When the Nazi war criminal Meier was prosecuted, why did the Allies protest collectively?

Project planner and producer: Yuan Zaiyu; copywriter: Wallflower

In September 1954, former Nazi Hitler Hitler division commander Kurt Adolf Wilhelm Meier was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was paroled because of physical illness.

But then there were accusations on the prisoner of war issue. However, surprisingly, all Canadian officers and soldiers expressed dissatisfaction with this accusation. Several officers also said that if Meyer is found guilty, all officers and soldiers will resign.

You must know that Maier's troops fought a fierce battle with the Canadian Army in Normandy, and tens of thousands of Canadian soldiers died at his hands. Logically speaking, the Canadian Army should hate Maier to the core. Why defend Maier?

This starts with the German prisoner killing incident in Caen.

In June 1944, the Allied forces and the Germans clashed in Caen, northern France. The British Second Army, composed of Canadians, was supposed to capture Caen within one day as planned, but was intercepted by Meyer's troops. The ill-prepared Canadian soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Not only did they lose a large amount of supplies and equipment, many of them were also captured by Meier.

The German army, which had been retreating steadily before, was filled with anger and was worried that it could not be vented. A group of Canadian prisoners came to their door. Without any resistance, twenty-seven Canadian prisoners of war were killed by the German army, which was at the end of its war effort, causing a bad impact on the German army.

Germany signed the Convention Governing the Treatment of Prisoners of War in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1929 (later and other amendments collectively referred to as the Geneva Convention). According to the "Geneva Convention", both parties to the treaty are not allowed to mistreat prisoners. The German army's behavior violated this treaty and violated morality.

In order to strictly enforce military discipline, Meyer severely punished the officers and soldiers who tortured and killed prisoners of war, stopped the evil practice of massacring Canadian prisoners of war, and saved the lives of many Canadian prisoners of war.

This act of chivalry made the Canadian officers and soldiers who were enemies filled with gratitude and respect, so they defended Meyer against the subsequent accusations against him.

In addition to rescuing Canadian prisoners, Meyer also evacuated the local French people while holding on to Caen, which reduced civilian casualties to a certain extent.

In the end, with the support of Canadian military officers, the charges against Meier were acquitted. Meier escaped jail and began working in a winery, and later joined a mutual aid group of former Waffen-SS members to protest the unfair treatment of German soldiers who were also victims of the war. From then on, the Nazi defender "Panzer Meyer" and "Fast Meyer" began to be called "Knight Meyer".

Meier died of a heart attack on December 23, 1961. More than 5,000 people in total came to attend the funeral of this "knight". Among them are many of his former "enemies", who are full of admiration for Knight Meier.

Although Kurt Meier was an upright and moral person, he had been working for the fascists for the first half of his life. He fought against the Soviet and Allied forces in Ukraine, the Caucasus, and France, and contributed to the anti-fascist alliance. He caused a lot of casualties and was undoubtedly a war criminal.

However, as a German, it is also his obligation to fight for his country. At that time, most Germans chose to fight for their country, and Meier was just a microcosm of the Germans at that time.