Joseph Morton (correspondent)
| Joseph "Joe" Morton | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1911 or 1913 [1] St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, United States |
| Died | January 24, 1945 (aged 31 or 34) Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, Upper Austria |
| Cause of death | Execution by shooting |
| Occupation | War correspondent |
| Employer | Associated Press |
| Children | One (11 month old girl by the time of Joseph's death) |
Joseph "Joe" Morton was an American war correspondent for the Associated Press (AP) in the European Theater during World War II. On December 26, 1944, a Nazi counter-partisan unit named "Edelweiss" stormed a log cabin high on Homolka Mountain in today's Slovakia which housed 15 Allied intelligence officers, a Slovak officer, a Slovak-American interpreter, two Slovak civilian resistance fighters, and Morton himself, covering an OSS operation in the country for a story. Although the Allied officers were duly uniformed and Morton had a war correspondent ID in order to be treated as prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention (1929), the SS headquarters, in compliance with Commando Order, which stated that all Allied commandos should be killed immediately without trial even those in proper uniforms, ordered the summary execution of Allied officers and others caught in the act. On January 24, 1945, Joseph Morton, along with 13 Allied officers, was executed at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. He was the only Allied correspondent to be executed by the Axis during World War II.
Joseph Morton joined the Associated Press (AP) at Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1937. He worked in AP bureaus in Lincoln, Omaha, Cleveland, and New York then was assigned to be a war correspondent in May 1942 overseas. He covered French West Africa, Algeria, and the Allied Air Forces in North Africa during the North African Campaign and eventually the invasion of Sicily. Following the fall of Rome in June 1, 1944, Morton was encouraged by the AP to expand his coverage in the Balkans. He became the first American correspondent to report the entry of Soviet troops into Bucharest and obtained an exclusive interview with King Mihai on September 7, 1944. He also followed the OSS and the 15th USAAF in three secret missions in the Balkans to cover the rescue of American aircrews and the support of anti-Nazi partisans. Morton was remembered by some officers as "gentle, ever smiling Joe" although his charm and friendly character disguised an aggressive reporter who would go anywhere and do anything for a story.
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