The Wereth Eleven (2011) - full transcript

Lt. Colonel Ellis: May
it please the court.

In order that the court
may better understand

the presentation of the
evidence in this case,

we will briefly
outline the evidence

and what we expect it to show.

Hitler held a meeting
of his army commanders

at Bad Nauheim on the 11th
or 12th of December, 1944,

where he spoke for
some three hours.

In this speech, Hitler
stated that the decisive hour

for the German
people had arrived.

This fight will be
conducted stubbornly



with no regard for
Allied prisoners of war

who will have to be shot if the
situation makes it necessary.

All troops were warned that
in the event of capture,

the existence of these orders

must not be made
known to the enemy.

That night, the troops gathered
around their campfires,

awaiting zero hour ...

(music playing)

Voiceover: By mid-December 1944,

the extreme western front
in the Belgian Ardennes

had grown eerily quiet.

Many allied commanders
called it the ghost front.

Supply problems in the wake
of Operation Market Garden

had left this weakly-defended
sector virtually on its own.



In a last desperate attempt
to strike back at the Allies,

Hitler, against the advice of
many of his senior commanders,

initiated his ultra-secret
Ardennes offensive.

The operation would
employ half a million men

in over 2,000
pieces of artillery.

Spearheading the offensive

were Hitler's hand-chosen
and fanatical Waffen-SS,

which were ordered to spread
a wave of terror and fright,

unrestricted by
human inhibitions.

Squarely in the path

of Hitler's most
experienced storm troopers,

just 6 kilometers
from the border,

were men of the African-American
333rd field artillery battalion.

Fighting on the front
lines since late June,

they were about to
come face to face

with soldiers from
the Third Reich,

the most ruthless regime
the world has ever known.

(crowd cheering)

(Hitler shouting in German)

Nazi officer: Sieg heil!

(crowd chanting 'sieg heil')

(drums playing)

George: The SS Troopers
were the cream of the crop.

They hated our guts.

Inferior, called you
monkeys, whatever,

or you weren't as
good as a monkey.

Most of them were blond
hair and blue eyes.

They were the pure,
pure people, so-called,

but I've seen SS Troopers
shoot their own people down.

They didn't want to fight.

That's the way they were.

Fanatics.

(wind blowing)

(footsteps)

Nazi officer: (in German)
Soldiers of the West front.

Your great hour has arrived.

Large attacking armies
have started against
the Anglo-Americans.

I do not have to tell you
anything more than that.

You feel it yourself.

We gamble everything.

You carry with you
the holy obligation

to give everything,
to achieve things

beyond human possibilities.

For our Fatherland
and our F█hrer.

Heil, Hitler

SS Trooper: Heil, Hitler.

(bombs launching)

(shouting in German)

Voiceover: Just before dawn,

the morning of 16 December 1944,

Adolf Hitler's Ardennes
Offensive swung the full might

of the German war
machine against

unsuspecting British
and American troops.

(wailing sounds)

Soldier: What the!

Voiceover: In those
pre-dawn hours of the 16th,

observers from the 333rd
field artillery battalion

were the first to report
German artillery engagement.

Soldier: King, this
is King Charlie three.

Got heavy artillery
to our front.

Repeat, heavy concentrated
enemy artillery to our front,

and a hell of a lot of it!

Voiceover: The Germans were
throwing everything they had

at the lightly-defended
American lines.

Five-tubed Nebelwerfer
batteries blasted

high explosive rockets 8,500
yards across the border.

Soldiers called the
terrorizing sound they made

"Screaming Mimis".

(rockets launching,
making wailing sounds)

(loud boom)

(loud boom)

But their most devastating
weapon was the 88 gun

Nazi soldier: Fire!

(loud booms)

Voiceover: With a range
of well over 16,000 yards.

(boom)

George: The eighty-eight,

that was the baddest
weapon in Germany.

You didn't have to see it.

You heard it and felt it.

They used it for anti-personnel,

anti-tank, anti-everything.

They didn't miss much with it.

Voiceover: Americans
trapped by thousands

of falling 88 shells
had almost no chance.

