The Ascq massacre was a

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

of 86 men on 1 April 1944 in

Ascq Ascq (; pcd, Ask) is a former commune on the Marque river in the Nord department in northern France, at seven kilometers from Belgium. Agricultural village until the Industrial Revolution, the former independent commune merged with others to beco ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, by the

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The

12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend The SS Division Hitlerjugend or 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" (german: 12. SS-Panzerdivision "Hitlerjugend") was a German armoured division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from ...

set out by rail for

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

at the end of March, 1944. On 1 April, their train was approaching the

gare d'Ascq Ascq station ( French: ''Gare d'Ascq'') is a railway station serving the former village of Ascq, now part of Villeneuve-d'Ascq city, Nord department, northern France. History In nineteenth century the industrial revolution is developing industr ...

, a junction where three railroads intersected, when an explosion blew the line apart, causing two cars to derail. The commander of the convoy, SS

Obersturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Ostuf'') was a Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Obersturmführer'' was first created in 1932 as the result of an expa ...

Walter Hauck Walter Hauck (4 June 1918 – 6 November 2006) was a German SS officer infamous for the atrocities committed under his command during the Second World War. Before the war, he worked in the German police. By 1944, he had the rank of SS-Obersturm ...

, ordered troops to search and arrest all male members of the houses on both sides of the track. Altogether 70 men were shot beside the railway line, with another 16 killed in the village itself. Six more men were arrested and charged with the bomb attack after an investigation by the Gestapo; they were eventually ordered to be executed by firing squad. The Oberfeldkommandant of Lille justified the massacre, stating:

The population must know that any attack on German units or individual soldiers will be responded to by all means required by the situation. The example of Ascq must be a lesson. In the nature of things it is inevitable that innocent people will suffer when such things happen. Responsibility lies with the criminals who make such attacks.

At the end of the war, some SS men stood trial in a French Military Court at

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

. They were sentenced to death; later their sentences were commuted to imprisonment. The last prisoner, Walter Hauck, was released in July 1957. Hauck also instigated a similar massacre in Leskovice in May 1945. After the massacre, 60,000 workers started a strike in Lille — one of the most important demonstrations in France during World War II under German occupation. It is estimated that at least 20,000 people were present at the funerals in the village.

References

Bibliography

* Édouard Catel, ''Le Crime des nazis à Ascq'', Croix du Nord, Lille, 1944. Reedited by Société historique de Villeneuve-d'Ascq et du Mélantois (SHVAM) in 1996. * Louis Wech, ''J'accuse'', Imprimerie Boulonnais, Ascq, 1945. Reedited by SHVAM in 1996. * Jacob Louis, ''Crimes hitlériens : Ascq - Le Vercor'', Éd. Mellotte, collection "Libération" 1946. * ''Die faschistische Okkupationspolitik in Frankreich (1940- 1944) Dokumentenauswahl''. Hg. und Einl. Ludwig Nestler. Berlin:

Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften (DVW) (English: ''German Publisher of Sciences'') was a scientific publishing house in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR/). Situated in Berlin, DVW was founded as (VEB) on 1 January 1954 as the successor of the main department of "un ...

, 1990 . * Docteur Jean-Marie Mocq ''La 12^e SS Hitlerjugend massacre Ascq, cité martyre'' (album historique), Éd. Heimdal, 1994 * Claudia Moisel, ''Frankreich und die deutschen Kriegsverbrecher: Politik und Praxis der Strafverfolgung nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg''. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2004 . {{Authority control Massacres in France Massacres in 1944 Nazi war crimes in France Mass murder in 1944 Collective punishment Villeneuve-d'Ascq History of Nord (French department) 1944 crimes in France April 1944 events Massacres of men Violence against men in Europe Massacres committed by Nazi Germany

See also

References

Bibliography