In the course of the trial, six Waffen-SS defendants, including Joachim Peiper, complained to the tribunal that they had been victims of physical violence and threats of violence meant to compel them to confessions of war crimes. The military tribunal asked the defendants to confirm their sworn statements; of the nine officers who testified, three claimed to have been mistreated by U.S. Army jailers.
For the majority of the Nazis on trial, the defense argued that they either had not participated in the massacres, or that superior orders had compelled them to particiopate in the massacres.
On 16 July 1946, the verdict was delivered on 73 members of the kampfgruppe Peiper. Forty-three were sentenced to death by hanging, including Peiper. Peiper's sentence was commuted to 35 years in 1954, and he was released in December 1956.
--GreGen
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