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 Prosecutions, 1944-1948 by Patrick Brode, University of Toronto Press, 1997. |