by Helen Fry
Two days later, on 3 September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany for its act of aggression against Poland. It was an uncertain and worrying time. Twenty-one years after the Great War, Europe was plunged once again into a bloody battle. This time it was a moral war: the apocalyptic fight between good and evil. In that fight, Britain initially stood alone against the might of Nazi Germany until America entered the war at the end of 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbour.
Howard’s parents and sister were now trapped in Munich. Alone in Luxembourg, Howard telephoned home several times but had to be vigilant about what he said during the conversation. He was free, but his family was not. If he said something which his mother thought might compromise them, she hung up.
Then, at last, came the news that Howard had anxiously waited for. His parents and Margot were able to leave Germany on a temporary visa and join him in Luxembourg. Since it was forbidden for Jews to take currency out of Germany, Berthold and Lina carefully hid money in the backs of hair brushes. Ever resourceful and quick-thinking, Lina crammed toilet rolls into their suitcases. If they were searched at the border by SS officers, the toilet rolls would roll out as a distraction.
THE FAMILY REUNITES
Twelve days later, on a bright day in mid-September 1939, Berthold, Lina and Margot alighted at Diekirch station. Howard was waiting on the platform. It was an emotional moment. Reunited, the family lodged together in a nearby guest house. Life in exile carried on for them in the relaxed knowledge that they would not be separated again. They had no immediate fears for the future. The days were spent on walks together and frequenting a tiny café. They enjoyed coffee and cakes and occasionally mixed with other refugee Jewish families.
Regular monthly payments in dollars were received by the Triests from a family member living in America. Dollars had a high value currency and enabled them to stay in Luxembourg and lead a pleasant life, largely sheltered from the daily reality of war. That continued until events took a dramatic turn eight months later.
As a new year dawned, 1940 witnessed Hitler’s tightening stranglehold on Europe. At the beginning of April 1940, Berthold and Lina received a letter that their visas for emigration to the United States had finally come through and were ready for collection from an American Consulate. The nearest was Antwerp in Belgium. The family left Luxembourg and travelled together to Antwerp. With their visas safely secured, passage to America was within their grasp.
Back in Luxembourg, Berthold tried to arrange tickets on a ship for the United States but discovered that they only had sufficient money to purchase two tickets. It was a difficult dilemma. No one wanted to leave without the others. Berthold and Lina were particularly concerned that Howard should go on ahead because he was most at risk from being deported to a concentration camp if things went wrong. Margot was only eleven years old, so it was thought best that she stay with her parents until enough money had been saved for three tickets to America.
Howard bade farewell to his parents and Margot on the station platform at Diekirch in the knowledge that he would see them again very soon, even within a matter of a couple weeks. There were no tears or emotional farewells as he leant out of the train window. His mother leant in to kiss him. The only person Howard ever saw again was his sister, Margot.
JOURNEY TO FREEDOM
It was a rainy late afternoon on 26th April 1940 that Howard (then still as Hans Heinz Triest) boarded the ship SS Pennland at the port of Antwerp, bound for New York via Southampton. The ship was very crowded, mainly packed with people escaping Nazi Europe and the war. Howard was allocated a tiny cabin for two people but because of the overcrowding had to share it with four other passengers.
Once on board, Howard received a telegram informing him that his parents had finally received enough funds for their tickets to emigrate. They had successfully booked passage on SS Rotterdam, also a ship of the Holland-America line. They were due to sail from the port of Rotterdam on 10 May. The start of Howard’s own journey on SS Pennland was interesting, as he comments:
‘Just before we left Antwerp an interesting Russian character called Boris in his late 20s or early 30s boarded the ship. He was a friend of the Captain and had all kinds of connections. He became my table companion for the journey but he slept most of the day and got up very late. He smoked a lot and got me tasting my first cigarette. He was an interesting person, supposedly a relative of the Czar of Russia and had fought in the Spanish War. We became friends and I learnt to play shuffle board. For me it was a good crossing; although I was seasick a few times.’