Soldier: Keep your head low!

(bombs exploding)

(man screams)

Soldier: Get over here!

(explosion)

Voiceover: Today, four men,

including descendents
of the 333rd,

have come to the
Ardennes to honor

the Americans who
fought in this place.

They are led by executive
producer, Joseph Small.

Joseph: The 333rd, I have
read several accounts,

were considered one of the
best field arterial battalions

in the Army in Europe
during the war.

Voiceover: The 333rd
field artillery battalion

was one of nine all
African-American field
artillery battalions

deployed to the European
theater of operations

in World War II.

Their wartime service began
at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma,

in March 1943, under the command

of Colonel Harmon S. Kelsey.

George: First time I saw Kelsey

was in Camp Gruber, Oklahoma,

and he made his little speech,

and the only way you get out of
this outfit is die out of it.

There's no transfers.

You had one street where
you were allowed to walk on,

and that was it.

As a black soldier in
the United States Army,

you wasn't as good as a dog,

especially in the South.

I was sitting on a barrack step,

reading a comic book,

and a state-side
officer come by,

told me to cut the grass.

I stood up slowly and told him

that as a
non-commissioned officer,

I'm not required
to do manual labor.

You can put me in
charge of a detail,

but I'm not gonna
cut that grass.

He hollered, "Jail that nigger!"

There I go.

Then, them MPs dropped out
of the sky from somewhere.

Voiceover: Serving under Kelsey

was Captain William McLeod,

who established a special
relationship with the men.

George: Shortly after
we got to Camp Gruber,

there was a lot of
grumbling about, you know,

the guys wanting
to kick his butt.

He called the company
together and says,

"Anybody that wants to fight me,

"I'll take off my shirt,
you take off yours,

"and we'll have a go
at it, man to man.

"If you beat me,
I'll shake your hand.

"If I beat you, I expect
you to shake my hand,

"and it's off the record."

Nobody made another sound.

That's when I guess I fell
in love with my captain.

Voiceover: The 333rd were
issued the 155mm howitzer M1,

one of the most accurate
pieces of artillery

made during the
Second World War.

George: They'd do
things with them guns

that other outfits
couldn't with the same gun.

Voiceover: Once the
333rd arrived in France,

they quickly gained a reputation
for their deadly accuracy.

During the battle
of La Haye du Puits,

the 82nd airborne struggling
with a Tiger tank,

called on the 333rd
to take it out.

Battery C fired 4
rounds from 4 guns.

(rockets launching)

(explosions)

Two of the shells were
direct hits on the tank.

The distance from Battery
C's guns to the Tiger tank

was 9 miles.

George: They used to
write things on the shells

detrimental to Mr. Hitler.

(laughs)

But, you know, that's the
way you get after a while.

Once you hit them beaches

and you get out of that cold
water of the English Channel,

you're a different person.

It's kill or be killed.

You know this.

Voiceover: A company
executive producer,

Joseph Small, at the 333rd's
former Battery C location

in Schoenberg, Belgium,
is Robert Hudson,

whose father fought
in the 333rd.

Joseph: Your dad was here,

probably having his morning
coffee, his breakfast,

and why don't you tell me
what your dad shared with you

about that fateful morning.

Robert H.: My dad
was 24 years old.

He's from St. Louis, Missouri.

I think coming over
here might have been

his first time out of town,

let alone out of the country.

He said that all the
armored cover had been moved

and they were awakened
by trees falling,

the earth rumbling,

and they knew they
were in trouble.

Voiceover: Hundreds of
thousands of German troops

along with tanks,
half-tracks and artillery

streamed across the border.

Leading the main effort
was the 6th Panzer Army,

commanded by one of Germany's
most decorated soldiers,

World War I and
Russian front veteran,

General Sepp Dietrich.

Hitler's former bodyguard,

Dietrich was despised by most
of the higher officer class

who thought he had no
great intelligence,

but he had a hard-won
reputation for bravery,

and was known as a
brutal commander.

His arduous assignment
was to move his divisions

across the mountainous
Schnee Eifel region.

