JOSEPH  MORTON

News Organization: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Died: 1945

Location: AUSTRIA

War: WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)

The only American correspondent executed by the Germans in World War II, he was killed in a concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria, on Jan. 24. He was captured in Slovakia in December 1944, reporting the work of a covert Allied group trying to aid the Slovak resistance during the Slovak national uprising against the Germans. Morton and six members of the team were captured and taken to the concentration camp where they were interrogated, tortured and executed. In dedicating a plaque where he was captured, an AP executive said, "Joe Morton came to this mountain in 1944 trying to report a story no other correspondent could tell, and trying in his way ... to bring freedom from oppression, light into darkness, and tell others of the brave deeds of courageous men and women." Morton was known for reporting exclusive stories, including the first interview with Romania’s King Michael after the collapse of Romania's pro-Nazi regime.