Malmedy Massacre

As Pat asked in my new member introduction, here is summary of my Uncle Stephen Domitrovich who is one of the last survivors of the Malmedy Massacre. Steve has been a signer of Valor Studios prints in the past and they did a nice write up about him so I am including that here. It is as follows.

When Stephen Domitrovich speaks to an audience about his WWII days, as one writer put it, "He lowers his voice as if he is telling a secret." This is because Demitrovich was in the middle of one of the most horrible atrocities against Americans in WWII: the Malmedy Massacre.

In December 1944, Domitrovich was a 19-year-old medic in the 575th Ambulance Company. He had come ashore at Normandy and had been attached to the 101st Airborne throughout the campaign. Now, he found himself attached to the 99th Infantry Division and evacuating westward in face of the massive German suprise attack that began the Battle of the Bulge.

On December 17, at the crossroads near the town of Malmedy, Belgium, the German 1st SS Panzer Division ambushed Domitrovich's truck convy. The SS, under command of Joachim Peiper, took Domitrovich prisoner and placed him amongst 120 other POWs from mixed units.

Herded into a field, the SS trained machine guns on the Americans and stripped them of their valuables. Domitrovich remembered, "Then, a split-second before the first machine gun opened up, I heard a voice next to me say ‘Fall!’ and I did. I fell but I was not hit. So I decided to play dead. The firing seemed to last forever, but when it finally stopped, blood-soaked bodies were piled up all around me.”

Domitrovich closed his eyes and thought of how his mother would take the news of his loss at Christmas. Around him, he heard wounded and dying men moan for “God” or “Mom.” Then, he heard the gun shots as the SS men waded amongst them, shooting the wounded while “laughing and echoing the dying GIs” as they moaned.

“Suddenly, a big German boot held still next to me,” Domitrovich remembered. “I felt the cold of a pistol against my forehead and held my breath. The following couple of seconds must have been the longest in my whole life…then, for some reason, the SS soldier did not pull the trigger but went on to the next guy.”

As the SS troops moved on, Domitrovich lay still despite the 0-degree temperature, afraid to move. When he arose, in the field surrounding him lay 72 bodies of men who had been standing at his side, hours before. In the nearby fields, lay another dozen bodies of men who were cut down as they ran.

Slowly, ten other Americans who also had feigned death, stood up, all in a daze. Together, they and Domitrovich plodded without speaking toward a farmhouse on a hill. Suddenly, soldiers appeared on the hilltop, waving their rifles but shouting that they were Americans. They were a patrol from the Army’s 291st Combat Engineer Battalion. “I was deeply grateful to God for saving my life,” Domitrovich remembers, “and I vowed right then and there to attend Mass every Sunday for the rest of my life.”

After a debriefing and medical attention, Domitrovich returned to serve out the Battle of the Bulge in a mobile ambulance company that would support the American breakout from Bastogne and advance through the surrounding Belgian towns.

Today, Domitrovich is one of the last known survivors of the 30 Americans who escaped the Malmedy Massacre and the 88 who died in that tragic event. Every day, Domitrovich thanks God for having spared him. He does what he can to help others and appreciates every second of life. And, as for the promise he made on December 17, 1944, he hasn’t missed a Sunday of mass since.

Attached is a photo of Steve with PeeWee Martin at the Show of Shows a few years ago in Kentucky.

-Brian

 

Pat,
Yes the location is known. This will be the first time I will be visiting the sight in May.

Sean,
Thanks for the input and photo. My family and I are greatly looking foward to visiting the sight and seeing where this historic event took place.

-Brian