As has already been covered in some detail, the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, visited by the VBOB in December to Belgium and Luxembourg I wanted to report on a continued representation of the VBOB by my presence at commemorations that continued to be held as VE Day approached in May 2015.
My wife and I returned to Europe (Germany) in April and began activities that were interesting, inspiring with the survivors, but exhausting as well. On 2 April, as agreed to with the Jonastal Foundation ( Ute’s Foundation that continues to research the underground facility that was used to make aircraft parts and also being prepared as Hitler’s bunker once he decided to leave Berlin), that we would meet Petro Mischtschuk who was originally from the Ukraine and was a NAZI prisoner in several concentration camps, finally ending up at Buchenwald when the War ended. He wore his old prisoner uniform that has been mended many times, but Petro wanted to be seen in it anyway. With our car, Ute and I spent the better part of the week with Petro and his friend taking them to scheduled events such as the City Hall in Arnstadt where Petro and I were made honorary citizens of Arnstadt and signed their Gold Book (for VIPs). We attended the service at Ohrdruf Concentration Camp where about five thousand prisoners died or were killed outright by the NAZI SS guards. Then a service at the Jonastal monument to recognize the dead from that underground facility. Joining us for the services was Mayor Durer, who as a small boy in hi village which here now serves as its Mayor, he observed the death march, as prisoners from Ohrdruf, Crawinkel and Esplanfeld , all small camps subordinate to Buchenwald were march towards Buchenwald to be exterminated as the US Forces approached. He recalls seeing a fallen prisoner begging the SS guard to not kill him, but he did anyway with a shot in the back of the head. Mayor Durer recalls all the brutal treatment he observed there in his village of Liebenstein as the prisoners were marched by.
Later in the week we attended a youth seminar held in a housing area but specially arranged so the youths could ask questions of our group that consisted of myself, Petro and Mayor Durer. I especially enjoyed meeting the youths and responding to their questions. The questions were directed more to Wartime experiences. After our week escorting Petro around we attended the commemoration event at Buchenwald, the main concentration camp. There we met our old friends, all survivors, Murrary Goldfinger, Jerry Kielzweski and of course Petro. The service was well attended with several thousand persons, the US Ambassador Mr. Emerson was present as well as the Russian representative. I should mention that the Camp Committee that scheduled events, etc are primarily ardent Communists. In the early days after the DDR or German Democratic Republic came into existence signs were displayed that the Russian Forces had liberated the Camp, soon that did change, but even today there is no display or mention that the US Army liberated the Camp. I was very pleased to meet Goldfinger and Kielzewski again, we have visited Goldfinger who resides in New Jersey.
The commemoration at Buchenwald ended the series of services for a while. However, I located a survivor from the Ukraine who was liberated by my division, 82d Airborne on 2 May 1945 so we had a very great meeting. Unfortunately Nikola is now blind but we immediately became comrades. He had to serve in the Russian Army for six month after the war so he was wearing all his Russian medals. We spent about 4 hours in our meeting and as we departed he still wanted to talk. I thoroughly enjoyed that meeting.
With a small break in late April, the day approached to commemorate VE Day. Our Belgian Army friend Patrick Brion and wife Steffi met us in Kahla where the NAZI Jet fighter aircraft was developed in the Marshal Goring underground facility. Thousands of foreign workers were brought in to work on the project as well as other aircraft parts not as prisoners but paid workers from Slovakia, Spain,Italy, Holland and Germany. They were confined to several camps as were prisoners and had to work under very grueling conditions supervised by the ever present NAZI Guards. Many of these workers died from pneumonia due to their working conditions and poor health care. We made some great friends from Holland, Italy and Slovakia among the relatives of the workers who perished in the camp there. There were several camps located around the city of Kahla and at each former camp site a commemoration service was held. The one that means the most to me was held in Kleinshmidt, where the monument is located by the highway and after the ceremonial speeches were made, we were given a red rose by the children of the village and each child accompanied us to placed the rose on the monument. My very young boy was not sure what he was to do, but I have done it the year before so we had no problem.
I wore my cap with the VBOB insignia so as the press covered the events their photos will show VBOB was present. I should just comment, the US divisions that fought in the Bulge were some of the Divisions that liberated the camps and made it to the Czech border with Patton’s Third US Army, so our VBOB veterans who were there will appreciate this information.
This year, so far Ute and I have been in Germany for 75 days and as you can see we have been very busy. We also continue to do our research on the camps and will be with our German friends later on in Berlin to research WWII underground facilities.
Submitted by Doug Dillard, 82nd Airborne and his wife Ute, Associate
May 24, 2015
- Ute Dillard