On November 5, 2006 I received an e-mail from the German Government inviting me to participate in memorial services in Ludwigslust, Germany. The invitation was extended by the Encounter of Generations on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the day of liberation of the concentration camp in Wobbelin, Ceremonies would be held at the site of the Wobbelin concentration camp liberated by the 82nd Airborne Division on May 2, 1945.The invitation took me by surprise since I had no previous knowledge of any effort in Germany to memorialize any of the victims of the Holocaust. Further, I had not been back to Ludwigslust, in Northern Germany or Berlin in 62 years since the 82nd left Berlin in December 1945. The invitation included my wife and provided for travel and lodging arrangements. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from George Salton in Florida who had been invited earlier.
George was an inmate in the Wobbelin Camp when it was liberated on May 2, 1945. We had met previously in Texas when he came to my house to thank me and my fellow soldiers for saving his life. In effect this committee had invited two Americans; a soldier of the 82nd as a liberator and George Salton, as a survivor. George suggested that we accept their invitation and we both responded that we were interested in returning. We felt that this Memorial was a significant historical event and that we should return and be a part of the commemoration. George Salton had written his memoirs as a victim of the Holocaust in a riveting book,
“The 23rd Psalm”. I had also written about Wobbelin as one of the first soldiers of the 82nd Division to enter the camp and drive out the SS Troopers in my book, “All The Way to Berlin”.
I wrote, “I was not prepared mentally to deal with the horror I observed at the camp; mounds of naked twisted bodies, some piled four and five feet high were strewn around the camp awaiting to be buried. What I observed that day, 62 years ago left a lasting impression and deeply embedded in my mind”.
It was not until our men witnessed this that we fully realized what we had been fighting for. The destruction of the monstrosity that the Nazis had created was the cause greater than ourselves that we had often alluded to but never fully understood. It was a defining moment in our lives, who we were, what we believed in and what we stood for”. Sections of my book, and George’s relating to the concentration camp and beyond had been translated into German and were part of the documentary for the event.
We arrived at Tegal Airport in Berlin April 30th, 2007 onboard Continental Air Lines. I wish to thank Mr. Lawrence W. Kellner, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Continental for his kindness and consideration shown Carole and me. We were accompanied by two intimate friends; Jim Jacobs, CEO, Core Construction Company, Phoenix, Arizona and my good friend Alex , The Netherlands, President and founder of the Market Garden Commemorative Committee who had been working on and planning the events together with German & US government. This trip would not have been possible without the help of Alex who set up our entire itinerary, provided the transportation and often interpreting when necessary. Along with George and Ruth Salton we made a great “team”.
I had my first glimpse of Berlin and Germany driving from Tegal Airport to Ludwigslust. That was not the same Germany I had left 62 years earlier when I was commanding H Company; 504 PIR. In 1945 towns were devastated; white flags of surrender hanging out of windows and town squares dotted the landscape. Devastation and destruction were evident everywhere, evidence of the constant bombing from the relentless allied air force planes. Now, 62 years later, we passed through serene valleys, luscious green fields, well-organized and neatly developed towns and signs of a bustling economy. It was hard to envision the hell and fury that took place during WW II. In our pursuit of the Wehrmacht in the waning days of the war I failed to appreciate the beauty of Northern Germany.
As the purpose of our trip and the events we were to participate in began to unfold my greater appreciation was felt for the transformation of Germany from a belligerent, totalitarian state bent on World domination to a constitutionally elected democratic country.
Participation in armed conflicts was prohibited in the constitution. The military forces were downsized and relegated for defense purposes only. The German psyche had also changed to one of tolerance and understanding and a desire to distance themselves from the crimes of the past and move on.
Our trip to Ludwigslust over the autobahn was uneventful, arriving at the Erbprinz Hotel in the late afternoon. George and his wife Ruth had arrived earlier. The following morning we were met in the hotel lobby by a welcoming committee headed by Dr. Wolfgang Schultz who spoke English and would be our guide while in Ludwigslust. We received a schedule of the memorial program that would last four days, May 1-4, 2007.George Salton and I as an 82nd Airborne Veteran WW II, were listed as “time witnesses”. Everywhere we went we were warmly received. The Germans were grateful we had accepted their invitation.
