troopers. One guy was really stubborn, and he kept screaming at us, “You aren’t better soldiers than us; you just had more equipment than we had!” That really made me mad. I demanded their wallets. I decided I was going to show them that since they had lost the war, their money was worthless. I took their marks to the top of a hill, threw them into the wind, and watched them float down to the town below. So much for German superiority, I thought. My buddy took me aside and said, “You idiot! Don’t you realize what you just did? You could have taken those marks to Berlin and cashed them in for American dollars!” I was floored. I had thrown away a fortune! Shades of
Sierra Madre
.
It was gratifying that the last official mission of the 255th Regiment was the liberation of the concentration camp in the town of Landsberg. It was thirty miles south of the notorious Dachau camp, on the opposite bank of the Lech River, which we were approaching. The river was treacherous and difficult to cross because there were still German soldiers protecting it,but we wouldn’t let anything stop us from freeing those prisoners. Many writers have recorded what it was like in the concentration camps much more eloquently than I ever could, so I won’t even try to describe it. Just let me say I’ll never forget the desperate faces and empty stares of the prisoners as they wandered aimlessly around the campgrounds. Once we took possession of the camp, we immediately got food and water to the survivors, but they had been brutalized for so long that at first they couldn’t believe that we were there to help them and not to kill them. Many of the survivors were barely able to stand. To our horror we discovered that all of the women and children had been killed long before our arrival and that just the day before, half the remaining survivors had been shot. We were relieved to find that many of the soldiers from the 63rd Division who were taken prisoner had been sent to Landsberg, and so we were able to liberate them as well. The whole thing was beyond comprehension. After seeing such horrors with my very eyes, it angers me that some people insist there were no concentration camps.
Hitler committed suicide on April 30. Berlin fell to the Russians on May 2, and the rest of Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.
The main thing I got out of my military experience was the realization that I am completely opposed to war. Every war is insane, no matter where it is or what it’s about. Fighting is the lowest form of human behavior. It’s amazing to me that with all the great teachers of literature and art, and all the contributions that have been made on this very precious planet, we still haven’t evolved a more humane approach to the way we work out our conflicts. Although I understand the reasons why this war was fought, it was a terrifying, demoralizingexperience for me. I saw things no human being should ever have to see. I know I’m speaking for others as well when I say that life can never be the same once you’ve been through combat. I don’t care what anybody says; no human being should have to go to war, especially an eighteen-year-old boy.
After Germany surrendered to the Allies, the fighting continued in the Pacific, and the men there wouldn’t be able to come home until Japan surrendered and World War II ended. But Washington immediately started working out a plan to bring home the troops from Europe. They came up with a point system: soldiers were given a certain number of points for how many months or years they were in the service, a certain number of points for combat versus other types of service, a certain number of points for going overseas versus staying stateside. The guys who had the most points, like my brother Johnny, were able to come home right away.
Because I had only served four months, I had to stay behind in Germany as part, of the Occupying American Army Fortunately, I managed to get myself assigned to
Sierra Madre
.
It was gratifying that the last official mission of the 255th Regiment was the liberation of the concentration camp in the town of Landsberg. It was thirty miles south of the notorious Dachau camp, on the opposite bank of the Lech River, which we were approaching. The river was treacherous and difficult to cross because there were still German soldiers protecting it,but we wouldn’t let anything stop us from freeing those prisoners. Many writers have recorded what it was like in the concentration camps much more eloquently than I ever could, so I won’t even try to describe it. Just let me say I’ll never forget the desperate faces and empty stares of the prisoners as they wandered aimlessly around the campgrounds. Once we took possession of the camp, we immediately got food and water to the survivors, but they had been brutalized for so long that at first they couldn’t believe that we were there to help them and not to kill them. Many of the survivors were barely able to stand. To our horror we discovered that all of the women and children had been killed long before our arrival and that just the day before, half the remaining survivors had been shot. We were relieved to find that many of the soldiers from the 63rd Division who were taken prisoner had been sent to Landsberg, and so we were able to liberate them as well. The whole thing was beyond comprehension. After seeing such horrors with my very eyes, it angers me that some people insist there were no concentration camps.
Hitler committed suicide on April 30. Berlin fell to the Russians on May 2, and the rest of Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.
The main thing I got out of my military experience was the realization that I am completely opposed to war. Every war is insane, no matter where it is or what it’s about. Fighting is the lowest form of human behavior. It’s amazing to me that with all the great teachers of literature and art, and all the contributions that have been made on this very precious planet, we still haven’t evolved a more humane approach to the way we work out our conflicts. Although I understand the reasons why this war was fought, it was a terrifying, demoralizingexperience for me. I saw things no human being should ever have to see. I know I’m speaking for others as well when I say that life can never be the same once you’ve been through combat. I don’t care what anybody says; no human being should have to go to war, especially an eighteen-year-old boy.
After Germany surrendered to the Allies, the fighting continued in the Pacific, and the men there wouldn’t be able to come home until Japan surrendered and World War II ended. But Washington immediately started working out a plan to bring home the troops from Europe. They came up with a point system: soldiers were given a certain number of points for how many months or years they were in the service, a certain number of points for combat versus other types of service, a certain number of points for going overseas versus staying stateside. The guys who had the most points, like my brother Johnny, were able to come home right away.
Because I had only served four months, I had to stay behind in Germany as part, of the Occupying American Army Fortunately, I managed to get myself assigned to
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