The ship was scheduled to make one stop en route to New York and that was the port of Southampton on the south coast of England. Because the English Channel was mined it took ten days to reach Southampton from Antwerp. The SS Pennland stopped and anchored off the French coast at Dunkirk for several days before continuing to Southampton. It finally docked at Southampton to pick up more passengers for New York.
On 10th May 1940, it was still at sea off the English coast when dramatic news was announced by the ship’s captain over the shortwave radio that Adolf Hitler had sent his troops over the border into Belgium, Holland and France. Much of Western Europe was now occupied and under Nazi control. The crew of the SS Pennland comprised mainly Dutch nationals. An anxious period ensued while the captain waited to see if they would be forced to turn back. The all-clear was finally given to continue the journey to America, but one fear was uppermost in Howard’s mind. What about his parents and Margot? Had their ship sailed?
Howard’s parents and sister had already left Luxembourg and were en route to the port of Rotterdam for safe passage to America. Because of the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries, they found themselves caught between Holland and Belgium. After almost nine months of freedom, they were once again trapped inside the borders of the Nazi regime.
The SS Pennland made the perilous journey across the Atlantic with the risk of U-boat attacks. It finally docked at New York on 15 May. Howard’s first feelings on arrival were not so much his impression of the New York skyline or America itself but huge relief at having arrived at all. Crossing the Atlantic was no mean feat in wartime. A journey which usually took four to five days had taken three weeks.
LAND OF LIBERTY
Howard was met at the dock by his father’s cousin, Bernie Rau, and wife Hortenfe who had given the original affidavits to the family. They turned out to be a strange couple who took Howard to stay with other relatives in Kew Gardens, Long Island, New York. Eventually, Bernie found a room for Howard in the home of a German-Jewish family, paying the rent on his behalf. Bernie himself lived in a big suite at the Park Lane Hotel, Park Avenue in New York. In the winter, he went off to Miami and in the summer, a few weeks to Colorado Springs. The rest of the year, he lived at the Park Lane Hotel.
During the first fortnight after immigration, Howard did little except stay in his room or spend time with cousins in the same neighbourhood. He then worked for a time for a relative in an import-export business which assembled fountain pens and other items. If he got paid, it was not very much.
Towards the end of June 1940, Howard was to begin a new life in Detroit after his uncle Kurt who had emigrated from Germany in 1935, a survivor of Dachau, drove from Detroit with his wife Ruth to pick him up. They drove the distance of some 800 miles and stayed overnight in a motel. Howard recalls with some humour: ‘it was their first wedding anniversary and I cramped their quarters in the motel.’
After spending a few days with Kurt and Ruth at their home in Detroit, Howard rented a room through one of their acquaintances. From there, he was able to visit his aunt and uncle regularly. He found work as an apprentice in a small tool factory.
In those first anxious weeks and months in the United States, there was no news from Howard’s parents or sister. The only information he had was the knowledge that Holland had been invaded by German forces. He hoped that his parents had somehow managed to get to England and because of the chaos of war had not been abl
e to contact him. After a time, he began to enquire from other relatives, but no one had any news.
Several weeks later, the first letter from his parents came via friends, the Adlers in Switzerland. Howard learned that his father had already been arrested by the Belgians and then interned in a French camp. His mother was still in Belgium with Margot. Any contact with them was sporadic. That was as much as Howard knew. As he waited for further news, the Japanese carried out a surprise attack on American ships in Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941. The United States entered the war on the side of Britain. Howard’s war would take a new unexpected direction.
FIVE
FIGHTING BACK
WITH AMERICA NOW in the war against Nazi Germany, Howard volunteered to fight in the US forces. In his mind, this was his opportunity to join the battle against the Hitler Regime and play his part in the downfall of Nazism. This was his war and one which he was prepared to fight because the regime had thrown him out of his country and destroyed his family life. He therefore felt no guilt at his decision to join the Allied forces that would eventually see fighting against his former countrymen.