Once through, they
would do battle

in the towns of
Schoenberg and St. Vith.

Supporting the 6th Panzer Army

was the fearsome
1st SS division,

which included
Colonel Max Hansen's

Panzer grenadier regiment,

followed by Major
Gustav Knittel's
reconnaissance battalion.

They followed the path cut
by Colonel Joachim Peiper,

who was greatly admired by
Hitler for his fanaticism.

He was a charismatic leader

who inspired fierce
loyalty in his men.

His orders were simple.

Move as rapidly as possible
to the Meuse River,

and take no prisoners.

By daybreak on the 17th,

General Sepp Dietrich's
6th Panzer Army

reached the 333rd's position
at Schoenberg, Belgium.

Robert H.: They had been shelled
for the better part of 2 days,

so they had no sleep, no food,

and they were just basically
told to make a stand here.

No better place to die.

Voiceover: Battery C,
forward-most exposed,

had entered its 2nd day
of continuous combat.

Soldier: Counter-battery, fire.

Shell HE, charge 5, fuse quick!

Voiceover: Face deflection
right, 2 9 5 S I 3 0 2.

Soldier: Number 2 1
round, elevation 3 7 1.

Soldier: Round ready, sir!

Soldier: Fire!

(loud boom)

Fire!

(loud boom)

Voiceover: 900
meters to their left,

the Volksgrenadier still
undetected by Battery C

had the Americans
in their sights.

They planned a flanking
move with their armor,

mortars, and machine guns
to encircle the battery

and take out the guns.

(loud bangs)

(shouting in German)

(rockets launching)

Soldier: Incoming!

(explosions)

(machine guns firing)

(loud explosions)

(screams)

Voiceover: Battery C,
which had been ordered

to stay behind and
provide covering fire

for the advancing 106th infantry

had no choice but
to stand and fight.

(tank rolling closer)

(loud boom)

Battalion commander, Harmon
Kelsey, returned from HQ

to Battery C to evacuate
as many men as he could

onto three trucks,

leaving behind Captain
McLeod and just a few men.

George: The rest of the outfit
tried to pull out to safety.

We had to stay behind.

We fired until we ran
out of ammunition.

Can't kill but just so
many with trench knives,

and they had, I'd say the
Germans had to walk over

piles of their
dead to get to us.

Voiceover: Hitler's strategy
for success in the offensive

hinged on two main assumptions.

First, that the poor
weather would ground

Allied fighter planes
and allow his troops

to penetrate the
Allied line quickly,

and second, that American
defenses would crumble

under the weight of his
more than 25 divisions.

It would be his last
gamble of the war.

(loud boom)

Joseph: Mortars were coming in.

Right back here was
their ammunition depot,

and a mortar came in and landed
right in the middle of it.

(loud bang)

It didn't blow up,
for some reason.

When I spoke with Sergeant
Willie Alfonso down in Alabama,

he said that's the
reason he's alive today.

(rapid gunshots)

(bullets flying)

(gunshots continue)

The 333rd Battery
C was located here.

Soldier: Bring him!
Don't leave him there!

Joseph: And instead of fleeing,

Soldier: Keep your head low!

Joseph: They manned their guns.

Soldier: This way, in the hole!

Joseph: And manned
whatever rifles they had.

Soldier: Over here!

Joseph: And took them on,

and made a heroic stand
on this very spot.

Soldier: Stay on the
line, grab that rifle!

(gun shots)

Keep your head low!

(rapid gunshots)

(machine gunfire)

(gunshot)

(reloading rifle)

(machine gun fires)

I don't got enough ammo!

(gun shots)

(rapid gunshots)

(cocks rifle)

(gunshot)

(bullet flies by)

(gunshot)

Got him!

(gunshots continue)

(man shouts)

Aah!

George: That's a
hard thing to do

when a man's got a
rifle coming at you,

and you know all you've
got is a trench knife.

Well, I got a couple,

and some of the other
guys got a couple of them.

That was the least of my
thoughts, being captured.

Killed, yes. Captured, no.

I think the real reason
why McLeod surrendered

was to save lives

because there was
nothing else he could do.

