On October 1-6, 1998 it was my opportunity to represent all of you at the International Conference for Survivors of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camps held in Nordhaussen, Germany. These men were those who survived a systematic working, starving and killing of the men who built the tunnels and the V-i and V-2 rockets at the Mittelwerk. Statistics indicate that of 60,000 men who worked in the rocket production tunnels, 20,000 died from lack of food, the intense cold and allied diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia and lack of medical attention.
Do you remember what you were doing on April 11, 12 and 13 of 1945? My answer to this question may be found in Timberwolf Tracks, pages 329 - 332. Please reread what we did and observed on those days. Ask your children, grandchildren and friends also to read those pages in order to gain a fliller appreciation of our division’s history.
But now, let me share some of the events of the International Conference for Survivors of the Mittel-Bau Dora Concentration Camps. This year marks the fifty-third anniversary of the liberation of the work camps. In July, 1998 I received a letter from the Director of the Museum at Mittel-Bau Dora, Dr. Cordelia Kiose. She described the conference and asked if I could take part in a panel of survivors from several different European countries at the October 1-4 conference. We were to give eye witness accounts of the situation in the camps. Most of these survivors had been prisoners for several months or longer. My experience was just for the few days when we passed through the area on our way to Leipzig and Halle.
In the first session of the conference we met many of the thirty-five survivors of the Dora camps. These men came from all over Europe, so you can understand why skilled translators and headsets were necessary. Personal hardships of these men were not stressed but it was very evident that each of these men had wanted to survive in the setting in which they found themselves. This included putting away thoughts of home and family and concentrating on how they could survive each day under the brutal treatment given by Kapos and SS guards.
We heard an inspiring conference summary by French survivor, Jean Mialet. You will find his quotation on the internet Timberwolf page. He said, in relation to the work camps -- "This is what Hell must be like!" As we listened to these survivors, there were many emotional highlights.
After the conference I met survivor Yves Beon, author of "Planet Dora", an amazing collection of stories of survivors. Yves and I gave a two hour evening seminar which was translated into German for an adult class of German students. This was an added highlight for me. We learned that Yves knew Glen Lytle and asked to be remembered to him.
One of the speakers at the conference was Linda Hunt from Washington D.C. She was the author of "Operation Paperdip" which describes the development of rocketry in the United States after the war.
There was little left of Mittelbau-Dora to remind me of what I saw in 1945. The barracks had been destroyed and one had been reassembled as a museum. This museum now displays prisoner clothing and other memorabilia. The crematorium with the two huge ovens is still next door. Today the area is beautiflilly landscaped. Entrances to tunnels A and B have been destroyed and gypsum mining is making the tunnels dangerous to visit. There is now an effort to reopen the tunnels as a tourist attraction. Today the city of Nordhausen, bombed severely in April of 1945, has few scars of war. Farming is flourishing outside the city.
It is difficult to bring a conclusion to this report. When you throw a rock into a pond, the waves go out in all directions. I'm in touch with two survivors -- one in California and one in France. After the contacts made in this conference, there will be others. As I reach my 80th birthday this month, this experience in the twilight of my life has been an emotional and mental stimulation which I did not expect. Just remember, history has a way of disappearing if we don't recall it, and remember those of our division who didn't make it home to tell their stories.
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