The Liberator
Page 37
22 There were a few: New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 27, 2001.
23 “Lieutenant,” said Sparks: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 365.
24 At least seventeen had: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
25 As many as seventy-five: Whitaker IG Report, National Archives.
26 A private standing in: Ibid.
27 Twenty-two-year-old Mills had not: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
28 We came over here: Ibid.
29 It was not the: IG Report, National Archives.
30 Sparks ordered his men: IG Report, National Archives.
31 They included medic Peter: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 365.
32 Colonel Howard Buechner: IG Report, National Archives.
33 Among the SS: Kern, Verbrechen am deutschen Volk, pp. 314–16.
34 Then a Thunderbird medic: IG Report, National Archives. See also the excellent account of the shooting: “That Is Not the American Way of Fighting,” in Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel, eds., Dachau and Nazi Terror II (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels, 2002), pp. 132–60.
35 Jager took a blade: Kern, Verbrechen am deutschen Volk, pp. 314–16.
36 Beyond it, thousands of: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to author. Also Karl Mann, interview with author.
37 In a nearby barrack: Jack Goldman, interview with author. Goldman’s Auschwitz camp number was 69970—he would never forget it because it was tattooed on his arm. More than four hundred thousand numbers were assigned at Auschwitz. The tattoos were introduced so that the authorities could identify the corpses of registered prisoners who had died.
38 He saw a young: Rothchild, Voices from the Holocaust, p. 164.
39 That felt a lot: Ibid.
40 Sparks’s men asked him: Jack Goldman, interview with author.
41 He was a human: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
42 “Okay, I’ll go in”: Bill Walsh, interview with James Kent Strong, in The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.
43 “That’s his everything”: Ibid.
44 A few were utterly dazed: Smith, The Harrowing of Hell, p. 285.
45 Bodies flew through the: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
46 “They’re killing the informers”: Colorado Lawyer 27, no. 10 (October 1998).
47 “We’re bringing food, water”: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture, “Stories of Wartime.”
48 “Don’t throw them”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
49 There were more than: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 167.
50 Hundreds of their fellow: Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel, eds., Dachau and Nazi Terror II (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 31.
51 Some of these corpses: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
52 They all claimed they: Ibid.
53 Young children cycled past: Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1945.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN—THE LINDEN INCIDENT
1 message on a sign: Brome, The Way Back, p. 226.
2 In the second was: Ibid., p. 240.
3 Her blond hair was: May, Witness to War, p. 90.
4 “It was the first”: Ibid., p. 91.
5 To avoid embarrassment: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
6 He walked over to: Karl Mann, interview with author.
7 “She can’t open that”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
8 “You’re not in your area”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
9 She named the Lutheran: Niemöller was a controversial figure. He had served on a U-Boat in World War I and initially supported the Nazis, making what some have claimed were anti-Semitic remarks before his arrest by the Gestapo in 1937 for opposing Hitler’s attempt to Nazify Protestant churches.
10 She had a list: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 379. They had in fact been taken out of the camp days earlier.
11 “Lady, I don’t give”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
12 Sparks was dead tired: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
13 “You can’t go in”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
14 He began to argue: Buechner, Dachau, p. 75.
15 To Sparks, it seemed: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
16 He had never lost: Karl Mann, interview with author.
17 Linden and Sparks started: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 380
18 “There was a brigadier”: San Marcos, California, Today’s Local News, November 10, 2008.
19 “Shoot over their heads!”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
20 “Charge the gate and”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
21 “No, you’re not”: Felix Sparks, interview with Chris Miskimon.
22 “I’m in my territory”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
23 “Escort the general”: Ibid.
24 The blow was more: Ibid.
25 “I’ll kill you right”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 380.
26 Sparks aimed at Linden’s: Karl Mann, interview with author.
27 “I’m going to blow”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 380.
28 “I’ll leave, but I’ll”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
29 “Go ahead”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
30 Linden left with Higgins: Karl Mann, interview with author.
31 Fellenz backed off, returned: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
32 Then he walked with: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
33 “We need food and medicine”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
34 At 4:35 P.M., Sparks also: 157th S-3 Journal, April 29, 1945, Box 11072, National Archives.
35 “I don’t have time”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
36 A Polish inmate explained: After Action Report, National Archives.
37 “Their blood drained into”: Ibid.
38 Some of the victims: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
39 They had been dispatched: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
40 “I’ll take care of”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT—THE LONG DAY CLOSES
1 Michael DiPaulo, French consulate: Cape Cod Times, September 7, 2001.
2 That was all that: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 188.
3 “We knew we had”: Dan Dougherty, interview with Jeffrey Hilton, 157th reunion 2007, Colorado Springs.
