War Memorial Parfondry 19-12-1944

On December 19, around 3 pm, some civilians were totally surprised when some Germans showed up in Parfondruy. SS men stepped from the route de Trois Ponts onto the road "chemin de Parfondruy" to attack Stavelot again. They were ordered by Knittel, who had his command post in a farm (ferme Antoine) between Trois Ponts and Stavelot, to go there.

Those civilians were hiding in the cellar of Jules Hurlet's farm, because of the fighting in the area. About 3 pm Mr. and Mrs. Hurlet came out of the house to feed the animals. They saw many Germans on the road, firing at the houses, including their barn. Some Germans came up to Mr. Hurlet and wanted to know where the Americans were. Hurlet replied that he did not know. This was the wrong answer and one German put his gun in the stomach and wanted to take him to where they thought the Americans were. Mme Hurlet asked her maid, Mme Leonie Angel, a refugee from Luxembourg who spoke German, to intervene. With success: the Germans allowed Mr Hurlet to return to his farm. But another civilian, Leon Crismer, was shot and killed for no reason.

While a first group of Germans left the barn site, two other SS men rushed into the Hurlet barn and found the civilians in hiding. They only found women and children (2 to 8 years old)
These civilians were taken to the garage of the shed. Mrs. Lucien Hurlet and her maid tried to open the door of this garage from the barn side, because they had a bad premonition about the German plans. But they couldn't open the door. An SS soldier entered the garage and aimed his machine gun at the civilians, who begged not to fire. But the SS man did. He fired at them several times.
The door leading to the garden flew open under the pressure and many corpses fell into the garden. Mrs. Hurlet ran away from the scene. Her maid was later found dead on the road. Mme Lucien Hurlet was later found dead in the burnt-out kitchen. Some say she too was killed by the SS. Others say she died from the premature birth of her child.
Mother Hurlet discovered what had happened in her garage and a day later found 23-month-old baby Monique Thonon, injured in her legs and covered in the blood of her own mother, who had been murdered. Mrs. Hurlet took care of the child and gives it to the Americans who take it to the hospital in Verviers. The survivors found shelter in the neighboring villa L'Epilogue.

In the hamlet of Parfondruy, six barns were set on fire. Parfondruy counted only 50 people, 26 of whom died.

Willem Vandenameele