We could have all died,
just fought with what we had

hand-to-hand combat until
every man was killed,

but he didn't want that.

He wanted to try to save
as many lives as he could,

and that's what he
did by surrendering.

(coughing)

Voiceover: Captain McLeod
and the men who could walk

were taken prisoner.

The wounded were not.

(gunshot)

On the spot, where the 333rd
made their heroic stand,

descendant Robert Deshay
recalls the anguish

his father carried
throughout his lifetime.

Robert D.: I think
our father passed

thinking of himself
as a failure.

Regardless of the heroic stand
that he made here that day,

I think because of
the men, the friends,

the connectedness.

He was a very
people-oriented person.

It was very important
for him to stand together

with his comrades in arms

in the face of the
German onslaught.

Robert H.: These guys
put their country first

at a time when perhaps the
country didn't put them first.

All these guys were friends.

They mostly came from the South,

many of them knew each
other for some time.

They fought for their country.

They fought bravely.

They delayed the
Germans to help us

turn the tide of the war.

George: I heard that
most of the outfit

we were supporting, the
106th Infantry Division

surrendered without
firing a shot.

I can believe it

because they were nothing
but cooks, clerks,

and they knew
nothing about combat.

When we first saw some of
them, their shoes were shined,

pants with creases
in them, neckties on,

you don't fight a war like this.

You aren't a SS trooper.

The SS troopers,

they're the ones
that dressed all up

in fancy uniforms
and everything.

When I first saw them,

we thought the war was over.

Hey, pass the word.

We're going home!

(laughs)

It's all over!

Yeah, it was all
over, all right.

All of us that were left alive,

they moved us out on the road

and started walking.

(trumpet music)

(video narrated in German)

Voiceover: In this German
propaganda footage,

American POWs of the 333rd
field artillery battalion

are herded east towards
an uncertain fate.

Many could only imagine the
horrors that awaited them.

Among those prisoners

was a stubborn staff
sergeant, George Shomo.

George: I saw them when they
were taking the pictures.

That was propaganda,

especially when they
captured black troops.

They parade you all
through these little towns,

and like I said, the die
hard Germans were beatin' ya,

and you couldn't do
nothing about it.

You'd just keep walking
and look straight ahead.

That's all.

Voiceover: The
residents of Schoenberg,

including Joseph Bach,
just a boy at the time,

witnessed the
American surrender.

Joseph: Yes, out there.

There is an old heavy
fir tree standing.

That has lived
through the whole war.

They came all down from there,

and when they came out
of that forest up there,

in front was one
with a white flank.

They took up their steel helmets

and you can see it goes
down a hill up there

from that street.

So the helmets came
rolling down the hill,

one after the other,

came down that hill.

I would say 500 to 600 Americans

were standing on the meadow.

That was a long line
along the street.

We were always running
through that line.

they were laughing,

and when they began to take
out those chocolate bars

out of their bags.

That's what we were
excited about as children,

and then mid-day,
at around 1 PM,

the whole line was going
up there to Manderfeld,

to Germany, probably going
into confinement or captivity.

Not far from where we were
positioned on top of the hill,

there were Americans on
one side and behind us,

and at that time, we
saw an American soldier

who had fallen down the hill.

He was wounded.

He was lying down the
bottom of the hill

where the brook was.

He was lying half in the water.

There was a woman
who was kneeling

next to the American soldier,

and she said the soldier
was badly wounded and dying.

She was wiping his face
with water from the stream.

The German SS troops
who were there

started to shout at the woman

that she shouldn't be
touching the soldier.

The woman got mad

and started to scream
at the SS troops,

that they should be
ashamed of themselves,

that she had to take
care of the soldier.

Voiceover: Although combat
was over for Captian McLeod

and the men left behind to
hold Battery C's position,

Colonel Kelsey still had hope

as he raced his rescued
men back towards St. Vith.

He did not realize, however,

that the Germans had
already pushed past him.

(shouting in German)

The convoy was surrounded
on the Schoenberg Road,

and the men were
forced to surrender.

