| Original Statement of Malmedy Survivor Ted Paluch | ||
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SECRET 20 December 1944
SWORN STATEMENT OF T/5 Theodore J. Paluch, 33576613 'Battery B, 285th FA Observation Bn in convoy going south three miles from Malmedy stopped the convoy at 1330 when motor fire and machine gun fire was heard. We got out of the truck and jumped in a ditch beside the vehicles. Some men took off when they saw we were being captured. They took watches, gloves and cigarettes from the prisoners then put us inside a barbed wire fence. Tanks passed for 15 minutes. Everything was alright until a command car turned the corner. At that time an officer in the command car fired a shot with his pistol at a Medical Officer who was one yard away to my left; then he fired another shot to my right. At that time a tank following the command car opened fire on the 175 men inside the fence. We all fell and lay as still as we could. Every tank that passed from them on would fire into the group laying there. At one time they came around with a pistol and fired at every officer that had bars showing. (One officer put mud on his helmet to cover the bars). The tanks stopped passing about 1445. At 1500 someone said lets go. At that time 15 men got up and started to run north from where we were laying on the other side of the road. Twelve of the men ran into a house (northwestern part of the cross road) and three of us kept going. There was a machine gun at the cross roads plus 4 Germans. When we got in back of the house they could not fire the machine gun at us. They burnt the house down into which the 12 men ran. When the three of us were in the back of the house we played dead again because a German in a black uniform came around with a pistol looking us over. We lay there until dark, when we rolled to a hedgerow where we weren’t under observation. Laying there was a S/Sgt from the 2d Division shot in the arm. We started to walk but stayed 200 to 300 yards from the main road. In about a quarter of a mile we met a medic who was shot in the foot and a fellow from my outfit. The four of us came into Malmedy. All I got was a scratch on the fingers from a machine gun. Date: 17 December 1944 The above is a transcript of the statement made by Theodore J. Paluch just three days after the Massacre. |