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BA the examiner Friday Dec 28 1979 Kurt Meyer too young to remember details All through that hectic June word drifted back to Canadian Headquarters that Canadian soldiers who had been taken prisoner were being shot This rumor applied particularly to those Canadians captured by the 12th SS Panzer Division of the Second World War the name may be meaningless To others it may conjure up hazy memory of general who got into some kind of trouble But to thousands of Canadians who served during the war the name is vivid reminder of another Spe up to thoroughly investigate these serious charges In all time in another life when na tion was pitted against nation Convicted for 18 murders to those of us given command of the Division arm of the German Armed MAX HAINES Forces When Meyer joined the SS he was first attached to Hitlers Bodyguard Regiment He rose rapidly until in 1936 he was made Company Commander few years later he became Regimental Commander of the 12th Panzer Division In June 1944 when the Division Com mander Fritz Witt was killed at cial Court of Inquiry was set and Europe was the bat the Inquiry uncovered 134 in his headquarters by Canadian tleground stances where Canadian artillery fire Kurt Meyer On June 1944 the greatest soldiers had been murdered became Brigadefuhrer Major military force ever assembled landed on the shores of Nor mandy with one purpose in mind The Allied Forces were to push the defending Germans back across Europe The Ger man aim was to throw the in been members of the Hitler vading army into the sea Both sides fought fiercely sisted of the Seventh Canadian ed by Bri Blackader gadier rooke Fusiliers renadier Regiment of that ivision commanded by Stan BRILLIANT MILITARY MOVE time the North Nova Scotia taken He ployed his troops casualties and lost similar casualties bold and brilliant fered Meyers ture of Caen for over month On June 16 the commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division was killed Kurt Meyer was Free again Meyer after his release in l954 after prisoner by the 12th SS Panzer Division This crack German division was made up of young veterans Bright alert fighting fanatically devoted to the Nazi The Canadian forces con cause Infantry Brigade commanded investigated by the Court of In by Brigadier HW Foster and quiry took place near Pavie the Eighth Brigade command France KG forces had set up headquarters Another brigade at the Chateau dAudrieu After the Ninth had as its forward being taken prisoner three guard the North Nova Scotia members ighlanders and the Sher Rifles Riflemen JD McIn tosh Thomas and BS Gold The French towns of Bayeux were escorted by guards into and Caen were expected to fall nearby wood All received shots to the Canadian troops on the directly into the back of their first day of the attack Instead heads Later when Canadian the Canadian forces met stiff troops overran the Chateau the nd fanatic opposition from the three crack troops of the German buried together They had no 716th Infantry Division These weapons No Canadians had troops were reinforced on June seen action in the vicinity of the 7th by the 12th SS Panzer divi Chateau Rifleman sion and the 25th SS Panzer stretcher bearer When his body was uncovered he was still wearing the non combatant artenfuher Cot Kurt Meyer armband of the Red Cross There were no eyewitnesses to these murders and no one has Meyer had established his ever stood trial for the killings headquarters at lAncienne Ab Twentythree other Canadian baye Ardenne few miles nor soldiers had been killed and thwest of Caen In the mean buried near the Chateau Highlanders under the com these were being uncovered as mand of Lt Col Petch and the Allied Forces advanced the Sherbrooke Fusiliers under over territory formerly held by Lt Col MB Gordon had cap the enemy Later when Kurt tured the village of Authie Meyer fell into American hands Meyer peering down from one and was turned over to Cana of the towers of the abbey dian authorities the Court of realized that he must attack Inquiry had immediately or Caen would be midable amount of evidence successfully againt him as war criminal over who helming the Canadian forces Hague and Geneva Conven The Canadian troops received tions These conventions strict at least two hundred infantry 1y forbade the shooting of fifteen enemy prisoners Germany was tanks The German forces suf signator to both agreements military move held up the cap Col Clarence Campbell who General Meyer at 33 he was the youngest man to achieve such high rank in the entire German forces From 1940 through to DDay having been taken machines many of whom had Meyer had seen action in Poland Rumania Bulgaria Youth Organization All were Yugoslavia Greece and Russia The qualities of leader ship he displayed during these campaigns left little doubt as to the mans brilliance as military tactician Meyer also had the ability to inspire fanatic loyalty from his well disciplined troops As an exam ple to his young lions he often personally led attacks on the enemy He was the recipient of several of his countrys most coveted medals for his acts of leadership and bravery WORE PERPETUAL SCOWL At ft ins Meyer was ramrod straight and possessed the body of an athlete His dark brown hair was always combed straight back His serious face seemed to be set in perpetual scowl It was this man who commanded what Canadian troops referred to as The Murder Division The Court of Inquiry in their search for precise details found star eyewitness is name was Jan Jesionek Jan was born in Upper Silesia Poland At 16 he was employed in the office of steel company One day 88 Officers addressed the steel company staff extoll ing the virtues of glamorous life of action in the 88 The staff was urged to volunteer Four out of more than two hun dred employees stepped for ward Jan Jesionek was one of them Later Jans family tried to secure his release from his commitment but were turned down After completing his basic training Jan was attach ed to Kurt Meyers regimental headquarters as driver In this way he found himself at Meyers headquarters at the Abbaye at Ardenne on the mar ning of June 1944 Here is his story Seven captured Canadian prisoners were escorted under guard to the regimental head