Applying first for the Marine Corps, then the US Navy and American Army, Howard received unexpected rejections because he did not have American citizenship. There was nothing he could do but wait for his call-up papers to come through. In the meantime, he continued working at the factory. Finally in July 1943, at the age of twenty, those papers arrived and he was drafted into the US forces.
Issued with army number 36865227, Howard enlisted into an infantry division in the rank of Private and trained as a machine gunner. The training lasted several months and was extremely intense and demanding. During this period, because of his fluency in German, he tried to volunteer for interpreter duties but all attempts fell on deaf ears.
During the remainder of 1943 and into 1944, American military commanders were making detailed preparations with British commanders for an Allied invasion of Europe. American forces began to leave the United States to be stationed at bases in Britain in readiness for the D-Day landings. In the spring of 1944, having successfully trained as a gunner, Howard was posted overseas with US forces. He boarded a troopship bound for Scotland. It was the second time he had crossed the Atlantic in wartime. He recalls: ‘I was a great volunteer and put my name forward for anything going. On board the troopship, I volunteered as a movie projectionist for the army which meant that at least the journey to England was fun.’ The troopship docked at Glasgow, from where Howard’s unit took a train to Llangollen in North Wales. It was here that the regiment carried out extensive training and final preparations for the invasion.
D-DAY LANDINGS
On 6 June 1944, the flag went up for D-Day – the largest invasion ever mounted by Allied forces. In a single day, the Allies landed 150,000 forces on the beaches of Normandy. The Americans landed on Omaha Beach amidst a horrific 94% rate of casualties and fatalities. Further along the coast at Arromanches, British forces were also landing as part of the massive invasion force. The following day, D-Day+1, Howard’s unit crossed the English Channel to Omaha Beach. He said: ‘It was a very exciting time but also one full of trepidation. The first landings had taken place and we were in the second wave. We were replacing the troops which had suffered such huge losses the previous day.’
So it was that on 7 June 1944, Howard landed on Omaha Beach with the 86th Replacement Battalion. Casualties were still high and the life expectancy for a machine gunner that day was around 30 seconds. By some miracle, Howard survived the landing and advanced up the beach to take cover in the hedgerows with his unit. How did he keep his nerve under the circumstances? He comments: ‘Any soldier who landed on Omaha Beach is always asked the same question. Some were afraid, but most of us did not believe we were about to die. We were young and somehow youth harbours the feeling of invincibility. Even though colleagues were dying on the battlefield around me, you don’t think it is going to happen to you.’
The D-Day landings had an unexpected twist of fate for Howard and one that would change his contribution to the war. On the second day of fighting, he picked up a leaflet which appealed for German-speakers to come forward. They were needed in US Military Intelligence, specifically for work at Headquarters. Although the precise nature of the work was not given, Howard assumed it had something to do with typing duties or compiling reports. He had tried for so long to use his knowledge of German for the war effort and now this looked like his chance had come.
‘I thought it ironic,’ he says, ‘because back in the United States I had tried to get into US Intelligence but couldn’t. Now on Omaha Beach finally I could.’
Howard showed the leaflet to an officer who was involved in the classification of soldiers in the Replacement Battalion. The officer put his name forward and shortly afterwards he was dispatched to Headquarters. To his surprise, headquarters consisted of a foxhole.
As Allied troops advanced through France that summer and autumn of 1944, Howard remained with the Replacement Battalion for three and a half months. Allied forces crossed the borders into Belgium and Holland and liberated the population. Howard knew that the Allies, including his unit, were ultimately heading for the invasion of Germany. While stationed in Holland, he was pulled out of the battalion and posted to Paris to, ironically, undertake courses in German and intelligence training.
During his time in the French capital, he was acutely concerned about the fate of his parents and sister, last known to have been in Camp Les Milles in the South of France: ‘After the liberation of France and Paris, I expected to hear something from my parents. I knew that if they had been liberated somewhere in France, they would have written immediately to our point of contact in Switzerland or to my uncle Kurt in Detroit. I received no news from them at all.’
