American prisoners captured here, along with some captured later in Biillingen, were assembled in the bar of the guesthouse for interrogation. Private First Class Roger V. Foehringer of Service Battery, 924th Field Artillery Battalion, captured in Biillingen early on the moming of 17 December has vivid memories of what happened:
'We were taken to a building that reminded me of a big dance hall of some kind. Our troops had been using it as a rest centre where they could get hot food and warmed up. I would say there were about two hundred American prisoners sitting on chairs in this theatre like room witi a stage in front. In a short time, a German officer got up on this stage and told us in perfect English that they were going to interrogate some of us. A young German soldier walked down the aisle by me. I gave him 'the glare', he gave me 'the finger' and I joined him as he pointed a Luger at me. We went into the wings of a room opposite the stage. He spoke very good English and the first hing he did was to push the pistol in my stomach as he pulled the dogtags off my neck. He was wearing some American clothing and upon examing my dogtags became concerned upon reading that my next of kin was Mrs. William Foehringer. He couldn't figure out the grammatical connection between a 'Mrs' and the name William.' Shortly after Foehringer's interrogation, American fighter-bombers strafed and bombed Kampfgruppe Peiper so Foehringer and his fellow prisoners sought refuge in the cellar of the dance hall.

ArdennesBattle for the BulgeHonsfeldNormandiePeiperVadVarVem