quarters The guards asked Je sionek for the Regimental Com mander and were led to Meyer The Commander was advised of the arrival of the seven Cana One of the first incidents where the German of the Winnipeg soldiers were found Gold was Scores of incidents such as gathered or had contravened the Headed by Lt Col Bruce MacDonald and assisted by Lt was later to gain measure of fame as the President of the National Hockey League the Prosecution set about proving beyond reasonable doubt that Kurt Meyer was guilty of war crimes Who was this dashing young German leader AN EARLY NAZI SUPPORTER dians He seemed displeased Meyer was born on Dec 23 and said What should we do 1910 near the city of with these prisoners They only Magdeburg His father had served in the First World War and had died of wounds receiv ed in combat After elementary school and smattering of business training Meyer joined the Armed Provincial Police While member of the police force be joined the Nazi party In 1934 he left the police force to become member of the Schutzstaffeln SS whose main function under Heinrich Himmler was to protect the Na tional Socialist Party in any way it saw fit Under Himmler the SS became one of the most feared organizations of the Hitler administration In due course the SS role would change to become the fourth eat up our rations Meyer then turned and whispered something to one of his officers standing nearby In louder voice obviously meant to be heard by all those present he said In future no more prisoners are to be taken The officer to whom Meyer the guards and entered the stable where the seven Cana dians had been waiting Je sionek walked to pool nearby ostensibly to wash up His view of what transpired was unobstructed The Canadians were now being questioned in English by German officer As their names were called they walked individually throuh assaewa into had whispered then left with Canadians murdered Handcuffed to Major Arthur Russell of the 45th Winnipeg Rifles Meyer is taken into custody after arriving in England in November I945 Meyer was convicted for the murder of l8 Canadian soldiers and served only months for each of the killings garden As each entered the garden an 88 Corporal shot him in the back of the head All the prisoners knew they were going to die As their names were called they shook hands with their comrades and walk ed through the passageway Later Jesionek went through the passageway to look at the bodies of the fallen soldiers Several German soldiers joined him That night Jan Jesionek was wounded and spent the following three months in hospital In March he deserted to American forces The Court of Inquiry took Je sionek to the abbey and went over every phase of his story Every detail was verified He had told his story at the first op portunity and there was little doubt that he was telling the truth BODIES WERE DISCOVERED Mme Francine Vico cor roborated Jesioneks evidence She had been living in the ab bey when it was requisitioned by the Germans early in 1944 After returning in August she had discovered grave in her gardgn containing the bodies of six anadian soldiers In the spring of 1945 several other graves were discovered in the arden Canadian graves of ficial stated that six bodies were removed at one time All had bullet wounds in the head Another body was found in separate grave accounting for the seventh victim in Je sioneks story All these Cana dians were identified from their identity discs They had been members of the North Nova Scotias the Armoured Corps and the Stormont Dundas and 1979 Toronto Sun Syndicate Glengarry Highlanders An ad commutation was greeted with ditional twelve bodies were dismay and anger Canadian removed from the vicinity of Legion posts municipal groups the abbey and just plain citizens deluged Comrades of the dead men Ottawa with mail denouncing gave statements proving that the reduction of Meyers none of these men had died in sentence So strong was the action All had been taken feeling against Meyer that prisoner and murdered when he was confined in Dor On Dec 10 1945 Kurt Meyer chester Penitentiary in New stood trial before Canadian Brunswick the transfer was Army Court at the German carried out in secrecy The Naval Barracks in Aurich Ger identity of the unique prisoner many Every possible detail to incarcerated in Dorchester assure Meyer of fair trial was didnt remain secret for long observed He had choice of As the years went by move competent lawyers able inter ment developed to have Meyer preters Even the prosecution transferred to German jail seemed to have an obsession to This was accomplished after he be absolutely fair to the accus had spent almost six years in ed The general feeling against Dorchester where he had been Meyer was of course very employed as librarian His strong case was routinely reviewed by In all Meyer was charged joint British German board of with five separate counts of review As result his sentence either ordering his troops to kill was further reduced to 14 years prisoners or inciting and in prison counselling troops under his command to deny quarter to On Sept 1954 Kurt Meyer Allied troops was released from prison In Meyer was found innocent of the intervening years Meyer two charges and guilty of three had not changed his political including thatof murdering the views Unlike many Nazis he seven Canadians at his Head never renounced Hitler and quarters at lAncienne Abbaye always remained loyal to the Ardenne The court could not Nazi cause In speeches he still agree on the degree of respon claimed that his troops good sibility in regard to the two name has been falselybesmin charges of which Meyer was ched and that in reality they found to be innocent were loyal brave soldiers Meyer was sentenced to As Meyer never changed his death by firing squad He ap views neither did those Cana pealed and was successful in dians who were instrumental in having his sentence commuted bringing him to justice They to life imprisonment by Major still believe that he was guilty General Chris Vokes then of all charges and as wa Commander of the Canadian criminal should have been shot Army Occupation Forces On Christmas Eve 1961 Kur DISMAY AND ANGER AT Meyer died of heart attack HOME his home in Hagen Westphalia Back home in Canada the He was 51