‘Vile and disturbing’: Army unit marks Battle of the Bulge with picture of Nazi war criminal who massacred Americans

On the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s final major push in World War II, a U.S. Army unit shared a tribute to the “greatest battle in American history” — a detailed portrait of a worried military commander fretting over the plan that would ultimately secure an Allied victory over the Nazis.

“The fate of his beloved nation rested on his ability to lead his men,” the XVIII Airborne Corps wrote on a Monday Facebook post featuring the striking photo.

But the description wasn’t detailing the heroics of an American general poised to destroy fascist German forces. Instead, it seemingly celebrated the strategic mind-set of Nazi war criminal Joachim Peiper, an infamous German commander who ordered the massacre of 84 U.S. prisoners of war during the Battle of the Bulge.

The Army unit posted a glamorous, colorized photo of Peiper alongside an intimate narrative depicting the Nazi writing in his diary. The photo was also shared on the Facebook pages for the Defense Department and the Army’s 10th Mountain Division.

The backlash was swift. Critics in the Facebook comments accused the post of “glorifying a Nazi war criminal,” called it a “‘fanboy’ flavored piece,” and described the photo as “vile and disturbing.”

Shortly after a public affairs officer for the Army criticized the posts on Twitter, the photos disappeared. The Defense Department and 10th Mountain Division deleted their posts, and the XVIII Airborne Corps removed the photo of Peiper from its lengthy narrative.