WSS Insignia on soldiers KIA, Nuremburg 1945

[Remy Spezzano]

A sad photo showing six young men shot dead shortly before the war will come to an end. Five of the dead men appear to be wearing a mix of WSS uniforms.

The photo was taken by a US Army Signal Corps photographer in the area of Nuremburg, Germany in April 1945

One can only speculate what really happened here. The official caption states these men were SS fanatics and fought to the death. However if you look at the wall behind them you can clearly see pocket marked bullet holes from small arms fire. Some men are wearing shoes while some just have their socks on and others are bare foot. But because of the way they are all lying on top of one another it appears these men were ambushed or caught off guard and were taken out all at once with a volley of rifle fire. Then again I will not be surprised if some members will speculate that these men were simply executed for being SS. Unfortunately we will never no for sure what really happened.

A few things worth pointing out which caught my eye. One of the men is wearing a black WSS panzer wrap with a cuff title for the "Totenkopf" panzer division. Were the TK in the Nuremburg area in April 1945? Most likely this man was part of some make shift replacement unit made up of men from all over the place.

Also one of the men is wearing mountain boots with the standard issue mountain shoe gaiters. And then the last interesting thing I noticed in this photo was the M43 cap insignia. The soldier pinned a metal Army panzer collar tab skull over the BeVo trapezoid skull insignia.

[Remy Spezzano]

Reverse side of the photo showing the caption.

[Remy Spezzano]

Close up of the "TK" cufftitle.

[Remy Spezzano]

Close up of modified M43 cap insignia.

[Thorsten B.]

I would be surprised if that is the only pic he took from that and other scenes.

Any more details and shots available?

Your guys must have taken far more pictures from March until summer of 1945 - I am really curious where these might still sleep?!

Thank you for sharing.

[Bobwirtz]

I wouldn't be surprised if they had been executed. Notice the lack of firearms and field gear. Look what they did to the Wiking troops guarding Dachau --- put them up against a wall and machine gunned the lot of them. So much for the Geneva Convention!

[NickG]

Definitely not KIA (Killed in Action...) more like KWS (Killed while standing)...side by side and toppled on top of each other, so no doubt executed..
The soldier on the left is wearing a LW fliegerbluse with cleated mountain boots... Mountain gaiters...etc...None of these guys are KL personnel...Sad ending!

[Tim W]

yea I agree! could those be bullet holes on the wall? Also no boots on some of these guys. Captured than executed!
Tim

[NickG]

"Fanatical German SS who attempted a last ditch stand" Wow! Who would buy that? Nice media cover up!
Some bear-footed and no gear...no arms... What was their weapon of defence if they fell in battle? Throwing their shoes?

[Chet Sowersby]

A sobering picture.....

Chet

[nd164th]

Dont foret there were roaming bands of SS and Police as well as special units that were executing German Military deserters up till the end of the war. Im sure the boots etc were reused by the killing unit.

[TrondK]

Wrong uniforms at the wrong time.

[NickG]

Originally Posted by nd164th

Dont foret there were roaming bands of SS and Police as well as special units that were executing German Military deserters up till the end of the war. Im sure the boots etc were reused by the killing unit.

Well that's the exact opposite of "fanatical SS fighting to the end"...but I guess its plausible, so deserters shot by their own troops actually and later found by the US Army,
who took the credit for neutralizing these (unarmed) enemy forces....I still have doubts about that possibility...

[Felix]

Must have been some sort of mistake by the US propaganda machinery as it looks kind of obvious that these men where not killed in action. The most likely IMO is a execution done by trigger happy GI's
To document own war crimes in not that clever. Ok, its possible to make up a story afterwards, but then again one can read the photo.

Sad end...

//Felix

[chrischa]

It looks like the man on the extreme right had a walking crutch under his arm.

Also, you cannot see any blood or bullet wounds on the men. Have they been positioned to make it a less graphic photo for the 'moms back home'?