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Episode #626 of Hometown Heroes, airing April 30 – May 4, 2020, focused on the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The Friends of the National World War II Memorial released the video below this week, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of those camps in April, 1945.

Liberation of the Concentration Camps 75th Anniversary Commemoration from Friends of World War II Memorial on Vimeo.

The video features memories of concentration camp survivors and soldiers who liberated them, as well as comments from acclaimed author Alex Kershaw, whose prolific writing on World War II themes includes the best-seller The Liberator, chronicling the experiences of then Lt. Col. Felix Sparks, who helped liberate the Dachau Concentration Camp on April 29, 1945.

You’ll hear Alex Kershaw discuss this photo of Felix Sparks at Dachau. (photo credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

“Among the over 30,000 inmates on the 29th of April, there were over 50 nationalities,” you’ll hear Kershaw explain. “Some of those inmates had been in Dachau since Hitler took power in 1933.”

Referring to Sparks as “a beautiful definition of moral integrity and courage,” Kershaw describes what the battalion commander and his men witnessed upon entering the camp, and the decision Sparks made when he realized American soldiers had cornered German SS troops and were starting to shoot them. By this point Sparks had survived more than 500 days of combat with the 45th Infantry Division, enduring great loss of life among the ranks along the way.

“He has every reason to hate and despise the German people, to particularly despise the SS,” you’ll hear Kershaw contextualize. “He does not let his men become like the enemy, become beasts. He stops them.”

Listen to this episode of Hometown Heroes for more of Kershaw’s perspective on Sparks and his fellow liberators, and read his book, The Liberator, for more of what the 45th Infantry Division experienced throughout Europe. Rex Raney survived 511 days in combat, serving under Sparks in the 157th Regiment. The Fruita, CO native shared his story on episode #418 of Hometown Heroes in 2016, explaining how he joined the National Guard while still in high school. After many close calls, he was wounded in Italy, but in his efforts to care for the more seriously injured man in his foxhole, he didn’t even realize he’d been hit. You’ll hear his explanation of that incident, as well as what he saw at Dachau, arriving about an hour after the first American troops to enter the camp.

45th Infantry Division veteran Rex Raney witnessed the horrors of Dachau

“They were walking skin and bones,” is how Raney described the survivors he encountered. “I’d hate to tell you how many people were dead or dying in stock cars and gondolas. Some of them were half-in and half-out of the train.”

Des Moines, IA native Richard Morris also had a haunting experience at Dachau, which he shared on episode #401 of Hometown Heroes in 2016. Unlike Raney, Morris had no advance notice that he was about to encounter a concentration camp. Morris had ten men in his half-track, taking a gravel road through the countryside to try to catch up with the rest of C Company, 65th Armored Infantry Battalion, 20th Armored Division. They stumbled across a high-walled enclosure, and soon saw some men in “pajama-like” outfits waving to them. Morris asked his driver to stop so he could investigate this surprising scene.

Richard Morris during World War II.

“I went up and they hugged me, and they were so full of joy,” you’ll hear Morris explain. “I didn’t realize, you know, that we were the sign that they would be saved.”

What he witnessed during his brief time inside the camp was more than he could comprehend. When he returned to the half-track and was told to radio in details on what he had seen, he struggled to find words that could accurately describe the jarring scene. An encounter the following day also left him with lingering questions. Listen to Hometown Heroes to find out why he always wondered whether his unit had come face to face with Nazi SS troops who had fled Dachau. Morris passed away in 2019 at the age of 94. His very brief experience at Dachau produced flashbacks and disturbing dreams that troubled him for decades. After being called up from the reserves and serving again in the Korean War, where he was awarded the Bronze Star, he spent much of his career counseling people with physical, emotional, or mental obstacles to overcome.

This episode also features memories from ambulance driver Jim Sanders, a Nebraska native who grew up in central California. In 2009, Sanders published the memoir Saving Lives, Saving Memories, motivated by a desire to ensure future generations would be informed about the Holocaust and never allow something like that to happen again. Sanders was ordered to steer his ambulance toward the concentration camp at Ohrdruf on April 12, 1945, the same day that Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton famously toured the camp.

“It was just too much,” Sanders lamented. “Our vocabulary wouldn’t cover it.”

Jim Sanders served with the 585th Ambulance Company.

Sanders and his ambulance were ordered to pick up people who were lying in fields outside Ohrdruf’s gates. He believed they were prisoners who had been sent out of Ohrdruf toward the main camp at Buchenwald.

“They were in little striped pajamas with little patches,” Sanders remembered of the starved victims. “We could put two on a litter. Can you imagine that?”

Jim Sanders traveled back to Ohrdruf and Buchenwald later in life, and gave frequent speeches to school groups in an effort to use the painful history he witnessed as a cautionary tale. Jim passed away in 2018 at the age of 93. You can access his original Hometown Heroes interview on episode #160 from 2011.

Leila Morrison in her Army nurse’s uniform.

Georgia native Leila Morrison was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp to help care for some of the newly liberated prisoners. She and some of her fellow Army nurses were led around the camp by a longtime inmate who had been a jeweler in Prague, and did not know what had become of his wife and children. You’ll hear Leila relate some of what she witnessed at Buchenwald, still vivid in her memory 75 years later.

“I still think about it and dream of it,” you’ll hear Morrison say. “You couldn’t understand how in the world you could treat another person that way.”

If you’d like to listen to the rest of Leila Morrison’s memories from before and after her experiences at the concentration camp, access episode #463 from 2017. This episode of Hometown Heroes concludes with one more veteran who witnessed the horrors of Buchenwald. Jimmy Weldon served with the 1270th Engineer Combat Battalion.

Jimmy Weldon during World War II.

“Engraved in my mind is our going through the barracks,” you’ll hear him share of the scores of emaciated prisoners he saw. “Laying on those wooden slabs, just enough room to slide in and out.”

The haunting realities of Buchenwald stayed with Weldon as he returned to the U.S. and launched a long career in show business. His most well-known role came as the voice of “Yakky Doodle,” the cartoon duck from Hanna-Barbera’s The Yogi Bear Show. In public speaking engagements, he would often include his memories from the concentration camp as he pointed to the importance of the Allied victory in World War II and the ideals of America. You’ll hear Jimmy explain how one such talk enabled him to meet one of the survivors who had been imprisoned at Buchenwald. Another speech, at a southern California school, produced a skeptical response from a student who questioned the reality of the Holocaust. That encounter inspired Weldon to launch the nonprofit Center for Youth Patriotism. At age 96, he continues to share his love for our country, and the value he assigns to freedom, in an effort to educate and inspire future generations. Confined to his home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he is still engaging audiences through video-conferencing software. Weldon first shared his powerful – and colorful – life story on Hometown Heroes on episodes #411 & 412, which you can connect to here.
—Paul Loeffler