Gordon Levy, Photo by Army & Navy Photographic Bureau, Baton Rouge, LA., 1945
My dad, Gordon Levy, entered into active service with the US Army on June 16, 1945. He had just completed his first year of college at Stanford University and off he went. He was just 19 years old.
I've written about my dad's service several times but the one piece of information that was cloudy for me was his time in Germany where he found himself at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Although I didn't know the details of how or why he found himself there, I wrote about it HERE.
A few weeks ago I wrote about being immersed in letters from 1945 and I can now report that I have completed the transcription project of all of the letters my dad wrote (or at least the ones that were saved) to his parents during his 18 months of military service. Oh boy, do I wish my dad were here so we could talk about this - what a history lesson I've had!
His basic training began on June 16, 1945 at Keesler Field in Mississippi and he then transferred to Scott Field in Illinois a few months later. He described his training like this:
Once in the Army, I learned that flight training, navigator
school and gunnery training, were out because the war was ending, and I was
going to be a cryptographer. The school
lasted one day. That was fortunate because
I did not really know what a cryptographer was.
We were slated to be in the invasion of the Empire of Japan, but the
atom bomb terminated that plan, for which I was eternally grateful.
As a result, the military took me to the Army
of Occupation in Germany, barely six months after the end of hostilities, and
my prior training as a journalist landed me a position on the staff of an Army
newspaper - where I covered sports, war crimes trials, and put the paper to bed
in a German printing shop -- Buchdrukerei -- and couldn't wait to get home --
just in time for the Big Game of 1946, which Stanford won, naturally. And as I look back, the experience in
Germany, of seeing in person the Nazi leaders on trial, of watching the Bitch
of Buchenwald in testimony -- this year was a highlight of my life.
He was then transferred via New York to Furstenfeldbruck, AKA Furstey (located in Bavaria, near Munich), in January, 1946 and faithfully wrote to his parents for the year he was stationed there. As luck (mine) would have it, he had the scrapbook gene so he also put together an album of photos - and he even labeled them!
Furstenfeldbruck from the top of Sighart's roof
A few of his letters really moved me - the thoughts of what my young Jewish father witnessed was almost too much and I will never forget his words. I don't remember him ever talking about this, although my sister has memories of the two of them discussing it.
Furstenfeldbruck, Germany
20 April, 1946
Dearest Mom and Pop: -
During the last two days I have
really been seeing Germany, in all manners, means and conventions. But I’ve gotten a lot of good experiences out
of it – some that I won’t ever forget.
Thursday we travelled some 80 miles by truck to a town called Landshut
(by truck, at that) where the ball club played the 16th Infantry
Regiment. On the way we passed through
Freising, where Maj. Boney is located, but it was impossible to stop, which I
would have liked to do. We won the ball
game, 8-4, and spent a beautiful evening journeying back by truck.
Yesterday was even better – the
War Crimes Trials at Dachau. We went up
there (only about 12 miles) yesterday morning and stayed till 4 in the
afternoon, and I must say it was the most interesting day I’ve ever spent in
Europe. The trials concerned the Camp
Mauthausen Concentration Center (Austria) and some 61 men are on trial for
their lives. The tribunal consists of
eight full colonels and one major general…quite a bit of brass for the
ill-deserving Krauts. I was extremely
surprised at the defense the US is giving them – they have a major and several
captains representing their case, and although they put little heart in the
cause, I think they should be praised for making American justice work. Prosecuting attorney for the US is a crafty,
witty Lt Col Denson, who is working the case in his own manner. Naturally the entire proceedings must be
spoken in German and English, with an expert interpreter translating every
German statement to English and vice versa.
Nevertheless, the trial moves on at a fairly speedy rate.
On the stand yesterday was a
certain Karl Struller, 1st Sgt. Of the Hq. Co., at Mauthausen. For seven years he said he was at the Camp
and never saw a prisoner mistreated or beaten.
But the prosecution sort of tied him up in loop-holes and made him look
pretty silly trying to say he walked past an iron gate for seven years and
never saw a chain with a person hanging there everyday. But he did admit that he “had heard about
it.” It only takes one day at trials
such as those to see that all Germans, regardless of how they look or how
peaceful they act, are just as responsible as the next one. But the testimony you hear all day is that
“they heard about such things, but that was all.” American justice is being given to men who
don’t rightly deserve it – and they can all start counting their last days now.
During the noon hour we looked at
the “points of interest” of the Dachau Camp, which are all located in an area
of about an acre where the Germans committed their scientific murder of upwards
of 300,000 people. You should see it,
that’s all there is to it. The crematory
looks like a simple little place of business, inside are seven brick ovens
where people met their final fate. But
that wasn’t their first visit. Once they
went inside the brick wall, they never left it…but sometimes they were tortured
in that little wooded area for weeks at a time.
On one side of the building are three roomy gas chambers – the prisoners
were told to go in and take a shower.
They never breathed fresh air again.
Offset from the building a little was a number of dog kennels where
prisoners were sent as the victims of the hungry mongrels, who slowly chewed
them to bits. In the basement, with a
convenient slide for bodies from the first floor, they stacked the bodies –
just like stacking fire wood. Still
visible on some of the walls are fingernail marks where half-dead bodies tried
to claw. Over on the other side of the
yard is a little hill where prisoners were ordered to kneel before shot in the
back of the head. One of the oddities is
that the Germans even thought of wooden gratings over a small trench, so that
manpower wouldn’t be wasted cleaning up the blood. Yes, they were fine supermen – and we still
fall for their line.
Just told you these few things so
that you would know that the Germans committed all those atrocities you heard
about. I can verify them – although I
didn’t see the bodies, I saw the equipment – that was enough to convince
me. I received the camera package and
the two rolls of film – thanx a lot. All
for now,
Love, Gord
PS – Here are my accumulated
savings. Invest it as you see fit,
Pop. I’ll be able to go to college on my
own before long.
