Lot 196

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Description:

2 Malmedy Massacre Survivors Sign German Banking Document: Ted Paluch & Harold Billow

A vintage German banking document signed by two survivors of the Malmedy Massacre of 1944, Theodore Paluch (1922-2015) and Harold Billow (born 1923); Billow is still living and believed to be the last living survivor of the event. The World War II-dated German language certificate was signed by Paluch as “Ted Paluch 285 F.A.O.B. / Malmedy Survivor 1944” along the bottom, and by Billow as “Harold W. Billow / 285th F.A.O.B. / Malmedy Survivor” near the top right edge. The certificate is emblazoned “Landesrentenbrief über 500 Reichsmark” at center and features Nazi eagles and a cancelled embossed paper seal with a swastika near the bottom. Near fine. 8.25” x 11.75.”

The Malmedy Massacre was really a series of German war atrocities committed over a one-month-long period in late 1944 and early 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge, but the major episode with which the name is associated occurred near the town of Malmedy, Belgium at the Baugnez crossroads on December 17, 1944. This is when members of the Kampfgruppe Peiper Waffen-SS commanded by Joachim Peiper opened machine gun fire on a group of about 120 newly captured American soldiers, most of them from the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion to which Paluch and Billow belonged. The Nazis killed over 80 soldiers, shooting injured survivors at point-blank range or crushing their heads with rifle butts. It’s estimated that about 40 Americans survived the massacre, many by feigning death and later hiding in the woods or with Belgian townspeople. Commander Peiper and others were convicted of war crimes during the Dachau Trials of 1946; Peiper served 12 years in prison before his murder in 1976.

Both Theodore “Ted” Paluch and Harold W. Billow belonged to the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion of the U.S. Army, the unit claiming the bulk of massacre victims. Paluch and Billow both hailed from Pennsylvania, were drafted in 1943, and were in their early 20s during the massacre. Both escaped execution by playing dead. Ted Paluch, who was injured in the hand during the early moments of the massacre, used the blood to his advantage. As he recounted during an oral history interview conducted by The National World War II Museum of New Orleans, “I got hit in the hand as I went down… I had some blood on me and I lay down in the hedgerow… I knew he [a German soldier] was waiting for me to move but I just laid there…dead still.” Similarly, Harold Billow later recalled, “You wouldn’t believe how little I inhaled and exhaled, so they wouldn’t see the steam coming from my mouth.”

A very poignant relic from one of the most notorious massacres of World War II, signed by two survivors, among them the presumed last survivor Harold Billow.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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June 30, 2021 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

University Archives

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