We look back to New Year’s Day in 1945, when American troops executed dozens of German prisoners of war.

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** THE WEEKLY REVEAL
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Saturday, December 28, 2024

Hello! In this issue:
* The story of an American war crime during World War II that was nearly lost to history.
* What a correctional officer’s death says about California’s prison system.
* We’ve got a suggested playlist for your holiday travels.
* Love Reveal? Tell us why and you might hear yourself on an upcoming episode.

Time-sensitive request: Please help us take advantage of a generous board match that expires at 11:59 p.m. PT December 31. Your donation ([link removed]) —any amount that’s right for you—will go twice as far to support critical investigative reporting in 2025.
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** THIS WEEK’S PODCAST
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** Take No Prisoners
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American soldiers of the 55th Armored Infantry Battalion run through a smoke-filled street in Wernberg, Germany. Credit: U.S. Army photograph/Library of Congress, Joseph J. Spagnola collection. Photo hand-colored by Michael I Schiller/Reveal

It was their first day in battle and the two best friends had just switched places. Bob Fordyce rested while Frank Hartzell crawled down into the shallow foxhole, taking his turn chipping away at the frozen ground. Just then, German artillery fire began falling all around them. With his body plastered to the ground, Hartzell could feel shrapnel dent his helmet. When the explosions finished, he picked himself up to find that his best friend had just been killed in the frenzy of combat.

“When you’re actually in it, it’s very chaotic,” Hartzell said.

The following day, New Year’s Day 1945, Hartzell batted Nazi soldiers for control of the Belgian town of Chenogne. In the aftermath, American soldiers gunned down dozens of unarmed German prisoners of war in a field, a clear violation of the Geneva Convention.

“I remember we had been given orders, take no prisoners,” Hartzell said. “When I walked past the field on the left, there were these dead bodies. I knew what they were. I knew they were dead Germans.” News of the massacre reached General George S. Patton, but no investigation followed.

This week on Reveal, reporter Chris Harland-Dunaway investigates why the soldiers who committed the massacre at Chenogne were never held accountable.
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** A Quote to Remember
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"[An] officer told a female guard who’d filed a complaint about a colleague that that action would, quote, follow you throughout your career–so you can see this culture isn’t just about bad words."

Reporter Sukey Lewis from KQED discusses what she and her colleagues learned about disciplinary investigations across California prisons. For the On Our Watch podcast and a recent episode of Reveal, the reporters dug into the case of former correctional officer Valentino Rodriguez, whose sudden death would raise questions from the FBI and his family.

Listen: A Whistleblower in New Folsom Prison ([link removed])


** Road Trip Listens
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Are you traveling this holiday season? We’ve curated some of our favorite shows and multipart series to inspire, inform, and outrage you throughout your drive or flight time. Click the links to go directly to each episode on the platform of your choice, and travel safe.


** Four hours+ trip
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After Ayotzinapa (three-part series): In 2014, students from a rural college in Mexico came under attack by police. Six people were killed and 43 young men disappeared without a trace. Families suspected the government was hiding the truth. Now, Reveal is exposing corruption at the highest levels and an unsettling connection to America’s war on drugs.
Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])

Mississippi Goddam (seven-part series): Billey Joe Johnson Jr. dreamed of graduating high school, going to college, and one day playing pro football. On a cold December morning in 2008, that future was shattered. His story is a reckoning of justice in America.
Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])

American Rehab (eight-part series): Reveal exposes how a treatment for drug addiction has turned tens of thousands of people into an unpaid shadow workforce. This reporting was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.
Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])



** Three-hour trip
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40 Acres and a Lie (three-part series): It’s often thought of as a promise that was never kept. But “40 acres and a mule” was more than that. It was real. This three-part series from Reveal and the Center for Public Integrity tells the history of an often-misunderstood government program that gave more than 1,200 formerly enslaved people land titles, only to take the land back, fueling a wealth gap that remains today.

Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed])

The COVID Tracking Project (three-part series): This three-part series exposes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s bungled response to COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic and takes listeners inside the massive volunteer effort to collect data about tests, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the US.

Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])


** Two-hour trip
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Buried Secrets (two-part series): After decades of stripping away Native American identity from its students, a Catholic boarding school seeks to help the community heal. This series was a partnership between Reveal and ICT, formerly known as Indian Country Today.
Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])

Listening to these next two investigations together will deepen your understanding of the risks and consequences for new mothers suspected of drug use:

They Followed Doctors’ Orders. The State Took Their Babies: Jade Dass began taking medication to treat her addiction to opioids before she became pregnant. After Dass delivered a healthy daughter, the hospital reported her to the Arizona Department of Child Safety.

Even as medications like Suboxone help pregnant women safely treat addiction, taking them can trigger investigations by child welfare agencies that separate mothers from their newborns. Reporter Shoshana Walter, data reporter Melissa Lewis, and a team of Reveal researchers and lawyers put together the first-ever tally of how often women are reported to child welfare agencies for taking prescription drugs during pregnancy.

Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])

She Ate a Poppy Seed Salad. Child Services Took Her Baby: Hospitals across the country routinely drug test people coming in to give birth. But the tests many hospitals use are notoriously imprecise, with false positive rates of up to 50 percent for some drugs. Our collaboration with The Marshall Project investigates why parents across the country are being reported to child protective services over inaccurate pee-in-a-cup drug tests.

Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])


** One-hour trip
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Your Retirement Investments Are Probably Fueling Climate Change: Reveal reporter Jonathan Jones was working on a story about a massive coal plant expansion in Montana when he wondered who was bankrolling the project. It turns out a major shareholder of the energy company driving the project was the Vanguard Group, the investment firm where he happens to have his retirement savings. This discovery put Jones on a quest to find out why Vanguard and other asset managers continue to invest in fossil fuels at a time when we need to burn less oil, gas, and coal.

Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])

The Racist Hoax That Changed Boston: After a pregnant woman’s murder, Boston police rounded up countless Black men in search of her killer. But they were chasing a lie.

Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])

Red, Black, and Blue: Mother Jones video correspondent Garrison Hayes spent months on the campaign trail talking to Black voters about how they see the goals and limits of their own political power. He paid special attention to Black Republicans and the new crop of Black supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Pandora ([link removed])


** Help Us Celebrate 10 Years of Reveal
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Reveal host Al Letson (right) and Jonathan Jones (left) interview relatives of Billey Joe Johnson, including brother Eddie (center), for the Mississippi Goddam series. Credit: Imani Khayyam for Reveal

In 2025, we will celebrate 10 years of making the weekly radio show and podcast Reveal. Has the show made an impact on your life or community? What’s your favorite episode? What has it meant to you? Tell us and you might hear yourself on an upcoming show.


You can record a message yourself and send it to [email protected] (we can take a voice memo or an attached .aiff, .wav, or .mp3 file) or just call (415) 321-1775 and leave a voicemail. Please keep it short and sweet, up to two minutes.

Thanks for listening, and for your support. Happy New Year, here’s to the next 10 years of relentless investigative journalism.


** In Case You Missed It
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🎧 50 States of Mind ([link removed])

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🎧 The Racist Hoax That Changed Boston ([link removed])

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This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Kate Howard and edited by Nikki Frick. If you enjoyed this issue, forward it to a friend ([link removed]) . Have some thoughts? Drop us a line (mailto:[email protected]) with feedback or ideas!

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