Mike Rose

Salina Utah Massacre Mike Rose

The war with Germany had been over for two months. Still, more than 371,000 German soldiers were being held in prisoner of war camps in the United States. Some would not make it home for two years. A few would not make it home at all. Nine German soldiers lie in graves in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were the tragic victims of a U. S. Army Private, for reasons known only to himself, who climbed onto a guard tower and opened fire with a .30 caliber machine gun into the German prisoners of war sleeping below. Nine captives were killed, twenty more were wounded. The "Salina, Utah, Massacre" is the story of interned men living out the last days of a painful war, what led to their being in a small corner of Utah farmland, and their hopes and dreams that were all changed on one horific night. It is the story of a cover-up by authorities and the remarkable resolve of a small town whose people rose up to befriend, help and embrace those who had once been the enemy. "They were just boys who wanted to go home."