The following four days schedule for us involved participating in numerous services at various sites. There were over 40 concentration camps in the State of Mecklenberg alone; and all have been publicly identified. Some of the highlights of those four days follow:
May 1st—Neustadt-Glewe a camp for women inmates near Ludwigslust. The camp was torn down after the war but evidence of the outline of the camp and bunkers used by the SS Troopers remain.
The camp was originally designed for 300 women but by the end of 1944 it contained over 900 inmates. Women here worked 12-hour shifts at a nearby armament plant. Lacking the basic necessities of life, the shortage of food and devoid of medical services, 600 inmates perished mostly from starvation. They were not treated as human beings but treated as disposable commodities with a limited life span. In the waning days of the war another 5,000 women of all ages were brought in from the Auschwitz Camp in Poland to an already overcrowded camp. Approximately 40 of those survivors had been invited to come from Poland and several of them spoke during a very emotional service. A large marker noted the entrance to the camps. A large sign printed in Polish, German and English revealed the details of the camp, number of inmates held here and the number who perished. It told the ghastly story of the human tragedy exactly as it was. Below the description of the camps, I read the following admonition printed in English:
“It is important to keep the memory alive. It is meant as a warning for us to be alert that such crimes will never happen again”.
This statement accurately reflects how I sensed the feeling of the German people I met at the various events. I was impressed by the commitment to keep the memory alive for future generations. I found a genuine interest in the desire to know the gruesome, unvarnished details of what actually happened at these camps. They were eager to hear from George Salton and me who they referred to as “time witnesses”. Our first hand accounts of the Wobbelin camp were important in their quest to learn the actual truth.
Later that afternoon George Salton and I were invited to attend a welcome coffee at the UFAT training center. When we arrived we were greeted by more than 200 people of all ages, including a large number of survivors mostly from Poland. At the entrance to the room there were two large posters, one of George and another of me. The students had undertaken extensive research on the two of us. The posters included bio-data, pictures, and even one of George and I together that was taken in 2004 and had appeared in the Star Telegram newspaper in Ft. Worth, TX.
The students made several oral presentations concerning the horror of the camp in German, which unfortunately I did not understand. We were then introduced to a highly attentive audience who had jammed the center to hear from “time witnesses” as we were referred to. George spoke first. He reiterated the horror of his experiences as an inmate of 10 different concentrations camps ending up in Wobbelin. He was 15 years old when he and his family were imprisoned and later separated never to see his family again. He learned later that his parents died at Belzec in a gas chamber. To this day George still searches hoping one day that he will find his brother Manek still alive somewhere. He was the sole remaining member of his family when Wobbelin was liberated. He credits the American soldiers from the 504 PIR of the 82d Airborne Division for saving his life. He said that he could not have lasted another two days. His speech was dramatic, emotional and articulate. He received a standing ovation from the audience who was moved by his experiences. They wanted to hear first hand from those who were there. He then introduced me as one of the soldiers who saved his life.
Our speeches were halted frequently for translations first in German and then in Polish. George is also fluent in both languages. I described the unbelievable horror and brutality I saw in Wobbelin which left such an impression that it became a defining moment in my life. The following day my rifle Company moved out in pursuit of the enemy soldiers. The war would not be officially over until May 8, 1945 and until that time there were still some scattered, fanatical resistance. The disposing of the bodies, caring for the survivors and arranging for the burials were undertaken by other units of the 82d Airborne Division which followed.
Like all the other groups I met in Germany and talked with, I was impressed by the sincerity of wanting to know what happened and the determination that such crimes would never happen again.
May 2nd—Was the commemorative date of the liberation of the concentration camp in Wobbelin and Ludwigslust. This date has been observed every year since 1965. The day began with an ecumenical service at 10:00 AM at the church in the town square. The service to which we were invited included survivors of Wobbelin and was well attended by the local towns’ people. It was a beautifully conducted service and the music was exquisite. The sermon centered on understanding between people, tolerance not hatred, remembrance and conciliation. The service was somber yet appropriate for the occasion of memory and encounter.
Just a short walk from the church the Ludwigslust memorial was located in the town square named after a German patriot, Theodore Korner, who died for the liberation from Napoleon’s oppression. At the other end of the square was a large castle, which was used by Major General James Gavin as his division headquarters. These were landmarks I could recall after all these years. The graves of the 200 inmates who were buried there remain. The large white crosses and the 53 Stars of David were replaced by engraved markers placed on each grave site and were still in the same place in perfect alignment as they were in May 1945.