DPs living in sided freight cars near Dachau Camp
I always laugh when he changes the name of Furstenfeldbruck to something else - in the letter below he changes it to Furstandthirdbase.
Furstenfeldbruck, Germany
1 May, 1946
Dearest Mom and Pop: -
Well, we’re back from our
excursion around Germany – and much more seasoned than before. We did a lot of travelling in those three
days – to Nurnberg, then down to Regensburg and back to Furstandthirdbase. The ball club lost their first game, 6-5, to
the 26th Infantry, tied at 2-2 in a second game called because of
rain, and beat the famous First Division yesterday, 4-3. So, we got a share of victories out of the
deal.
Naturally the high point of the
trip was visiting the Nurnberg War Crimes Trials, which all the players did,
but it was something I never expected to see when I saw those first newsreels
last November…I never had any idea that I would be in that exact courtroom
seeing those exact scenes. We got in
around 10 AM Monday and only stayed about two hours, but it was worth it. There aren’t too many spectators, and you
have to get a pocketful of passes before they let you in. But we saw it all – Hermann Goergin sitting
in his first row seat, Hess, Ribbentrop, Jodl, Rosenberg, Doenitz, Raeder, -
and our own famous personages, Justice Jackson and Francis Biddle.
The entire proceedings are heard over earphones, in any of four different languages, for the benefit of Russians, French, German and English personnel both as spectators and as active participants. There is very little delay that way, and you hear the interpretation right with the speaking. The court room itself is not nearly so large as pictures suggest – in fact it is surprisingly small. And I would venture to say that some 200 people are inside the railing participating – a great number of recorders, defense counsels, prosecuting assistants etc. They give out a type of program with all the info to all spectators, which I shall send to you with some pictures I got through the press men – they should be invaluable.
On the stand the other day was
Julius Streicher, famed, notorious Jew-baiter, who denied, quite naturally,
that he had ever given orders to exterminate Jews, smash their windows or burn
their synagogues. He blamed it all on
Hitler, and that he only carried out the Fuhrer’s orders – silly, but he
claimed as much. He treated all the Jews
very fairly except when Hitler ordered him to do otherwise. It is all the same story – blame it on the
guy who is dead or say you just “heard about such things.” It not only was exempletory [sic] at Dachau,
where they are trying the small cogs, but also at Nurnberg, where they are
listening to the big “wheels” themselves.
It is the only defense they have, but I doubt if that will stop the
ropes from tightening – they should all see the gallows.
The stadium where we played ball
was formerly Hitler’s famed pageant place – seating way over 200,000
people. You’ve seen pictures of the
giant marble stands with the high podium where Hitler used to reel off his
lectures. Instead of the swastika, the
place is decorated with the big red, white and blue A of the Third Army
now. And appropriate enough in one
corner is the beautiful ball park, a tribute to America’s ability to change
something very bad into something very good.
The marble pillars are a fitting background for the great American
pastime – it’s sort of an oddity.
On our arrival back at the home
base, we find that Gen. McNarney’s orders are being carried out to prevent a GI
from having any spare time…it’s all the Regular Army now. 6 AM reveille, roll calls, drill, guard duty,
bed checks, taps etc. But regardless of
how I feel not being RA and being subject to their regulations, I must take
what they call “chicken” with all the rest.
But they shall not take advantage of me, especially when I work off
hours as it is. One drastic measure
which hampers our work, and I may still consider going to Stars and
Stripes. The proposal was aimed at the
bad soldiers, and it’s hitting everybody.
That’s what hurts – we who do our job as best we can get the same
punishment as those who do nothing.
Mamma, I wanna cum home.
Das ist alles for now – more very
soon.
All my love, Gord
PS – These are scenes of Munich
He did send the program home and my brother is keeping it safe and promises to scan and send it to me SOON!
Bombed out rubble of Munich
Munich, April, 1946
Munich Church
Art gallery in Munich's Koenigsplatz
And a snippet from another letter:
Furstenfeldbruck, Germany
6 August 1946
Dearest Mom and Pop: -
Just got back a few hours ago from
Nurnberg, where we spent a very enjoyable three days as official
correspondents. Our plans to fly didn’t
pan out (as usual) but we were fortunate enough to requisition a command car
and drove up and around Nurnberg. Our
place of stop-over was with the “big time” at the International Military
Tribunal Press Camp, where we finagled our way in since we are official
newspapermen. After rubbing shoulders
with such correspondents as Hoddenfield of the AP (who the hell is he?) and men
from all the Allied countries, I feel like a man whose been around. We spent Sunday at the ET swim championships,
which the Air Force won its first major athletic title over here. About seven fellows from our base were on the
AAF team, so we were justly proud of them. They literally outclassed everybody, and gave
the enemy-Infantry boys something to wonder about.
Monday (yesterday) we spent the
entire day at the trials, in which the organizations such as the SS and SA are
now under examination. They had some big
SS leaders on the stand, which got to be both boring and dry. But the presence of all the “boys” such as
Goering Ribbentrop et all made this second visit just as interesting. Thru our press affiliations, we sat in on a
press conference by Leslie Hore-Belisha, former British Minister of War, who
was visiting the IMT for a day or so. It
was the same room in which La Guardia had his press meeting two days previously
– too bad we missed that. It was an
interesting day, needless to say. And
today we rode back.
Nurnberg, 1946
I have loved reading and transcribing these letters and feel like I have a bit of history at my fingertips. I'm considering putting the letters and photos together into a book and my brain is pondering just how to do this and what a fitting title might be.
The American GI at heart is a generous creature
My dad really was a generous creature. Well, he was!