Kelsey's men were turned around

and pointed in the direction

of other American
prisoner columns

headed back towards Germany.

(airplane flying)

Joseph: Then the planes
came again nearby.

One of them took out a carbine

and shot at the American plane.

One of the colonels saw
that and went to him,

and told him, "10 minutes and
you will be ready to travel,

"and you can come with us."

The Germans were at
Crombach behind St. Vith.

"You come along.

"I want to see you
here in 10 minutes.

"You can shoot down there
to your heart's content."

And he came back.

He had to go into
the car with them,

and they took off with him.

(airplane flying)

The American P-47s
continued to pound

the German columns, which
included American POWs.

One plane came upon the
column with Kelsey's men.

(shouting in German)

(gun shots)

In the chaos and confusion,

several of the
prisoners escaped.

Before long, they met up
with other American escapees,

and the group headed northward,

straight into the path of
a rapidly-advancing patrol

from Gustav Knittel's first
SS reconnaissance battalion.

These soldiers would become
known as the Wereth 11.

(truck drives past)

(distant bell rings)

Joseph: I came through this
area a couple years ago,

following in the footsteps
in my Uncle Bill Nahari,

who fought here with the
5th Infantry Division,

and I literally stumbled across
the story of the Wereth 11.

Really turned my life upside
down and fascinated me,

so I started doing all the
research I could do on it,

and find out everything
that I could.

Voiceover: The
Wereth 11 included

Private Curtis Adams
of South Carolina,

Technical Sergeant
James Aubrey Stewart

of Piedmont, West Virginia,

and Private First
Class George Davis,

of Bessemer, Alabama.

Davis was drafted in
1942 at the age of 24.

An only son, he was known as
'Little Georgie' around town

due to his 5'5" in stature.

(bell rings)

He attended a Julius
Rosenwald black school

set up by northern
philanthropist to help educate

African-Americans during
the Great Depression,

and was popular
amongst his peers,

especially the women.

James Aubrey Stewart,

one of the oldest of
the Wereth 11 at 38,

shared the same birthplace
as Harvard professor

Henry Lewis Gates, Jr.,
Piedmont, West Virginia.

Stewart was the
first black employee

of Westvaco paper mill,

where he worked as a brick
layer and a carpenter.

He also excelled in
athletics as a pitcher

for the all-Black Piedmont
Giants baseball team.

Around town, he was
regarded as kind and gentle.

Private Curtis Adams
was an 8-month newlywed

when he was drafted and
sent to Fort Jackson

in Columbia, South Carolina.

Moving on to Camp
Gruber, Oklahoma,

Curtis was surprised shortly
before he shipped out

to see his wife [Katherine]
arrive on a greyhound bus

to show him his new son, Jesse.

Robert H.: I had the extreme
pleasure of meeting Jesse Adams,

the son of Curtis Adams,
about two weeks ago.

He was only 2 years
old when his dad died.

Here's a man 68 years old,

knew virtually
nothing about his dad,

and to be able to talk to him
about how his dad was a hero

and talk to him
about the recognition

that he was going to get

really created a bond
with this gentleman

that I'll have the
rest of my life.

really created a bond
with this gentleman

Just to see him smile.

My dad made it.

He was a prisoner of war.

He was shot twice,

but he came back.

He put me through college.

He put me through grad school.

These guys made the
ultimate sacrifice,

and they provided a
better life for all of us,

and we've got to do
everything we can

to make sure they get the
recognition that they deserve.

Voiceover: The other men
comprising the Wereth 11

mainly hailed from
the rural South,

including Mississippi,
Arkansas, and Texas.

Joseph Small along with Robert
Hudson and Robert Deshay

have made the trip to Belgium
to retrace the 10-mile journey

the Wereth 11 took in
their flight to freedom.

As the men made
their way northwest,

American POWs were
beginning to be brutalized.

George: I found out one
thing about the human body.

You can take just so much,
then everything blacks out.

Mother Nature takes over,

and they could beat you
'til hell froze over,

and you wouldn't feel it.

I spent the night
in Nuremberg stadium

underneath a great big swastika

that you've seen in pictures.