The ceremonies in the Ludwigslust Park began on schedule at 11:15 AM and were well attended. The DCM John M. Koenig, and Colonel Michael A. Curci, army attaché, headed the delegation from the US Embassy in Berlin. The US Ambassador was out of the country and sent his regrets. Local German dignitaries included the Governor of the State of Mecklenburg, the Mayor of Ludwigslust and the representative to the Bundestag, the National Parliament in Berlin, Hans Joachim Hacker. A large number of camp survivors from several countries were in attendance along with the local citizenry. Several inmates representing international organizations recounted their experiences. The Governor and the Mayor who spoke in German followed them. At the conclusion of the Mayor’s speech I heard comments about the Americans and then I was asked to come forth where I was handed a microphone. I had not expected to be called upon but welcomed the opportunity to express my thoughts. Josef Stupp, a certified translator stepped forwarded to translate my remarks. I spoke about my impressions of Germany, a country that I had left 62 years earlier. This certainly was not the Germany I remembered as a soldier in the 82d who had fought the Wehrmacht from Italy all the way to Berlin. I congratulated the Germans for the transformation that occurred as a leader for world peace. My remarks were sincere and heart felt. My speech was not contrived solely to please the hosts who had invited me but to recognize and support their efforts. At this point I handed George Salton the microphone and he spoke, as a survivor, with the theme he carried through out our entire trip, the importance to remember what has happened here so that history will never repeat it’s self. At the conclusion of the speeches representatives of numerous organizations and government entities laid floral wreaths at the base of the monument. John Koenig, George Salton and I placed a wreath at the monument in behalf of the US Government. Local media covered the event and George and I were interviewed for local television. I found it very disappointing, in Ludwigslust that the international media did not take advantage of covering this event, which to me was of significant historical importance. I was personally moved by what I saw and heard.
The long but fulfilling day was concluded in the Church at 7:30 PM where a magnificent concert was held in memory of the Liberation of Wobbelin and the end of the war. It featured music of famous German composers, played and sung by an outstanding highly talented group of musicians. Many beautiful solos were song by tenor Von Heinrick Schultz, a noted German Opera singer; we were also very impressed with a young girl who played violin. It was a beautiful closure to a memorable day.
May 3rd—We left Ludwigslust early for Schwerin, about an hours drive for a noon meeting with students from Goethe Gymnasium, a Senior High School, where George and I were scheduled to speak to the students. In route to Schwerin we visited numerous sites where prisoners perished. Markers and cemetery plots dotted the countryside where prisoners being transported in closed boxcars where left for days packed in so tightly they could not even sit down, with no food or water. Every site we visited was open to the public and well documented concealing none of the gory details of the graphic accounts. I was amazed at the extent the Germans had gone to revealing the last detail of the truth of the Holocaust. I have found it impossible to conceive how any person with an iota of intelligence could suggest that it never happened.
With Allied forces coming from the West and Russian forces coming from the East fighting their way into Germany, the Nazi’s moved their concentrations camps to the interior, destroying all evidence of their death camps. On April 18, 1944
SS Heinrich Himmler issued an order to the commander of the concentration camp Flossenburg: “The surrender is out of question. The camp has to be evacuated immediately. No prisoner must fall into the enemy’s hands alive…” Evacuation began by train, truck or forced marches. Many prisoners were already in miserable condition and unable to face a new order. Lacking food, water and medical facilities many perished in route. The SS Troopers shot those unable to continue the march. These marches of death where dead bodies littered the road were unprecedented in history in terms of inhumanity to mankind. George Salton was one of the prisoners transferred by train to Woebbelin. Already in a weakened condition, this was to be the 10th camp he was in. He told me if the 82nd had not liberated the camp he could not have existed another two days.
Many prisoners were shipped by train to Lubeck where they were loaded onto ships in the harbor. The British Air Force mistaking the prisoners as the enemy bombed the ship on May 3, 1945, one day after we liberated Woebbelin. More than7, 000 concentration camp prisoners perished, many drowning in the Baltic Sea. The site of this human tragedy is preserved and well marked for the public and future generations.
