Chance encounter - veteran of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

[feldpost 58]

Hi,

In the course of my work, I recently went to visit a 92 year old gentleman in his home.
He was a very intelligent man, with good conversational skills and I asked him eventually if he had served in the British Army during WW2.
He told me he had served from May 1939 until 1947, and was a "DR" (despatch rider) in a unit throughout the war.
He seemed reluctant to talk about his service time, but told me that he "Had served near Penrith, where we were issued with tropical kit; shorts etc as a feint to decieve enemy intelligence"
"We were then moved to the south coast, where we fished the bodies of American GI's out of the sea for about two weeks - they had been attacked by German E-boats while training for D-Day"
After more small talk, I mentioned that I had recently visited Dachau KZ, and that the weather had been very hot. I said that one has the image of KZ victime suffering from cold and wet, where in Dachau they would probably suffered more from the heat in the summer months.
He then said, "Poor bastards, I was in Belsen on the 2nd day of their liberation, I saw sights there I will never forget; the horror will stay with me until I die. There I saw things I will never get out of my mind"

[petopoint]

sea disaster

If he was fishing GI's out of the sea it was probably from the pre invasion disaster
that took close to 800 - 1000 American lives. That incident was covered up until
after the war. Did he mention anything about secrecy on this?
Sounds like he could provide a very good living recording of his exploits.

Peto at point

[feldpost 58]

Hi Petopint,

I know the disaster that this man was talking about, which was covered up at the time.
He told me that "Most of the GI's had broken necks from jumping from the ships into the water with the chinstraps of their helmets under their chins"
He also said that "When we were on our way to Belsen, we could smell the place 4-5 miles away, we thought we were going to a battlefield where the dead had been lying for several days in the hot sun.We had advanced so far and quickly through Germany that our job would be to bury the bodies of soldiers KIA on a place where there had been no time to bury the dead".
I told him that it was in the school curriculum for German children to visit the nearest KZ, but it was not compulsury and that when I had visited Belsen the kids had used the bricks of the hut foundatins to mark each prisoner with name and KZ number as a memorial to each victim; and they had painted the date of death of each prisoner on the bottom of each brick.
He was pleased with this, and never blamed the German people for the atrocity. Saying "The Germans are OK; they have a lovely counrty and are friendly and full of humour - great people"
"I was in Osnabruck after the war, and the Germans wer good to me"

Best wishes,

John.

[camouk]

Interesting point about the weather.My father came from Belzec,in South Eastern Poland.I am sure many people are familiar with that name and what went on there.I visited the village as a schoolboy and actually suffered sun stroke,which led to hallucinations.The perception of that country being cold and grey is a false one.

[pete]

Nice story about the bricks, things get lost in time but it was nice to hear this new info about what the kids did. The same idea with the Bricks in modern day:

http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/wall.html

[LarryHW.]

Interesting point about the weather.My father came from Belzec,in South Eastern Poland.I am sure many people are familiar with that name and what went on there.I visited the village as a schoolboy and actually suffered sun stroke,which led to hallucinations.The perception of that country being cold and grey is a false one.

I always heard that Polish summers can be super hot.