page_title: Ardenne Abbey massacre
section_title: Memorial
hierarchical_section_title: Ardenne Abbey massacre / Memorial
caption_attribution_description: English: Memorial to Canadian prisoners of war executed in the garden of the Ardenne Abbey, in the Calvados region of Normandy in France. Français&#160;: Mémorial des prisonniers de guerre canadiens exécutés dans le jardin de l'abbaye d'Ardenne dans le département normand du Calvados en France.
context_page_description: The Ardenne Abbey massacre occurred during the Battle of Normandy at the Ardenne Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery in Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe, near Caen, France. In June 1944, 20 Canadian soldiers were massacred in a garden at the abbey by members of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend over the course of several days and weeks. During the course of the Normandy Campaign an estimated "156 Canadian prisoners of war are believed to have been executed by the 12th SS Panzer Division in the days and weeks following the D-Day landings. In scattered groups, in various pockets of the Normandy countryside, they were taken aside and shot." The perpetrators of the massacre, members of the 12th SS Panzer Division, were known for their fanaticism, the majority having been drawn from the Hitlerjugend or Hitler Youth.
context_section_description: A memorial was unveiled in the garden of the Abbaye on 6 June 1984.  After the names of those murdered, an inscription reads: 
  On the night of June 7/8, 1944, 18 Canadian soldiers were murdered in this garden while being held here as prisoners of war. Two more prisoners died here or nearby on June 17. They are gone but not forgotten."
caption: The memorial to the 20 Canadian soldiers killed by SS in the Abbey garden.
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