May 4th—The sites we visited on our way to Schwerin and the following day to Berlin were satellite camps of the Camp Hamburg-Neuengamme built by the SS in 1938. By the end of the war 90 satellite camps were in operation, 29 for females, 56 for males and 5 both sexes. Wobbelin was one of those camps, which existed for only a few weeks before being liberated on May 2, 1945. During that time more than 1,000 prisoners died there.
H Company remained at Wobbelin only a short while after its liberation to continue our pursuit of what was left of the German Wehrmacht. We were combat troops and the war while nearing its end was still not over. We were in the war, “for the duration” so we continued in the attack.
After the war ended I recalled Wobbelin and the horror that shocked me but I was never fully aware of the extent of the concentration camps in Germany. Wobbelin and the numerous sites we visited and I described were just the tip of the iceberg.
Since the mid eighties scientists and scholar interest has greatly increased. One of the reasons has been the interest in local schools and universities and research centers.
Later during the day we met with students at one of the schools in Schwerin. It was there that I sensed the extent of the interest in the schools to learn about the history of National Socialism, or Fascism, as they were referred to, in their locality.
Prior to our arrival the students had done extensive research into the background of George Salton, a survivor, and me, as a liberator from the 82nd Airborne Division. In their research on the Wobbelin camp they were eager to hear “first hand” directly from “Time Witnesses” as we were referred to, that were actually there on May 2, 2007 Our appearances at Schwerin, will undoubtedly be long remembered by the students and faculty present on that day.
George was introduced and spoke first. Since these students were fluent in English we were able to address a group of Germans in our own language with out translators. George recanted his life as an inmate of numerous camps before he was brought to Wobbelin. He was a boy of 15 when his family was arrested and taken to a camp. He was separated from his parents whom he never saw again and later from a brother he never heard from again. He gave a passionate, riveting speech that kept the students in awe and on the edge of their seats for over thirty minutes. I too was impressed by his oratorical ability. He received a standing ovation. George than introduced me as one of the men who saved his life. My comments recalling my experience as an American soldier focused on the indescribable conditions we found at that camp. It only added and confirmed what George had already related. I also referred to the passage I had written about Wobbelin in my book, All The Way To Berlin, which incidentally had been translated along with passages from George’s book, The 23rd Psalm into German and was part of their research. I spoke about the effect it had on us, combat hardened soldiers, who had seen killing and dying on both sides but nothing like what we witnessed at Wobbelin. I told them how the horror we witnessed made a lasting impact on our lives. At the conclusion we took questions from the students and faculty. The depth of their questions indicated the extent of their research and a sincere desire to hear the details about the horror of the camp. One of the final questions came from a young German girl who sat intently through the speeches. It was a moving question, “Should I feel guilty about all this”? It was a sincere question that was probably on the minds of other students. George and I both responded and our answer was obvious, “of course not”. As I mentioned earlier George’s theme throughout our trip, which never showed any sign of bitterness, was’ “Remember what has happened here so it will never happen again”. They were not responsible for what the Fascists did 62 years before. What was important however was that the students wanted to know the truth while it was still possible for them to speak directly with a survivor and a liberator. I told them, “If we are ever to live in a peaceful world, the students would be the hope of the future”. Both George and I viewed our meeting with the students as one of the highlights of our trip.
Accompanying us to the Neustadt-Glewe High School was Jim Goodspeed a history teacher at Fulton High School in Middleton, Michigan. He was well acquainted with the teachers and administrative staff at the school from previous visits. Jim spoke about the student exchange relationship he established between the two schools over the past eight years and elaborated about the relationship that had developed. I was impressed by Jim’s knowledge of the Holocaust and with the personal contacts he has established in Ludwigslust and Mecklenburg Province.
May 4th-— We departed for Berlin after receiving a warm sendoff from the Mayor of Ludwigslust. In route to Berlin we made scheduled stops at Colditz Castle in Dresden and the Mittelwerk Dora concentration camps located at Kohnstein Mountain near Nordhausen.
