Peter Granlund: A Profile in Courage and Fidelity to Law

Abstract

This bar journal essay presents the wartime service of Peter Granlund (1925-2022) as a profile profile in courage and fidelity to law.  As an enlisted U.S. Army soldier in some of the most intense fighting of World War II against Nazi Germany, Sgt. Granlund refused to comply with a superior's illegal order to execute a group of German prisoners.  He was a non-lawyer and no military lawyers were present, but he was trained in the Rules of Engagement (ROE) which reflect the Law of War and its civilizational moral commitment to protecting prisoners and other helpless persons in armed conflict.  The essay analyzes how one of the prisoners abandoned the law's protection against attack, and contrasts the illegal order with lawful uses of force by Granlund during the war.  Granlund's ethical courage and fidelity to law under extremely stressing circumstances hold lessons for lawyers.  These include the knowledge that when the lawyer is not present non-lawyers will rely upon and draw strength from the rules and values that lawyers explain and advance.  

Keywords: World War II, law of armed conflict, law of war, legal ethics, international humanitarian law, Battle of the Bulge, Battle of Hurtgen Forest, prisoners in war, Greatest Generation, U.S. Army, military justice, international law, Nuremberg, military history