Rüsselsheim Gets Memorial for US POWs

The city of Rüsselsheim near Frankfurt on Thursday unveiled a memorial to eight US prisoners of war who were hunted and lynched by an angry mob of German civilians near the end of World War II. On August 26, 1944, the US soldiers, who had been shot down near Osnabrück two days earlier, were being marched to a POW camp through the town shortly after it had been attacked by British bombers. The townspeople fell upon the Americans, killing six in revenge for the bombing of Rüsselsheim. Two airmen survived only by pretending to be dead. The incident only received official recognition decades after the war.