That's where we slept on
the snow on the ground.

They used to call us
niggers and stuff like that,

but this is stuff that
I had heard in the South

way before I went overseas.

My shoulder's
messed up right now

from an SS trooper's rifle.

He asked me questions,

and I kept saying my name
and my serial number,

which under the
Geneva convention,

that's what you're
supposed to do.

Name, rank, and serial number.

He swore because
I was a sergeant,

that I knew more, or knew
a whole lot of information

that they could use.

I didn't know
anymore than they did

so he hit me with a rifle
butt and knocked me down.

I got up and I laughed at him.

I got hit again.

Erwin: Okay.

We are here now on the
other side of the Our River,

on the other side of Schoenberg,

and this is the way the
11 men went through.

Joseph: Well, I just got a
feel for what the men endured.

I'm wearing this
World War II era gear,

and I'm hot, I'm winded,

and these guys were out
here in the elements,

and to come up that
hill and not really have

a sense of direction,

and just going through
these woods alone,

you really start
to feel for them.

Voiceover: The
weather conditions

the Wereth 11
endured were brutal.

The temperatures kept dropping,

and it began to sleet.

The Battle of the Bulge
itself would be fought

during one of the coldest
European winters on record.

Hands and feet
became frostbitten,

and everything from
the water in canteens

to the water-cooled
machine guns froze.

Men were lucky if they
had a single blanket

to share between three
men in a foxhole.

For many, staying
alive became secondary

to staying warm.

Erwin: This is the halfway point

between the village of
Schoenberg and Wereth.

To the right, there's the
village of Herresbach,

and this is also a
reason that the soldiers

had to take this road

because they were convinced

that was already
taken by the Germans.

Joseph: It was the
largest battle fought

in the history of
modern warfare.

German unit here, an
American unit here,

fighting it out with
tanks and artillery.

(drums)

It was just so brutal

and the 333rd was
a big part of it.

Specifically, the 11 men that
just walked down this road

to Wereth, which is where
we're going to go to next.

Voiceover: Herman Langer
was just 12 years old

when the 11 men arrived at
his family farm in Wereth.

Herman: That was on 17 December

in the afternoon at 4 o'clock

when the 11 Black
American soldiers

came down from the
woods towards our house.

They were wet and
cold and were hungry,

and they asked if they could
possibly have something to eat,

upon which they
came into our house,

where my mother and my sister

put bread and water on
the table for each of them

so they could eat something.

My father tried
to explain to them

that they should quickly take
the path behind the house

to look towards St. Vith,

but my father was unable
to make them understand.

He tried to point
them in that direction

so that they would be in safety.

A woman whose husband also
was an SS man met the SS.

She must have told
him, one tells oneself,

there are still black people.

Then, suddenly, the
SS vehicle drove up

and stopped directly
in front of the house.

(shouting in German)

(cocks gun)

I cannot say whether they
carried the white flag

when they had gone out,

but when they went out,

they had their hands
up and walked out.

They never wanted to
get into a shoot out.

(SS officer shouts in German)

It was wet and cold there.

They were freezing and
trembling from the cold.

So my father suggested to
the chief of the SS group

that they should let the
prisoners go in the shed

because we had a shed to
shelter for wagons and carts

and you could have easily
put the prisoners in there

because it was sleeping.

One soldier said that
they would get warm again

walking in front of the car.

When it started to get dark,

they set off, and they had
to walk in front of the cars

down to here, and
then to this spot.

Voiceover: This part of
Belgium before World War I

was still a part of Germany.

Herman Langer's father
had taken a great risk

sheltering the
American soldiers.

Three of the nine homes
in the town at the time

were still loyal to Germany.

The 11 men were led down a path

and told to sit on a wet
slope in a pasture and wait.

(music playing)

(car engine)

(footsteps in snow)

(gun clicks)

George: These were
guys out of my outfit.

They just mutilated
them and murdered them

and left them laying
out there in the field.

When spring thaw come,
they found their bodies.

Herman: I believe that
we went to church,

which was, I think,
on second February,

and we saw the bodies
that had been left there.