4 One of the sergeants: Jewish Weekly News of Northern California, April 2001.
5 “He wanted an SS”: Dan Dougherty, interview with Jeffrey Hilton, 157th reunion 2007, Colorado Springs.
6 “I don’t think there”: John Lee, interviewed by James Kent Strong, The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.
7 THIS is WHY WE: 45th Infantry Division News, May 1945.
8 “I’d gladly go through”: After Action Report, National Archives.
9 “Combat-hardened soldiers, Gentile”: Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel, eds., Dachau and Nazi Terror II (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 53.
10 “Turned out they were”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
11 It was just as: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 169.
12 “The chief is dead!”: Hugh Trevor Roper, The Last Days of Hitler (New York: Macmillan, 1965), p. 261.
13 Sparks commandeered an apartment: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 388. Also see “Liberating Dachau,” World War II, March 2000.
14 Soon, a three-inch blanket: Joseph R. Bosa, Monograph 15, June 1990, The 171st Field Artillery Battalion, 1942–1945, 45th Infantry Division Museum, Oklahoma City.
15 With an eye to: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
16 the “Beer Hall Putsch”: Anse Speairs, interview wi
th author.
17 A white sign was: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter.
PART SEVEN—LAST BATTLES
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE—THE LAST DAYS
1 “Trying to keep warm”: Smith, The Harrowing of Hell, p. 101
2 “A love letter.… Goodbye”: Adler, Marguerite Duras, p. 142.
3 Mitterrand told Duras that: Ibid., p. 141.
4 Other Thunderbirds, by contrast: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 189.
5 “Then someone said there”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 171. There were remarkably few cases of rape among the occupiers. The Soviets, by contrast, raped more than fifty thousand German women in Berlin alone in one week that May. Source: Judt, Postwar, p. 20.
6 “Things are heating up”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
7 Two Signal Corps men: Colonel John H. Linden, letter to Historian of 45th Infantry Division Association, Oklahoma City, April 10, 1996, 45th Infantry Division Museum archives.
8 “I’m going to send”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
9 “[Sparks] feels badly”: 3rd Battalion, 157th Journal, May 1, 1945, Box 11075, National Archives.
10 Three men left Munich: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
11 By two o’clock: 3rd Battalion, 157th Journal, May 1, 1945, Box 11075, National Archives.
12 “As we passed the SS huts”: Adler, Marguerite Duras, pp. 141–44. 311 A call was put: Ibid.
13 It would be many: Ibid.
14 Now he weighed just: Edgar Morin, “Homage to Robert Antelme,” Le Monde, November 2, 1990.
15 Duras dared not tell: Duras, The War, pp. 56–59
16 He ordered Mann and: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, p. 19.
17 “We went by Paris”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
18 “I have orders to”: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
19 “I’ll call my commander”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
20 “Sorry, Colonel”: Ibid.
21 “Okay”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
22 In Bavaria, a Lieutenant Colonel: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 175.
23 “Rumor had it that”: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
24 Whitaker also went to: This happened on May 8, 1945.
25 “I was scared to”: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
26 “I didn’t see any”: Ibid.
27 “At about the same”: Whitaker IG Report, National Archives.
28 Under further questioning: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
29 He concluded that seventeen: Whitaker IG Report, National Archives.
30 After navigating the appalling: Whiting, ’44, p. 107.
31 “Well, Colonel”: This disappearance of the Seventh was a shame. It was later described as America’s “forgotten army”—one that never received any great recognition yet had done perhaps more than any other given its time in combat, to secure victory.
32 Sparks set off once: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
33 He was tired after: Blumeson, The Patton Papers, p. 706.
34 He was hopeful, however: Blumeson, The Patton Papers, p. 718.
35 He reported to the: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
36 He told Sparks that: Felix Sparks, private correspondence, February 2, 1982.
37 The charges were so: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
38 “General Patton’s out now”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
39 “Colonel, sit here”: Six million copies of Mein Kampf had sold by 1940 in Germany, making Hitler a wealthy man.
40 Behind the desk sat: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
41 “I have some serious”: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
42 Sparks looked over at: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
43 “Didn’t you serve under”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
44 “I would like to”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
45 “I’m going to tear”: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
46 Sparks would later remember: Felix Sparks, private correspondence, February 2, 1982.
47 “Now go home”: Ibid. and Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
48 Sparks saluted and left: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
49 George Patton was happy: Atkinson, The Day of Battle, p. 116.
50 “Unless their crimes were”: D’Este, Patton, p. 742.
51 Besides, no one wanted: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
52 “He was just kind”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 390.
