The ‘Wereth 11’ Targeted and Killed by Nazi SS Soldiers
In December 1944, German troops stormed the 106th Division of the U.S. Army. At the time, they were supported by the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, a Black unit. According to an article released by USA Today in 2013, “the 106th Division was overrun in what was one of the worst American defeats of the war.” Yet, 11 Black soldiers managed to survive. They “trudged through waist-deep snow” and managed to stumble upon “the tiny Belgian farming hamlet of Wereth,” where they were fed by an individual of the area. Unfortunately, SS troops showed up not too long after their arrival. They were taken away and brutally massacred. The article states that “most had been killed by blows to the head with a blunt instrument, probably a rifle stock. They had been stabbed repeatedly with bayonets. The finger of one man was almost completely severed. The soldiers had been shot multiple times.” Only recently has the story of the “Wereth 11” been told.
via themendenhall.com
Black Soldiers Negatively Impacted by Fascism and Racism During Second World War
Overseas, Black soldiers were subject to two sets of oppressive rules. While they were expected to abide by the discriminatory principle of Jim Crow, they were also negatively impacted by the Nuremberg Race Laws that had been instituted by Nazi Germany at the time. Under these laws, Black people were just as oppressed as the Jewish people. They could not be romantically involved with Germans, were subjected to hate crimes and stripped of their human rights.