Voiceover: Six weeks after
the American soldiers

were brutalized and killed,

word reached command
HQ that a grizzly scene

had been discovered at Wereth.

A war crime investigative team,

including a surgeon,
an army photographer,

quickly descended
upon the sight.

Soldier: That man appears
to have been allowed

to dress his own wounds.

Voiceover: It was
clear that all had been

savagely tortured
before they died.

The men's contorted
faces exhibited

multiple face and jaw fractures.

Fingers were severed
and legs were broken.

Bayonet wounds were present
through the eye sockets.

Soldier: War crime
does not begin

to be a strong
enough term for this.

Voiceover: By the time
the bodies were discovered

in mid-February 1945 at Wereth,

the Battle of the
Bulge was over.

After the rapid German
gains in mid-December,

the enemy offensive bogged down.

(explosions)

Stiff American resistance
by various isolated units

had given time for the
US 1st and 9th Armies

to shift against the
German northern flank.

The British had sent reserves
to secure the Meuse River

and Patton's 3rd Army shut down

the enemy attack in the south.

The cost of victory was heavy.

Nearly 50,000 American
soldiers were casualties,

including 19,000 dead.

No headlines had trumpeted
the battle's end.

The Allies continued
their march into Germany

and for American
prisoners of war,

their nightmare
was finally over.

Moosburg, Germany.

That's where I was finally
liberated at in that camp.

That was the last camp I was in.

We saw the German guards
pulling off their uniforms

and this was something.

The American troops
never done that.

You could be shot as a spy

if you've got civilian clothes
underneath your uniform.

These cats would pull
off them old baggy ...

I was wondering why that
German soldiers' uniforms

were so baggy.

Now I knew,

because they had civilian
clothes underneath them.

Patton come through and
said we were out of the war.

As soon as the
weather permitted,

we'd be flown back to France.

Herman: I had left here in 1961.

I now live 65 kilometers [west].

When I came up here,

it always bothered me that
there was nothing to remember

what we have seen years before,

and 50 years later,
I was retired.

I had more time, and I
had the idea to build up

a three-meter high
wooden cross here.

I had the wood cut already,

but my father-in-law's grave

who had died in 1939 and had
to be cleared away in 1994.

I had the stone cross available,

and I thought stone
lasts longer than wood,

and so I did this instead.

Anne-Marie No█l-Simon
is in charge of

the Wereth Memorial in Belgium.

Anne-Marie: This is Ada
Rikken, our president.

For Ada it was really
a big important thing,

and overall she talked
about the Wereth Memorial,

and the US Memorial
Wereth was her baby.

In 2002, we have no money
to realize the memorial,

and Louis, Jonckeau,
Ada, and myself,

we put money on the
table to buy the ground,

to pay the land surveyor,
to pay the notary

and to pay all that we must pay.

It was with the help
of Ada's friend,

Norman Lichtenfeld in America,

and with the help
of the Landstuhl
Regional Medical Center

in Germany

and the ROCKS Corporation,
European Chapter,

that finally we can have
50,000 euros to make this small

but fine, I think, Memorial.

(serene music)

Joseph: Today, we're
here in Wereth, Belgium,

to honor 11 members of the
333rd field artillery battalion

that were brutally
massacred on this site

December 17, 1944.

The names of the 11
members are as follows:

Technical Sergeant
William Edward Pritchett.

Technical Sergeant
James A. Stewart.

Staff Sergeant Thomas J. Forte.

Corporal Mager Bradley.

Private First
Class George Davis.

Private First Class
James Leatherwood.

Private First Class
George W. Moten.

Private First Class
Due W. Turner.

Private Curtis Adams.

Private Robert Green.

Private Nathanial Moss.

I was really moved and
saddened by this story.

I thought that the men's
dignity was taken from them,

and that really bothered me.

I set out on a
mission to make sure

the citizens of America

and the citizens of Europe,

they knew what happened
to those 11 men,

and make sure they
knew the contribution

of the 333rd field artillery
battalion during World War II.

(sung) Amazing Grace,

(sung) how sweet the sound

(sung) that saved
a wretch like me.

