Ardenne Abbey massacre | |
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Part of the Normandy massacres | |
Location | Ardenne Abbey, Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe, France |
Date | 7–17 June 1944 |
Deaths | 20 Canadians POWs from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the 27th Armoured Regiment (The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment) |
Perpetrators | 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend |
The Ardenne Abbey massacre occurred during the Battle of Normandy at the Ardenne Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery in Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe, near Caen, France. In June 1944, 20 Canadian soldiers were massacred in a garden at the abbey by members of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend over the course of several days and weeks. This was part of the Normandy Massacres, a series of scattered killings during which up to 156 Canadian prisoners of war were murdered by soldiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division during the Battle of Normandy.[1][2] The perpetrators of the massacre, members of the 12th SS Panzer Division, were known for their fanaticism, the majority having been drawn from the Hitlerjugend or Hitler Youth.[3]
Abbaye d'Ardenne
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).