Under the supervision of American soldiers, a German mother shields the eyes of her son as she walks with other civilians past the bodies of 57 Russians, including women and one baby, exhumed from a mass grave outside the town of Suttrop.

Under the supervision of American soldiers, a German mother shields the eyes of her son as she walks with other civilians past the bodies of 57 Russians, including women and one baby, exhumed from a mass grave outside the town of Suttrop.

The victims were forced to dig their own grave and then were shot by SS troops six weeks before the arrival of American troops. On May 3, 1945, the 95th Infantry Division of the U.S. Ninth Army arrived in Suttrop and were informed by locals of the mass grave. American troops forced the townspeople to exhume the grave after which Russian displaced persons in the area identified the bodies. The victims were reburied in individual graves, and a U.S. Army chaplain conducted burial services. Russians remaining in the area placed wreaths on the graves.