Vinkt Massacre
Encyclopedia
Vinkt is a small village in Belgium
, with about 1200 inhabitants, now part of the town of Deinze
and situated 20 km southwest of Ghent
. It was near the Vinkt bridge over the Schipdonk Canal that in May 1940 at least 86 civilians were killed by the German Wehrmacht
in an incident known in Belgium as the Vinkt Massacre.
(trying to escape to Dunkirk) and the Belgian army, the village of Vinkt became an important target, as it lay both on the road south from Gent to Lille
, and astride the Schipdonk Canal that blocked the German advance to the west. However, on May 25, both sides already knew the outcome of the Battle for France
: the French army had collapsed and the Belgian army had been reduced to prolonging the war for the sole purpose of protecting the British retreat.
The bridge over the Schipdonk Canal was being guarded by the 1st Belgian Division of Chasseurs ardennais
(which in the Belgian army of the day meant one regiment of tanks out of five regiments in a division - the rest being motor riders and cyclists). Coincidentally, this division turned out to be one of the most motivated in the Belgian army. The Belgian command decided not to destroy but to guard the bridge, so as to help as many British stragglers as possible on their way west, and as many Belgian refugees as possible on their way south: more than one million Belgians (most of them on foot, as cars and horses had been requisitioned by the different armies) had become refugees. News of what happened at Vinkt would cause an additional one million to flee south or even west. By the middle of June, according to Red Cross figures, 30% of the Belgian population had left the country.
Arriving near the bridge on May 25, the German 225th Division, consisting mostly of badly trained soldiers from Itzehoe
in the North of the Hamburg
area, found it impossible to cross. They then took 140 civilians hostage
and used them as human shields. As the Chasseurs ardennais managed to continue to harass the German positions with great precision, and crossing remained impossible, a grenade exploded among the hostages, killing 27.
, on German radio, demanded Belgium's immediate and unconditional surrender
. Belgian King Leopold III
announced to his government that he would use his authority as Supreme Army Commander to lay down arms. For the constitutional crisis following this, see the History of Belgium
.
Meanwhile, the Chasseurs ardennais, completely in the dark about all this, were still holding and defending the bridge against vastly superior odds. For unclear reasons, the 225th Division now started to execute their hostages, and taking new ones, executing them on the spot. Refugees were taken out at random from the endless columns on the trek south and executed immediately. One priest managed to escape buried under two dead colleagues. He was one of four such victims managing to escape to tell the tale.
in the early morning (4 am, 5 am German time).
This did not stop the carnage in Vinkt. Nine hostages were shot after the capitulation. In a style that would subsequently become all too familiar on the Eastern Front
, the last five victims had to dig their own graves first.
A very different picture was painted by the priest who managed to escape on May 27: he claimed to have seen dead women and children, even babies. Since no corpses of women or children were later found, this would imply, if true, that the scene was later cleaned up, and the real death toll of the executions is much higher than the 86 or 140 usually claimed. However, most Belgian historians believe that any additional refugee victims the priest saw, were killed in crossfire, and not intentionally.
The Vinkt massacre shares some strange similarities with the later massacre
at Nemmersdorf (today Mayakovskoye
) in East Prussia
, where there are similar accusations of embellishment and manipulation after the fact and an attempt was made to include refugees killed in crossfire before a bridge among those executed.
On the Western Front
, the Vinkt massacre was not only the first major infraction of the Geneva Convention by the German army, but also unique in that it was committed by an ordinary Wehrmacht
unit, and not by a special SS unit, not even by the Waffen SS. It may be the only notable war crime of the Wehrmacht
committed on the Western Front before 1944.
Although largely ignored outside Belgium, it did not go entirely unpunished: the German officers Major Kühner and Lieutenant Lohmann were tried, convicted and sentenced to 20 years forced labour. They were both released after five years.
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, with about 1200 inhabitants, now part of the town of Deinze
Deinze
Deinze is a city and a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Deinze proper and the towns of Astene, Bachte-Maria-Leerne, Gottem, Grammene, Meigem, Petegem-aan-de-Leie, Sint-Martens-Leerne, Vinkt, Wontergem and Zeveren. On January 1,...
and situated 20 km southwest of Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
. It was near the Vinkt bridge over the Schipdonk Canal that in May 1940 at least 86 civilians were killed by the German Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
in an incident known in Belgium as the Vinkt Massacre.
The situation on May 25
As the German Army continued to advance west, pushing back both the British Expeditionary ForceBritish Expeditionary Force (World War II)
The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....
(trying to escape to Dunkirk) and the Belgian army, the village of Vinkt became an important target, as it lay both on the road south from Gent to Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, and astride the Schipdonk Canal that blocked the German advance to the west. However, on May 25, both sides already knew the outcome of the Battle for France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
: the French army had collapsed and the Belgian army had been reduced to prolonging the war for the sole purpose of protecting the British retreat.
The bridge over the Schipdonk Canal was being guarded by the 1st Belgian Division of Chasseurs ardennais
Regiment of Ardennian Rifles
The Regiment of Ardennian Rifles is an infantry regiment in the Land Component of the Belgian Armed Forces. The regiment is a part of the 7th Brigade...
