In 1946 Preuß was among the SS men who were put to trial for the Malmedy massacre . He was accused of murdering American prisoners of war and Belgian civilians . One of his subordinates , Ernst Kilat , who would eventually be tried and sentenced for murder of Belgian civilians in Lüttich in 1948 , testified in 1945 that as a company commander Preuß had ordered his men to kill all Belgian civilians the unit came across . During the Malmedy massacre trial it was shown that Preuß had not killed an American soldier in close combat , as he had claimed , but had ordered one of his subordinates to shoot a captured American pilot whose pants and wedding ring he wanted for himself . For this murder in connection with robbery Preuß was sentenced to death . His death sentence was commuted on 17 March 1949 on orders from Washington , DC
Malmedy massacre
Malmedy massacre
Georg Preuß