A Conversation Becomes a Revelation
Occasionally, amidst all the junk on social media, you will come across a gem. Such is the case with this thread.
It’s a short but powerful thread, so go read it and come back.
One of the many things I like about it, besides the meaningful interaction between two men of different backgrounds, is that Mr. Morrow was just being himself and just doing things he normally does: being respectful to a war veteran while buying gasoline. His reward was a piece of hidden history, and, for the sharing of that history, a viral tweet thread.
Like all too many, I had never heard of the Wereth 11, but with thousands of persons commenting on the thread, there were many who provided links to the story.
Considering the subject matter, a horrendous war crime committed by the soldiers of the Third Reich against a small group of black American combat soldiers, I hesitated to read it. Oh, it’s not that I hadn't read about the crimes committed by Hitler’s Germany (and Stalin’s USSR) before. But some days you just can’t bring yourself to read about these things. Some days, it’s just too much.
I got around to reading it, however, because bearing witness is something we Americans owe to men like these. And I read it again to compose this piece.
In the winter of 1944-1945, within Belgium’s Ardennes Forest, better known as the launching pad of the Battle of the Bulge, two war crimes were committed. The better known one—the “Malmedy Massacre”—resulted in the deaths of at least 85 defenseless GIs who surrendered. They were herded into a snow-covered field near Baugnez and machine gunned to death. Then the perpetrators walked among survivors, calmly shooting them again at point-blank range. This atrocity made worldwide headlines. One month later, a second, lesser known mass execution occurred. This one, known as the Wereth 11 Massacre, took place at Wereth and involved 11 GIs from the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion. It led to a two-year U. S. Army investigation, from February 1945-February 1947. The Army’s conclusion: Shut the case down, close it up, and keep it, literally, top secret for decades.
Covering up seems to be one of the few things that the US government does well.
The men of the 333rd Battalion – a segregated unit – were some of the first black combat soldiers in the US military since the re-segregation of the Armed Forces courtesy of President Woodrow Wilson. And they went from totally inept during their training to one of the most competent and feared fighters in the last part of World War 2. Like the Tuskegee Airman, when given the opportunity to show their worth, they took it and ran with it.
It is without a doubt that these men humiliated the NAZIs - with their delusions of being the master race - not once, not twice, but many times. The link provided tells who these men were, outlines their training/combat history and the events which led to their capture.
They were shot … eventually ... but the things that were done to them before that … well, let’s just say that I can feel my stomach churning as I type this. Unlike the men of the Malmedy Massacre - who were white - the Wereth 11 had to suffer for proving that black men were equal to white men. And they did.
And why did the US government cover this up? Possibly for the same reason that not much was widely known about the Tuskegee Airmen until American WWII veterans of all shades started talking about them: to hide the utter efficiency and competence of these two sets of black American warriors.
The perpetrators were never identified which is … curious. I bet it’s related to the cover-up. The massacre wasn’t officially recognized by the government until 2017.
There are many reasons that I’m sharing how much the revelation of this massacre has moved me, but the primary one is this: the overarching spiritual nature of tribalism woven throughout all wars, with WWII being the penultimate conflagration … so far, that is. We’ve been seeing small battles all around us and, with the speed of WiFi, they seem to be happening every second.
In Ephesians 2, Paul almost casually mentions that the devil is the prince of the power of the air and I think that this is a literal description. It seems that fear, chaos, craziness and deception are borne upon the very air we breathe -- gone viral, as it were. That, I postulate, is no coincidence.
Some of these battles are more brutal and barbaric than those in WWII, but they stem from the same source: the spiritual powers and principalities that rule over each ethnic group. These powers have been vying for dominance for millennia, but what makes them capable of the large scale massacres accompanied by the unthinkable brutality and cruelty that we’ve seen in the 20th and 21st centuries: technology.
Ironic that this same technology allowed so many to discover the fate of the Wereth 11.
Here’s the memorial to the Wereth 11 in Belgium, which was advocated for by a German family, the Langers. This family briefly sheltered the Wereth 11 before the men surrendered themselves to the SS.
Bringing us back to the old WWII veteran that Mr. Morrow thanked for his service, I wish we knew his name.
Because he has done his country a great service yet again. However, God knows who he is and when the gentleman meets his Maker, I’m asking God in advance to tell him thanks from me.
God rest the men of the 333rd. Thanks for proving your worth, gentlemen.
FORGOT TO MENTION: There’s a documentary on Amazon Prime about the Wereth 11.
Thank You Juliette 👏🙏
Blinking back tears. Thanks for teaching me more history.