The Colditz Castle was turned into a POW camp for allied officers who had been caught in the act of escaping from other camps. It included some high profile officers who might be the targets of commando rescue attempts. The treatment and living conditions here were vastly different than those in the concentration camps. Many had individual quarters and were allowed freedom of movement in the castle including the courtyard. By the end of 1944 there were more than 500 officers; over 250 French, 150 Polish, 50 British, 63 Dutch and 2 Yugoslavs POWs. In May 1943 the Wehrmacht decided the camp should only contain American and British POW officers. In August 23, 1944 Colditz received its first American prisoners, 49-year-old Colonel Florimund, the oldest American paratrooper taken during the war, Captains Guy Nunn and Alfred Suarez. By December 1944 there were approximately 254 POWs at the Colditz camp. On the 16th of April, 1945 the Camp was liberated by the US 273rd Infantry Regiment and the POWs were set free.
The castle is now a museum open to the public. Still preserved is a tunnel British officer dug in a shaft extending from the top floor to the basement of the camp. Colditz was not a Holocaust camp but it has a very interesting history.
After a two-hour drive through the lush, green countryside we arrived at the Mittelwerk Dora concentration camp where a tour guide at the museum was expecting us. We didn’t know what to expect having been told we would tour another concentration camp and several tunnels in a mountain. It turned out to be the most fascinating and enlightening visit of our trip in terms of the thousands who perished in forced labor under the most inhumane conditions. Prisoners here were involved in burrowing tunnels in a mountain to create a factory for V2 bombs, or “Buzz Bombs” as I remember them in the final months of the war.
When Dora concentration camp was founded in the summer of 1943, Germany had essentially lost the war. Instead of admitting defeat the Nazis propagated the: final victory” and the Dora camp provided an insight into what that meant.To avoid allied air attacks, Albert Speer and Heinrich Himmler decided to create a rocket assembly plant in the Kohnstein Mountains near Nordhausen using concentration camp inmates to construct and operate the brutally cold underground factory.
Miracle weapons as the rockets were referred to be intended to avert the coming defeat and change the course of the war. The rocket production program was accelerated on an urgent basis.
On August 28, 1943 the first prisoners arrived at Kohnstein from Buchenwald concentration camp. By late December 1943 the number of inmates at Dora subcamp numbered over 10,000. More than three quarters of the inmates were compelled to work at construction sites. They worked and lived under the most miserable conditions. They suffered from lack of nourishment; disastrous hygienic conditions and life draining forced labor. They slept on the extremely cold damp floors of the tunnels in their cotton inmate clothing without blankets. Many could not survive for more than 2 weeks. By the end of March 1944 nearly 5,000 had perished. Vehicles stuffed with corpses, were taken on a regular basis to Buchenwald crematorium for disposal.
Rocket assembly at Kohnstein began in the spring of 1944. By the end of March 1945 over 6,000 V2 rockets had been manufactured, half of which were not in working condition. During that time the inmates were also compelled to assemble approximately 6,000 V1 flying bombs.
One of the leading German scientists was Wehner von Braun, a Ph. D. rocket engineer. He had been involved in long distance rocket production since 1936. In July 1943 General Dornberger and von Braun presented Hitler with a film about the A4 rocket. Hitler promoted von Braun to the status of Professor. In August 1943, von Braun became involved in the Mittlewerk underground plant. In 1944 he went to the Buchenwald concentration camp to select slave laborers for the factory. Buchenwald and other camps became the source of replacements needed to keep the factory in operation. In April 1945, General Dornberger and von Braun left for the Alps and surrendered to the Americans. Von Braun offered his technical skills to the US. In September 1945 he was in Ft. Bliss, Texas developing missiles for the US Army. Five years later he became an American citizen. He was largely responsible for the Saturn rocket for the moon program.
The SS evacuated the Mittelbau concentration camp in 1945 to prevent the inmates from being liberated by the American forces advancing rapidly from the West. The inmates were taken to other camps by rail or on foot. Thousands of inmates who collapsed were shot to death by the SS. In one case the Wehrmacht joined the SS in forcing more than a thousand inmates into a barn setting it on fire and shooting anyone who tried to escape.
