A unit of the United States Army said Tuesday that it “regrets” sharing a colorized photograph of a Nazi war criminal in a Facebook post commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge after the post drew a widespread backlash on social media. The photo was posted on the Facebook page of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps on Monday morning, the first post in what the corps said would be a weekslong series about the battle. It was accompanied by a short, dramatic narrative about how the German officer, Joachim Peiper, decided to “gamble everything” and attack Allied forces in the Ardennes Forest on Dec. 16, 1944. The portrait of Peiper was also shared on Monday on the Defense Department’s Facebook page before being deleted. The department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Source: New York Times December 17, 2019 14:35 UTC