53 “But in the light”: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
54 A proud Thunderbird to: Ibid.
55 “I think they all”: William Walsh, interview with James Kent Strong, in The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.
CHAPTER THIRTY—VICTORY IN EUROPE
1 “In the United States”: David Eichhorn, “Sabbath Service in a Dachau Concentration Camp,” Dachau and Nazi Terror 1, Testimonies, p. 62.
2 He had sworn that: Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower, A Soldier’s Life (New York: Henry Holt, 2002), p. 702.
3 “THE MISSION OF THIS”: Ibid., p. 704.
4 The men of evil: Hastings, Armageddon, p. 487.
5 “It is the victory”: Toland, The Last 100 Days, pp. 572–86.
6 “There is V-E Day”: Murphy, To Hell and Back, p. 272.
7 “It takes a while”: Guy Prestia, interview with author.
8 “There was great relief”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 153.
9 Finally, after the death: D’Este, Patton, p. 730.
10 “I was just skin”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
11 So many of his: Soldiers of the regiment had received 4 Medals of Honor, 20 Distinguished Service Crosses, 376 Silver Stars, 1,054 Bronze Stars, and 1,694 Purple Hearts. Source: Hugh Foster, “Overview of 157th Infantry Regiment in WWII.”
12 A total of 1,449: National Archives, Box #11063, “Personnel Reports Not Dated.” Courtesy of Dave Kerr.
13 “Red and blue flares”: Marguerite Higgins, “Finale in the West,” Mademoiselle, July 1945.
14 There were tears in: May, Witness to War, p. 92. When the Korean War broke out, Higgins, as fearless and ruthlessly competitive as ever, was bureau chief in Tokyo for the Herald Tribune; she was among the first reporters to cover the ground war. Frank Gibney of Time had tried to warn her off, saying: “It was no place for a woman.” To which another male reporter quipped: “But it’s all right for Maggie Higgins.” She was told there were inadequate lavatories and was ordered out of the field by the American Eighth Army commander, Lieutenant General Walton W. Walker: “This is not the type of war where women ought to be running around the front lines.” She went over his head to MacArthur and returned to the battlefield, where her reports earned her the Pulitzer Prize; she was the first woman to win it for foreign reporting. Source: Guardian, April 16, 2011.
15 The first woman to: Guardian, April 16, 2011.
16 That was the question: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
17 The silver runes he: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 202.
18 Voss’s unit, for example: Hugh Foster, interview with author.
19 His comrades in the: In 2011, when asked how he looked back on his days with the SS, Johann Voss wrote: “With deep affection for my comrades, especially the ones who did not come back, their selflessness, their resilience and their morale, their sense of duty when there was no more hope.… Especially if seen against the background of today’s selfishness and greed and the loss of values like the simple German saying Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz. And I look back wi
th gratitude to my tightly-knit unit as I always felt sure they would never let one of us down.” Source: Johan Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
20 Like their fellow Germans: SS veteran Johann Voss had changed his views on Hitler. “After all the revelations about the mass killings in the extermination camps, which after a period of disbelief I couldn’t doubt anymore, his reputation was completely ruined.… I think he suffered from megalomania like so many dictators before him. His nature was extremely complex; he had a high intelligence mixed with a brutal will to further his vision combined with a strong tendency to gamble. His anti-Semitism was an aberration, in the clinical sense of the word. His magnetism overwhelmed not only the masses but even sober German Generals when they came to see him face to face. Of his visions at least one was right: that it was Germany’s European mission to contain the expansion of the communist world revolution as declared by the Komintern in the twenties and thirties. Germany had always been the main goal of the Komintern. To this day I believe that Germany under the weak and feeble democratic system of the Weimar Republic would have shared the fate of other Soviet satellites sooner or later, as we witnessed in Finland and the Baltic States before the war and Eastern Europe and the Balkans after the war.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
21 “It can only be”: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
22 “Unconditional surrender was not”: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 201.
23 Never had so many: Judt, Europe, p. 18
24 “He asked if one”: Adler, Marguerite Duras, p. 149.
25 “But Antelme showed us”: Edgar Morin, “Homage to Robert Antelme,” Le Monde, November 2, 1990.
26 Then General Robert Frederick: Bishop et al., The Fighting Forty-Fifth, p. 188.
27 General Alexander Patch, Seventh: Nelson, Thunderbird, p. 191.
28 High praise also came: Buechner, Sparks, p. 192.
29 Even senior Pentagon officials: D’Este, Patton, p. 89.
30 “We were busy killing”: Saturday Evening Post, November 30, 1946.
31 “Oh God, how I”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 188.