[Jims5543]

Having been very close to my grandfather I can give some observations from what I saw growing up across the street from him from 1969-1975 then we moved further out on the island. He eventually moved closer, across town, from 1979-1985 when we moved to Florida. He never followed because my moms (susan) other 3 siblings lived in NY.

My Grandfather never spoke of the war, even when asked he deflected the questions. I remember specifically asking him about Hitler when I was young (WWII covered in School) and he only said Hitler was an evil man that did evil things. After reading his story I understand the horror he witnessed. As I got older it perplexed me why a man involved in such a historical event would never discuss it.

Things in this story that jumped out at me, some I never (well most, I mean historically) knew

The Selective Service Act was passed by one vote in Congress in 1940, and in late 1940, George was drafted “to build an army that would help us avoid war”, President Roosevelt said.

Nothing could have been further from the truth, in hindsight.

I thought the Black Tank crews were interesting as well, especially from a 1st hand point of view.

George had a fairly high respect for the German soldier, but there were beginning to be rumors of German atrocities against Americans, which turned out to be true. As the Americans advanced on German villages, the Americans’ supply of tank crews began to run out, because so many had been killed. At that time General Patton authorized the use of Black tank crews, which had formally not been used in combat, but only for backup. It was believed that the Black soldiers would not fare well in combat. Patton gave a stirring speech to the Black tankers, telling them how he had fought for their right to enter combat, and he knew they would make him proud (Actually, Patton, up until he ran out of White takers, did not want the Blacks in combat).

In any event, as the infantry units would approach a town, they would wait for the tank crews to come up and lead the way into the town (virtually blasting buildings, etc., out of their path). There has been a lot of controversy in recent years among Black Veterans, who say the major contribution was largely covered up but World War II historians. George always said he thought it was covered up, because he was an eye witness to these advancing Black tank crews, but in World War II history accounts, he never saw any reference to these units. I never did either, and I’ve read a lot about the war.

I never knew he was one of the first to enter a concentration camp.

On one very quiet Sunday, when George was off duty, his boss came in a said, “We need all the truck you can get together, were going into a “Detention Camp” that was just liberated from the Germans”.

The said some of the prisoners were sick. George got about 30 trucks together and they went into what turned out to be a “Concentration Camp”. When they got to the gates they were met by British doctors, who told them what they were about to see was the most terrible site they had probably ever seen. They were instructed not to feed any of the survivors, because they were in such back shape, that even a little food could kill them.

George never told me what he saw, but he said it was the most horrifying part of the war for him, and he wished he hadn’t been around that Sunday. He was always outraged at the Neo Nazi groups and Ku Klux Klan, in the United States, that said “there was no such things as these camps and they were fabricated by politicians to gain support for the new state of Israel”.