(which in the Belgian army of the day meant one regiment of tanks out of five regiments in a division - the rest being motor riders and cyclists). Coincidentally, this division turned out to be one of the most motivated in the Belgian army. The Belgian command decided not to destroy but to guard the bridge, so as to help as many British stragglers as possible on their way west, and as many Belgian refugees as possible on their way south: more than one million Belgians (most of them on foot, as cars and horses had been requisitioned by the different armies) had become refugees. News of what happened at Vinkt would cause an additional one million to flee south or even west. By the middle of June, according to Red Cross figures, 30% of the Belgian population had left the country.
Arriving near the bridge on May 25, the German 225th Division, consisting mostly of badly trained soldiers from Itzehoe
Itzehoe
Itzehoe is a town in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.As the capital of the district Steinburg, Itzehoe is located on the Stör, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 51 km northwest of Hamburg and 24 km north of Glückstadt...
in the North of the Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
area, found it impossible to cross. They then took 140 civilians hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
and used them as human shields. As the Chasseurs ardennais managed to continue to harass the German positions with great precision, and crossing remained impossible, a grenade exploded among the hostages, killing 27.
May 26
On this Sunday, The Germans took hostages both at the Meigem and Vinkt church, and at various farms in the neighbourhood. Some hostages were killed on the spot, but the most horrible event happened at Meigem church, where an explosion killed 27 hostages.May 27
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, on German radio, demanded Belgium's immediate and unconditional surrender
Unconditional surrender
Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions, in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. In modern times unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by international law. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological...
. Belgian King Leopold III
Leopold III of Belgium
Leopold III reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the Heir Apparent,...
announced to his government that he would use his authority as Supreme Army Commander to lay down arms. For the constitutional crisis following this, see the History of Belgium
History of Belgium
The history of Belgium, from pre-history to the present day, is intertwined with the histories of its European neighbours, in particular those of the Netherlands and Luxembourg...
.
Meanwhile, the Chasseurs ardennais, completely in the dark about all this, were still holding and defending the bridge against vastly superior odds. For unclear reasons, the 225th Division now started to execute their hostages, and taking new ones, executing them on the spot. Refugees were taken out at random from the endless columns on the trek south and executed immediately. One priest managed to escape buried under two dead colleagues. He was one of four such victims managing to escape to tell the tale.
May 28
Leopold III and the Belgian army capitulatedCapitulation (surrender)
Capitulation , an agreement in time of war for the surrender to a hostile armed force of a particular body of troops, a town or a territory....
in the early morning (4 am, 5 am German time).
This did not stop the carnage in Vinkt. Nine hostages were shot after the capitulation. In a style that would subsequently become all too familiar on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, the last five victims had to dig their own graves first.
Total number of victims
Most sources claim between 86 and 140 victims, 86 being the total number of executed victims. The divergence stems from the fact that other historians include the victims in front of the bridge and those 27 killed by the explosion at the church in Meigem. Whereas the exploded grenade on May 25 was almost certainly German, the explosion at the church has usually been attributed to Belgian artillery. However, there remains a controversy over the church explosion, as some victims later claimed they saw German officers throw hand grenades into the church, and all women hostages were taken out of the church just before the explosion - ensuring that all 140 victims of the incident were male.A very different picture was painted by the priest who managed to escape on May 27: he claimed to have seen dead women and children, even babies. Since no corpses of women or children were later found, this would imply, if true, that the scene was later cleaned up, and the real death toll of the executions is much higher than the 86 or 140 usually claimed. However, most Belgian historians believe that any additional refugee victims the priest saw, were killed in crossfire, and not intentionally.
The Vinkt massacre shares some strange similarities with the later massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
at Nemmersdorf (today Mayakovskoye
Mayakovskoye
Nemmersdorf in East Prussia was one of the first pre-war ethnic German villages to fall to the advancing Red Army in World War 2. On October 21, 1944 it was the scene of a massacre perpetrated by the Soviet soldiers against German civilians and French and Belgian noncombattants. Determining the...
) in East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
, where there are similar accusations of embellishment and manipulation after the fact and an attempt was made to include refugees killed in crossfire before a bridge among those executed.
Aftermath
As news of the carnage spread, German press sources denied it or excused it, claiming that Belgian civilians had dressed up as soldiers. Although British newspapers knew the exact story, they refused to press the point - because this had happened in Belgium, they were afraid of being accused that they were repeating the war propaganda claims they had made in 1914 with the gross exaggeration of "the rape of little Belgium".On the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
, the Vinkt massacre was not only the first major infraction of the Geneva Convention by the German army, but also unique in that it was committed by an ordinary Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
unit, and not by a special SS unit, not even by the Waffen SS. It may be the only notable war crime of the Wehrmacht
War crimes of the Wehrmacht
War crimes of the Wehrmacht were those carried out by the German armed forces during World War II. While the principal perpetrators of the Holocaust amongst German armed forces were the Nazi German 'political' armies , the regular armed forces represented by the Wehrmacht committed war crimes of...
committed on the Western Front before 1944.
Although largely ignored outside Belgium, it did not go entirely unpunished: the German officers Major Kühner and Lieutenant Lohmann were tried, convicted and sentenced to 20 years forced labour. They were both released after five years.