Our guide at Mittelbau took us on a tour of the tunnels and briefed us on the entire operation. Wearing jackets and warm clothing the tunnels were still very damp and cold. It was difficult to imagine the horrible conditions under which the inmates labored and died. It was understandable that the life span for many prisoners was several weeks and for many others only several days. The entire history of the camp with all its gory details is displayed and made public. Like all other concentration camps sites we visited it was obvious that a great effort is being made to unveil the history and the inhumanity of the camps. Since the mid 1980s scientific interest in the history of the camps has been increased. Schools, universities and research centers are delving into the history of National Socialism in the respective local areas. The network of satellite camps was so vast that there are still camps for which very little is known. Nor are there precise records of the number of prisoners or the number that died in camps. It was evident to me, however, that an effort is being made to uncover all the details. Our visit to Mittenbau-Dora will be long remembered.
It was late afternoon when we arrived at our hotel in Berlin. A four-day schedule waited for us, which included a meeting with the American Ambassador, the tour of the Reichstag, visit to the Holocaust memorial and the Allied museum. Also on the schedule were the visits to Check Point Charlie, The Berlin Wall and the Kennedy museum. After an absence of 62 years, I was amazed at all that had transpired during that time. Berlin had undergone a complete transformation from what I had seen and remembered.
The Representative from the State of Mecklenburg, Hans Joachim Hacker, arranged the tour of the Reichstag. We were received and welcomed by the Vice President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Theirse, representing the President who had sent his regrets earlier. It was a very cordial meeting. The Vice President recalled the history of the Reichstag where the last battle fought in Berlin was here in the Reichstag. Later in our tour we saw the graffiti on the walls written by Russian soldiers. It is preserved as part of Berlin’s history. I responded by recalling Berlin when I was here in August 1945. George Salton and I presented the vice President copies of our books. Picture taking followed with George and I posing with our German welcoming committee. The Berlin press carried that picture and an interview.
A brief meeting and reception with Bundestag representative, Hans Joachim Hacker and his staff preceded a tour of the Reichstag conducted by Josef Stupp our English-speaking guide. Touring this historical building, which is open to the public, was of great interest. Throughout the tour we never passed through a metal detector or a security check. There was no evidence of security guards, police or soldiers anywhere. We were told there were some civilian security guards but they were not in uniform and carried only a concealed weapon. Germany had not undergone a 9/11 and they were not targets of Muslim extremists. In fact in my ten days in Germany, I never saw a uniformed soldier at any of the places we visited or ceremonies we attended. That was vastly different from the Germany I remembered from WW II.
One evening we had dinner at a restaurant, which was at the top of a 600-foot tower, which rotated overlooking Berlin. The city was a glow in its entire bright splendor. It was a far cry from the Berlin I remembered in 1945, destroyed and in rubble. For years Berlin was in total darkness lit up only by the occasional glare of anti aircraft lights seeking out Allied bombers. The view of the city was in sharp contrast to the view during the war.
One of the most comprehensive and revealing holocaust museums, which is open to the public, is located in a grand Berlin Villa on the shores of Lake Wannsee. Here on January 20, 1942 fifteen top Nazi officials, SS and Nazi party leaders met to devise a “final solution” to the Jewish problem. In March 1947 a US prosecutor found the only remaining copy of the minutes of that meeting, number 16 out of an original 30. The minutes came to be known as the “Wannsee Protocol” which to this day remain as the most programmatic statement of t he Nazi plan of genocide. Serious intelligent men in civilized surroundings formulated the plan in sober, bureaucratic language. It is undoubtedly the most shameful document in history.
Hitler’s concerns about the Jews are documented in his early writings including his book, “Mein Kampf”. Hitler blamed the Jews for the German defeat in WW I and later for the countries economic woes. Initially he planned to rid Germany of the Jewish presence by immigration to other countries. It met with limited success. It was not until 1942 that mass executions and genocide became the primary means of “solving” the Jewish problem.
The entire history and the ghastly details are laid out at the museum. Countless pictures of the camps and committed atrocities cover the walls. I walked around the museum in a state of awe. During a two-hour visit I was able to view only a small portion of the exhibits. It made me realize how little I knew about the history of the Holocaust, which was the world’s most massive genocide effort. Yet while it was in effect, the allied leaders, religious and international leaders who were aware of its existence to some degree viewed it with indifference.
My ten day visit to Holocaust sites in Germany strengthened my resolve that we cannot be indifferent to the forces of evil practicing genocide in remote corners of the globe, forced prostitution, exploitation of children and girls only eight years old. As a moral nation we cannot be indifferent to such atrocities. This is the lesson that the Holocaust taught us!
