Ebensee, Austria - Sixty-four years ago today the inmates at the concentration camp — emaciated, frightened, and near death — were surprised by the sound of tanks rumbling up the road. Those who were able to ventured up to the gates to see what was going on as two tanks from the U.S. Third Cavalry roared inside the enclosure. The tanks stopped suddenly. They were unable to proceed because the mass of shocked humanity began crawling over the tanks, yelling and cheering and crying. Some simply stared in disbelief.
I had planned to write some more today about researching your family's military history, but with a jolt I realized what day it was and remembered what had happened 64 years ago. Since then the people in the camp have been on my mind — the people who lived through the torment and those who died from it. And also the soldiers who came upon the camp, such as my father, in the days following the liberation. Prisoners were so malnourished that, as the soldiers began to feed them, hundreds died because they couldn't digest the food.
Today we can remember them in whatever we do throughout the day — I can't suggest if or how you would do that, but I will keep them close all day in mind and heart. Some I will think of are:
- Max Garcia, a Dutch Sephardic Jew who survived and went on to fulfill his dream of becoming a successful architect in San Francisco;
- Andrew Sternberg, only fourteen when taken by the Germans, who brought his grandchildren to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camp;
- Sgt. Bob Persinger who, after leading the Third Cavalry tank crew into the camp, has never been able to erase the memory from his mind;
- My father, Lt. Bill Elvin, who observed the camp several days after its liberation, and said that afterwards, he ran into the woods, devastated and nearly in tears.
- But most of all, the 8,300 who perished at Ebensee at the hands of such monstrous cruelty.
The photo at right shows Polish survivors of the camp at the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camp.
2 comments:
Thank you for posting this.
I met Bob Persinger many years ago, and during a visit to his hometown, he recounted the story of how he liberated Ebensee, the same camp my grandfather was imprisoned in.
To finally hear the other side of my grandfather's horrific experience in those last days of the war, is a memory I will not soon forget.
My father survived that camp and is alive and well in Cleveland Ohio. He asked me to search for American soldiers who liberated the camp that day. Can you help us?
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