On August 26, 1944, the downed crew members of the bomber Wham! Bam! Thank You, Ma-am! found themselves trapped in Russelsheim while en-route to a prisoner-of-war camp. This was the morning after a bombing raid by the British Royal Air Force that devastated Russelsheim’s historic district. Mistaking the eight American airmen for the bombers of the previous night, a crowd of Russelsheimers unleashed their pent-up hatred upon the defenseless prisoners. As the airmen were led through the city by Luftwaffe guards, angry citizens beat, clubbed, stoned, and shot them. Six were killed.
After the war, the US Army organized a special war crimes commission to investigate the Russelsheim incident. Legal procedures established by the commission set a groundbreaking precedent for the more famous Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. The commission also suspended some of the normal Angle-Saxon rules of evidence, as well as some of the standard court-martial procedures. Lt. Col. Leon Jaworski, who gained fame three decades later as special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal, prosecuted the case against the eleven Russelsheimers. Five were ultimately hanged.
August Nigro wrestles with the moral dilemmas that the Russelsheim case raises about total war and the prosecution of war crimes. While condemning the inexcusable murders of the American airmen, Nigro asks whether it is just to condone bombing and terrorizing civilians far behind the frontlines, yet to punish by death civilians who seek revenge against the enemy who destroyed their community? Furthermore, is it just for a conquering army to try the conquered by legal procedures different from those under which it would try its own people?
These questions are more relevant now than ever before, as today’s world leaders grapple with prosecuting war crimes in the Balkans, Rwanda, and elsewhere.
