Dachau trials

The war-crime trials were held within the compound of the former Dachau concentration camp by military tribunals authorized by the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Third Army.

In the Malmedy massacre trial, 73 members of the Waffen-SS were found guilty of summarily executing 84 American prisoners of war during the attack.

[5][6] After the verdicts, the manner in which the court had functioned was disputed, first in Germany (by former Nazi officials who had regained some power due to anti-Communist positions with the occupation forces), then later in the United States, including by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

[12][13] A distinct case about the war crimes committed against civilians in Stavelot was tried on July 6, 1948, in front of a Belgian military court in Liège, Belgium.

The defendants were 10 members of Kampfgruppe Peiper; American troops had captured them on December 22, 1944, near the spot where one of the massacres of civilians in Stavelot had occurred.

In 1976 a Communist historian obtained the file on Joachim Peiper from the Gestapo document archive in East Germany, and used the information to denounce the presence of a Nazi war criminal living in France.

Later, a newsmagazine article the left-wing L'Humanité identified Peiper's presence and residence in Traves, and he received threats of death.