their losses were heavy, and many were wounded. After the defeat, a number of the prisoners were shot by their captors. In one incident, a Canadian was shot dead but his two comrades survived, escaped and were able to report what had happened. These survivors weren’t alone. As the killings continued in the days to come, the Germans tried to hide their crimes, but the allies were advancing and as they did, they found increasing evidence and heard more testimonies from witnesses. Several weeks later, a Canadian newspaper headline announced, “Canuck Soldiers Murdered!” The campaign following the invasion was intense and costly, however, and there was little time to investigate war crimes while attacks and counterattacks were happening daily, if not hourly. By the time the Nazis surrendered, their obscene behaviour towards civilian populations and the full horror of the Holocaust was emerging and the fate of 156 young Canadians was, if not forgotten, relegated to secondary status. Many, likely most, of the SS grenadiers who had been involved were dead. However, there were still official inquiries and written accounts, and the commander of the 12th SS Panzer Kurt Meyer was eventually put on trial in December 1945. Canadian and German soldiers and French civilians gave evidence. Meyer was sentenced to death but, on appeal, this was reduced to life imprisonment. The Canadian public was outraged, the Soviet Union considered demanding he be sent to Moscow to face a trial for alleged war crimes committed when he’d served on the eastern front but, instead, Meyer was sent to a prison in New Brunswick, Canada. He asked for clemency in 1951, in an era when the U.S. and Britain were looking to West Germany as an ally against Soviet expansion. He was returned to Germany, released in 1954, became active as an apologist for the Waffen SS and died of natural causes in 1961, lionized by many in Germany. There are memorials in Canada and in Normandy to the victims of the Normandy Massacres. But not many, and the names of the victims are mostly forgotten. Fifteen thousand people attended the funeral of Kurt Meyer. My hearts breaks, with sorrow and anger. CSANews | FALL 2024 | 13
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