Snippets of information were already coming through and Howard learned that Jews who were held in Les Milles had been deported to Camp Drancy outside Paris and from there to Auschwitz. By the time Howard was temporarily stationed in Paris, any trace of Camp Drancy had been destroyed by the French authorities. Gaining any further information was difficult. With so much uncertainty surrounding the whereabouts of his family, Howard was posted from Paris back to the theatre of war with the American 5th Corps. His work now kept him fully occupied in the coming months as a member of the Military Intelligence Interpretation team of 5th Corps. He recalls the nature of their work:
‘Each intelligence team consisted of two officers and four enlisted men. The units worked close to the frontline as American troops pushed towards the Rhine crossings into Germany and then finally Czechoslovakia. As soon as German forces were defeated in a town or village, the military intelligence teams entered and we began our interrogation work of the civilian population. I was part of a team that gathered vital information for US military intelligence. There were times when my unit entered a town before it had been fully liberated and it became very risky work for us. I remained with the Military Intelligence Interpretation team until they reached Pilsen in Czechoslovakia and met Russian troops at the River Elbe.’
LIBERATION OF BUCHENWALD
In April 1945, Howard crossed with his unit into Germany, not as a German refugee this time but an American soldier. It was the first time he had set foot on German soil since he was forced to flee six years earlier. He returned to find much of the country in ruins and the infrastructure destroyed. As preparations were made for his unit to move on, his commanding officer asked to have a word in private.
‘I have a really difficult job,’ he said to Howard. ‘We are going to liberate Buchenwald.’
Howard’s mind raced as he asked himself what they would find. There were rumours about the atrocities in the death camps, and he had witnessed firsthand the brutality of Nazism in Munich in the 1930s. Yet, he felt no fear as his army unit was given orders to head into the concentration camp. It was 11th April 1945.
American forces arrived at the gates Buchenwald. The gates were slowly opened and the
y passed through. Nothing prepared Howard or his comrades for the scale of the horror or the unforgettable stench of rotting corpses piled in their different grotesque positions. He turned his head. The piles of hundreds of children’s shoes struck like a dagger through the heart. Emaciated subhuman survivors shuffled around the camp, barely alive, almost unaware of their liberation. Standing amongst the desecration of European Jewry, Howard prayed his parents had not suffered this fate. There had been no news of them since August 1942. As he tried to suppress an involuntary urge to retch, he realized at last that all the personal sacrifices on Omaha Beach were for this moment.
Surrounded by such physical evil, Howard was well aware that he could have been one of these survivors clinging to the last remnants of life. The scenes before him seem momentarily surreal. Here his disdain for the Nazis reached its peak. ‘The horror inhabited me and forever I carry the burden of witness,’ he said in a documentary made about his life called Journey to Justice. He longed for justice to be done; for the perpetrators to be incarcerated in a concentration camp and treated in the same horrific way.
Over the next few days, Howard’s unit marched the local German civilian population into the camp to see the atrocities and help remove the corpses. Ordinary Germans suddenly denied any knowledge of the camps or the crimes committed by the regime. Had they turned a blind eye or were they innocent, as claimed? Howard believes they knew what was going on but chose to be bystanders to the Nazi killing machine. Dissent was also muted by fear.
When their macabre duties at Buchenwald were over, Howard’s unit crossed into Czechoslovakia on its way to Pilsen, not far from Theresienstadt. He had just received news that his next posting though was to be Nuremberg in Bavaria. He had heard that the most important trial in the history of international justice was about to convene there. Surviving leaders of the Nazi government were to be held accountable for their crimes against humanity and the world. But occupied with intelligence duties on the frontline, Nuremberg meant very little to Howard at that point. To him it was just another place where some Nazis were going to be put on trial. The full reality wouldn’t sink in until his arrival at the prison.