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***image1***A handful of people refuse to forget a tragic event in Belgium during World War II, but many others have yet to learn of it.
A troop command from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center last week took a monetary donation, a new flag and a wreath of flowers to the site of a grisly murder of black U.S. prisoners of war. Other Belgian locals and a group of military reenactors were on hand with their own tributorial offerings in hopes of keeping alive the memory of the then-forsaken servicemembers.
“It’s a part of history I was unaware of,” said Sgt. Maj. Quinton Rice, part of the 11-person delegation which came from the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl. “It’s significant because they were African-American, but it’s also significant because they had surrendered and still were killed. The fact that we in the American military obey the Geneva Convention code of conduct doesn’t mean that other countries always do.”
The Wereth 11 was the name posthumously given to a group of 11 black U.S. soldiers from the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion who were supporting the 106th Armored Division in that area of southeastern Belgium. Separated from their unit after a new German offensive was begun, the 11 men wound their way through woods and pasture land before coming to a farmhouse where Mathius Langer lived with his wife and several children.
Though targeting themselves for potential Nazi wrath, the Langers allowed the U.S. Soldiers inside and were hustling up a meal when German troops arrived at their doorstep.
“We’d given them bread,” said Herman Langer, who was 18 years old at the time. “Our (dining room) table was able to be extended and made longer. We were going to feed them more. There was no time, though, before the Germans arrived.”
With people throughout that region fearful of German reprisal, information was passed by someone indicating that there were Americans inside the Langer house. The Germans brought their prisoners outside into freezing weather and waited an hour or so before marching them a half-mile out of town and killing them.
Their bodies were left where they died and became covered by heavy snowfall until the ensuing thaw two months later revealed what had happened.
“The men were tortured severely before they were shot,” Chaplain (Col.) James Griffith said during the commemorative ceremony. “They paid the ultimate price and this is an example of the atrociousness of war.”
The executions are forever documented by photographs and testimonials taken down by investigators who came to the site when the bodies were discovered.
“Most of the people associated with this monument have used money out of their own pockets and there have been a lot of donations,” Maj. Bernadette Fuller said. “Bringing Soldiers here with us today allows them to learn about something they might never have heard of otherwise. It’s important that we promote the story of the Wereth 11 as an important event of World War II. It is important that Soldiers today, both black and white, understand the sacrifice that this group of 11 servicemembers made.”
The Wereth 11 monument was established in 1994 when surviving members of the Langer family erected a grey stone marker with a cross. A fund was established with money collected by both Americans and Belgians in hopes that the site might someday become officially recognized with World War II tours advertised for this part of Europe.
“Its one of six or seven incidents when atrocities happened during the Battle of the Bulge and during World War II,” Colonel Griffith said. “Wereth is interesting because it sheds light on the existence of African-American Soldiers at that time.
“There were 260,000 black Soldiers in the European theatre and most fought in segregated units – largely invisible fighters who were not given the respect by the country they were representing a lot of the time.”
