Bruce Macdonald
The Macdonald Papers ~ War Crimes
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S. S. Brigadefuher Kurt Meyer

Archives photo: PC/6329

S. S. Brigadefuher Kurt Meyer in Uniform, (1944 or 1945.)

Kurt Meyer originally received the death penalty for his atrocities against Canadian soldiers and was sentenced to be shot by a firing squad on 7 January 1946. Following an appeal, this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was shipped to Canada and spent five years in the Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick where he learned to speak English and worked in the prison library. Then, he was returned to Germany to finish his sentence in the Allied prison in Werl and was released in 1954. After working for the Andreas Beer Company for a few years, Meyer died in 1960.

To read more about  the trial:
Casual Slaughters and Accidental Judgments: Canadian War Crimes Prosecu
tions, 1944-1948 by Patrick Brode, University of Toronto Press, 1997.