When we left off previously, Ken and the 602nd Camouflage Battalion were marching across Europe, bringing the front lines right to Germany's front door. The men from the 602nd had been a part of the campaign from the beginning, from the D-Day landings, to hedgerow fighting, to the Battle of the Bulge, to the "accidental" liberation of Versailles. As I sat with Ken, he spoke of the German soldiers. Noticeably, his tone was absent of malice. Even after our two-hour-long interview, I was not left with a sense of hatred or spite toward the enemy. However, that is not to say that the Americans during World War II were fighting against innocents.
I asked, "Did I understand correctly - were you part of the liberation of a prison camp? How did that happen?" What Ken described next made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end:
"Well, we stumbled on it, mainly. None of us knew where we were going - we were just going down the road, looking for Germans. All of a sudden here it was, right in front of [us], with a big approach going up to it. We got inside the gate, and of course all of the German guards were beginning to flee or change dress to act like prisoners. We looked at the people - my God they were nothing but skin and bones."
Could you smell it before you saw it?
"You didn't smell that much - the furnaces weren't going right then. [The Germans] had already capped those. But out in a big trench there were all these decomposed bodies, and God it was hard to tell how many were even in there. Then we finally found a guy who could speak English; we held on to him because we could converse with him. He told us how it all happened. God, when they led the people in there - it's hard to describe because it's unreal to think about how or why it happened in the first place. It's hard to describe how the guards handled those people; well, you've seen it in movies. And, everyone needed attention. We were able to help feed some of those people, but as hungry and thirsty as they were it took everything. I'd say there were thousands at any given time, but the Germans kept moving them in and killing them off."
What was the reception - was your company the first to go into the camp?
"Well, we were one of the first ones through the gates, and our reception was just amazement - they just stared. Then the prisoners realized whom we might be, and that we weren't there to kill them. Rather, we were there to help them. Most of us were standing there in shock, to see the way those people looked - my God, you can't imagine someone treating people like that.
"The funny thing was, that there were people living in town, only two or three miles away from that camp, and they were all pleading innocent - that they didn't know the camp was there. So, one of our guys, who had some authority, got the old mayor of the town, and made the whole damn town go through the camp, to see what they were doing. Still, when the townspeople went through they were saying they didn't believe it - it's not true - even when they were in the camp.
"There were Jews and rebels, and anyone that was involved in government that was a dissenter or something; they were all in line to be at this camp. Plus, a lot of people were dislocated; they didn't even know where they were. Whole families were split up; it's just hard to imagine.
"This camp was called Buchenwald. There was barbed wire stretched up, there were barracks, and I can recall one or two smokestacks and furnaces that were operating. The prisoners would come in on a train; this camp was the end of the line. The Germans gassed them, pulled their teeth, sorted the prisoners' clothes, and did all the other bad things - killed them."
Until you saw that, did you have any knowledge of the prison camp?
"Not an inkling. Not a word. Not a clue. I hadn't heard a thing, and that is hard to believe. Now, that's when I first found out, in my opinion, why we were over there fighting the war. Other than that, I couldn't really understand why we were over there fighting - except that Hitler was a dictator, and he was a mean son-of-a-gun, and people weren't really treated the best."
What was the attitude toward the German soldiers after that - was there retaliation?
"Well, most of the guards had fled. They didn't all get away, but most had fled. We definitely felt some animosity, but mostly against the people who had rank of some kind. We felt as though even though they didn't have a direct hand in it, indirectly they were involved. I think they all knew about what was happening - they were all fighting for their Fuhrer."
The typical American soldier during World War II was 19 years old. Most had never left their home state. General Dwight D. Eisenhower even admitted that most of these soldiers had no clear idea of why they were fighting the Germans. This ambiguity was quickly dispelled with the instances like what Ken described:
"Now, that's when I first found out, in my opinion, why we were over there fighting the war."
- Dan Wegmueller of Monroe writes a weekly column for Friday editions of the Times. He can be reached at dwegs@tds.net.
I asked, "Did I understand correctly - were you part of the liberation of a prison camp? How did that happen?" What Ken described next made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end:
"Well, we stumbled on it, mainly. None of us knew where we were going - we were just going down the road, looking for Germans. All of a sudden here it was, right in front of [us], with a big approach going up to it. We got inside the gate, and of course all of the German guards were beginning to flee or change dress to act like prisoners. We looked at the people - my God they were nothing but skin and bones."
Could you smell it before you saw it?
"You didn't smell that much - the furnaces weren't going right then. [The Germans] had already capped those. But out in a big trench there were all these decomposed bodies, and God it was hard to tell how many were even in there. Then we finally found a guy who could speak English; we held on to him because we could converse with him. He told us how it all happened. God, when they led the people in there - it's hard to describe because it's unreal to think about how or why it happened in the first place. It's hard to describe how the guards handled those people; well, you've seen it in movies. And, everyone needed attention. We were able to help feed some of those people, but as hungry and thirsty as they were it took everything. I'd say there were thousands at any given time, but the Germans kept moving them in and killing them off."
What was the reception - was your company the first to go into the camp?
"Well, we were one of the first ones through the gates, and our reception was just amazement - they just stared. Then the prisoners realized whom we might be, and that we weren't there to kill them. Rather, we were there to help them. Most of us were standing there in shock, to see the way those people looked - my God, you can't imagine someone treating people like that.
"The funny thing was, that there were people living in town, only two or three miles away from that camp, and they were all pleading innocent - that they didn't know the camp was there. So, one of our guys, who had some authority, got the old mayor of the town, and made the whole damn town go through the camp, to see what they were doing. Still, when the townspeople went through they were saying they didn't believe it - it's not true - even when they were in the camp.
"There were Jews and rebels, and anyone that was involved in government that was a dissenter or something; they were all in line to be at this camp. Plus, a lot of people were dislocated; they didn't even know where they were. Whole families were split up; it's just hard to imagine.
"This camp was called Buchenwald. There was barbed wire stretched up, there were barracks, and I can recall one or two smokestacks and furnaces that were operating. The prisoners would come in on a train; this camp was the end of the line. The Germans gassed them, pulled their teeth, sorted the prisoners' clothes, and did all the other bad things - killed them."
Until you saw that, did you have any knowledge of the prison camp?
"Not an inkling. Not a word. Not a clue. I hadn't heard a thing, and that is hard to believe. Now, that's when I first found out, in my opinion, why we were over there fighting the war. Other than that, I couldn't really understand why we were over there fighting - except that Hitler was a dictator, and he was a mean son-of-a-gun, and people weren't really treated the best."
What was the attitude toward the German soldiers after that - was there retaliation?
"Well, most of the guards had fled. They didn't all get away, but most had fled. We definitely felt some animosity, but mostly against the people who had rank of some kind. We felt as though even though they didn't have a direct hand in it, indirectly they were involved. I think they all knew about what was happening - they were all fighting for their Fuhrer."
The typical American soldier during World War II was 19 years old. Most had never left their home state. General Dwight D. Eisenhower even admitted that most of these soldiers had no clear idea of why they were fighting the Germans. This ambiguity was quickly dispelled with the instances like what Ken described:
"Now, that's when I first found out, in my opinion, why we were over there fighting the war."
- Dan Wegmueller of Monroe writes a weekly column for Friday editions of the Times. He can be reached at dwegs@tds.net.