(sung) Oh, Lord.

(sung) I once was lost

(sung) but now I'm found.

(sung) Was, I was
blind, but now I see.

Voiceover: The murder of
the 11 Americans at Wereth

was not the only
war crime committed

on December 17, 1944.

Just 25 kilometers to
the west, in Malmedy,

in a more well-known atrocity,

90 American soldiers of
the 285th Field Artillery

Observation Battalion
were mowed down

by men of the
Kampfgruppe Peiper,

part of the 1st SS division.

And the very next day,
December 18, 1944,

the same SS unit of
Kampfgruppe Peiper

systematically executed
130 Belgian civilians

in the village of Stavelot.

Charged with sheltering
American soldiers,

67 men, 47 women, and 23
children were brutally executed.

Lt. Col Ellis: Is
that your handwriting?

Woman: (translates
in German) Yes.

Lt. Col Ellis: That's
your signature?

Woman: (translates
into German) Yes.

Voiceover: These war
crimes committed by

Joachim Peiper's battle group
were prosecuted vigorously

at Dachau by lead investigator
Colonel Burton Ellis.

Lt. Col Ellis: The 1st
SS Panzer regiment,

commanded by the accused,

Peiper passed on this order
to subordinate commands

in words and substance
to the effect that,

"This fight will be
conducted stubbornly

"with no regard for
Allied prisoners of war,

"who will have to be
shot if the situation

"makes it necessary
and compellative."

Voiceover: In what
became known as

the Malmady Massacre Trial,

Joachim Peiper, Gustav
Knittel, and Sepp Dietrich

were found guilty of war crimes.

Officer: It is a
bloody record indeed

that the first SS Panzer
regiment set for itself

in this one short week.

These comrades all would
have been alive today

if it had not been for the
1st SS Panzer regiment,

and they must not
have died in vain.

Judge: It is the members
present at the time

the vote was taken concurring,

sentences you to
life imprisonment.

Sentences you to
life imprisonment.

Present at the time the
vote was taken concurring,

sentences you to
death by hanging.

Voiceover: All
sentences, including
Peiper's death sentence

were later reduced to
shortened prison terms.

The last Nazi war
criminal to leave prison

was Joachim Peiper in
late December 1956.

Although an investigation
was launched

into the massacre at Wereth,

it was closed administratively
on February 19, 1947.

In the final Congressional
report on the massacres

committed by the
1st SS division,

all locations of war
crimes committed in Belgium

during the Battle of the Bulge,

along with the approximate
number of persons murdered,

both civilian and
military were listed.

Wereth was absent.

Through the efforts
of Herman Langer

and other private citizens in
Belgium and the United States,

the Wereth Memorial site
survives as hallowed ground,

preserved in lasting remembrance

to the final acts of
courage of the 11 men

of the 333rd Field
Artillery Battalion.

It is the only memorial in
Europe dedicated to the service

of African-American
GIs in World War II.

(sung) I see the glory,
the promised land.

(sung) Promised land.

(sung) Ooh, promised land.

(sung) Seen the promised land.

(sung) Seen the promised land.

(sung) I've seen
the promised land.

(music plays)

George: Twenty-one days
at sea on the Liberty ship

coming home in a storm

with rivers popping up out
the ship and everything,

then you get on land,
you see German POWs

dressed in nice uniforms,
all clean and everything,

well fed, and they're
calling us names.

We came in at Fort
Devens, Massachusetts,

and they had to call out the
National Guard and everybody

to keep us from killing
them German POWs.

I came out of the
army with nothing

but the clothes on my back.

That's what happened to
black troops down there.

They hand me a train ticket,

my separation
papers, that was it,

and I rode in a washroom from
Alabama to Washington D.C.

There was a whole empty
car in the back of where,

you know, where I was
supposed to be sitting at.

They wouldn't let
us go in there.

It was just four of us
rode in the restroom.

One of the guys
was a Lieutenant,

but I didn't mind because
after combat and everything,

hell, that was paradise
riding somewhere in the train.

I just made the best of it.