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@Baz posted:

Very weird Ros Here’s what I found



Berga was run by a reserve army sergeant named Erwin Metz, who was ultimately responsible for the inhumane conditions, and gave the order to take the prisoners on the death march. When the allied forces closed in on the retreating Germans, Metz deserted his post and attempted to escape by bicycle, fearing the consequences of being captured in possession of the remaining Berga prisoners and having to answer for his war crimes. Still, he was captured days after the prisoners were liberated by American forces, and he was sentenced to death, because he had killed a US POW, Pvt Morton Goldstein (Battery C/590th Field Artillery/106 US Division) on March 14, 1945. However, because of the American political climate and the shifting priorities of the American War Department towards defending Western Europe against the Soviets in the lead-up to the Cold War, many German war criminals' sentences were commuted in exchange for intelligence that the Western allies believed could be used against the Soviets. Thus Metz was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment, though in the end he only served nine years before being released back into Germany as a free man.[4]

Only following orders thenπŸ˜±πŸ™„

Kaytee

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