Memorial

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Pfc Belen Reyes enlisted in New York City, New York on 27 October 1942.

On the morning of 17 December, elements of Kampfgruppe Peiper (1st SS Panzer Division) entered Ligneuville, Belgium and captured Company A's kitchen crew and its supply crew. They were transported to an area south of Stavelot called La Vaulx-Richard. The German commander decided that the men be murdered. So 12 men of Company A, and three Belgian civilians were executed. They were S/Sergeant Walter Arter, S/Sgt Edward Kadluboski, T/5 William Edmonds, T/5 Donald Spencer, T/5 Klaas Visser, Pfc Harry Czaplinski, Pfc Carl Millard, Pfc Belen Reyes, Pfc Rolf Runge, Pvt Gion, Pvt David Glotzer and Pvt Donald Hoffer.

After the war, during a trial, SS-Schütze Ernst Mahl, who was present during the massacre, testified that he witnessed how SS-Unterscharführer Wolf together with two other SS soldiers led their victims up the hill and into the forest. When they were out of sight he heard four or five burst of nine to ten rounds each from a machine pistol. Approximately thirty minutes later he saw Wolf but he never saw the prisoners again. SS-Rottenführer Gärtner told his interrogators that he learned two days later that the prisoners had been shot.

There is a monument to commemorate them on the exact place where the bodies were found.