The Wounded in Spirit on Memorial Day

The Washington Post published a very moving and timely editorial last Sunday, on Memorial Day. The Post urged us to keep all our veterans and their families in mind, but particularly those wounded in spirit as well as in body. The military is beginning to pay serious attention to the high rate of suicides and the numbers of soldiers reported to have post-traumatic stress disorder.

In 2005 the Army saw 86 suicides. By 2008 the number had risen to 133. 

 Three members of the famed 101st Airborne Division have been killed in combat in Afghanistan so far this year.  Eleven have committed suicide in the same period of time. The Army has put Ft. Campbell, home of the 101st, on a three-day "standdown" to focus on this disturbing problem and encourage soldiers to seek help if they feel they are in danger of taking their own lives. The Army acknowledges that the only absolute remedy is for the troops to have more time with their families, but that is not likely to happen for at least the next 18 months. 

Here is the link to the editorial:

Memorial Day: let us not overlook those wounded in spirit.

Connect to the story in history on Memorial Day

   

The photo is of my great-uncle, Arthur Smith, greeting a child in Belgium during World War I. He returned home to farm his family's land in Western Pennsylvania.

Every year as Memorial Day approaches, someone writes a column about how shallow we are as a nation to be caught up in daydreaming about the hot dogs and burgers on the grill, the guest list for the picnic, or the opening of the swimming pool, especially when so many of our soldiers are in danger at war overseas. I won't argue with the criticism. The purpose of Memorial Day, after all, is to honor and remember those who have who died in the service of their country. And I've been as guilty as anyone. While I could be thinking of what and whom the day represents, my mind is more likely to be found wandering over to the potato salad. 

This year will be different. I've been focused on veterans a lot after writing about my dad and his World War II service, and I asked myself how I could better honor the day. It feels more important than it did before I wrote the book. War and the horror it brings can't really co-exist with the holiday mood, and a moment needs to be set aside to remember. In a way, Memorial Day is for the living, for the survivors — the Gold Star mother or father, the child, or husband or wife who is sadly left with only memories.

The best way for me to mark Memorial Day, I decided, was to take some time to talk to a World War II veteran, perhaps with my tape recorder or notepad at hand to record his or her stories. I'd be glad to talk to any veteran — I mention World War II because, as I've said before, time is running out. 

Jerry Waxler writes in his blog, Memory Writers Network, that we need to "get those stories while there is still time." Some of us, he says, may be secretly hesitant because our parent or grandparent has memory lapses and we don't want to embarrass them with questions impossible to answer. Waxler discovered an interesting fact about memory loss — that short term memory deteriorates before long term memory, so the distant past may be accessible although the person remembers little of what took place yesterday. 

You never know what you might learn in the interview. In my next blog, I'll be talking — and listening — to a World War II veteran. How about in your family —why don't you get out the video or tape recorder and see what stories they have to tell? As Rudyard Kipling said, "If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten."

And you can have fun doing it. It is a holiday weekend, time for family and picnics. As I talk with a friend who's a World War II veteran, I'm sure I'll find time to look for that potato salad.

Ebensee anniversary marred by Nazi salutes and "Heil Hitler"

Five young men, dressed in army fatigues, were arrested last Saturday in Ebensee, Austria after disrupting the commemoration of the 64th anniversary of the liberation of the camp from Nazi hands. They gave Nazi salutes, shouted "Heil Hitler," and shot pellets at several of the visitors, according to police.

Their actions were in violation of Austrian law, which bans neo-Nazi activities. The president of the Austrian parliament, Barbara Prammer, called the incident " beyond belief, dastardly, and shameful," and called for a full investigation.

In last week's blog I talked about the 64th anniversary of the liberation of this same concentration camp. I learned about Ebensee from my father just before he passed away. Toward the end of the war, he and other members of the Armed Forces in Europe were urged by Generals Eisenhower and Patton to go and observe the camps as they were liberated, because both men were outraged at what they had seen in the camps. They wanted to make sure there were as many witnesses as possible to the horrors that had taken place.

Ebensee's day of liberation came on May 6, but was marked this year on the 10th, a Saturday. It's a day that brings people from all over the world, many of them camp survivors and their families, as well as the American soldiers who arrived to assure their freedom. The numbers dwindle each year as the two groups age, but in spite of the difficulties of travel, many make the pilgrimage.

When I heard what had happened this year with these neo-Nazis, I thought back to 2005, when I attended the solemn events with three friends. Both soldiers and survivors were flooded with anguished memories. Survivors greeted each other with almost disbelief that they were still alive. Tears flowed as the crowd listened quietly and respectfully to the speakers.

I can't imagine what it was like last Saturday for that respectful quiet to be so crudely and cruelly broken. Sometimes words fail.

I took the photo above at the 60th anniversary commemoration at Ebensee in 2005.

Never Forget Ebensee, liberated on May 6, 1945

 

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.

 

It was a day both inmates and soldiers would remember forever — the day of liberation May 6, 1945.

 

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.