The Ascq massacre is a massacre of 86 men on 1 April 1944 in Ascq, France, by the Waffen-SS during the Second World War.
The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend set out by rail for Normandy at the end of March, 1944. On 1 April, their train was approaching the gare d'Ascq, a critical juncture where three railroads intersected, when an explosion blew the line apart, causing two cars to derail. The commander of the convoy, SS Obersturmführer Walter Hauck, ordered troops to search and arrest all male members of the houses on both sides of the track. Altogether 70 men were shot beside the railway line and another 16 killed in the village itself. Six other men were arrested, charged with bomb attack after an investigation by the Gestapo, and finally executed by firing squad.
At the end of the war, some SS men stood trial in a French Military Court at Lille. They were sentenced to death; later their sentences were commuted to imprisonment. The last prisoner Walter Hauck was released in July 1957. Hauck also instigated a similar massacre in Leskovice in May 1945.
Ascq is a village on the Marque river in the Nord department in northern France, at seven kilometers from Belgium. Agricultural village until the Industrial Revolution and a former independent commune, it is district of the city of Villeneuve-d'Ascq since 1970.
Ascq is unfortunately known for the Ascq massacre of 1 April 1944, where the Nazis assaulted the inhabitants and massacred 86 innocent men. The village was decorated with the Croix de guerre 1939–1945 and the Legion of Honour.
The Gare d'Ascq (railway station) is served by trains from Lille to Liège (Belgium) and to Orchies.
Ascq main monuments are Saint-Pierre-en-Antioche Church (19th century), based on a building of 15th century, gare d'Ascq (19th century) railway station, the post office, the town hall (20th century) and the Château Claeys (20th century).
Saint-Pierre-en-Antioche Church
Post office and railway station square
Post office and railway station square