France - Normandy Day 4 - Chateau D'Audrieu...the darker side

 The Chateau D'Audrieu has a darker side. During WW2, it was the headquarters of the 12th SS Panzer division, the Hitler Jurgund. Kurt Meyer was their commander and he gave the order that no prisoners be taken.

Twenty-Six Canadians were shot, one by one, in the back of the head in the courtyard of Chateau D'Audrieu. Many more died fighting hin the area, indicated by these plaques.

Kurt Meyer was tried and sentenced to death for his war crimes but the sentence was stayed. Major-General Christopher Vokes, who originally rejected the appeal, stayed the execution as he said that he himself ordered the shooting of two prisoners in 1943 and could not kill a man for the same crime when he went free. He was sent to Dorchester prison in Canada and was later released to a British run prison in Germany and released after a total of ten years in prison.

My grandfather worked in the prison but I do not know if Kurt Meyer was there during that time.