FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009 – About 350 American POWs who either were Jewish or appeared to be to their German captors were imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II, according to survivors who have begun telling their stories in a series of special reports on CNN.
Anthony Acevedo, a medic in the 70th Infantry Division during the war, was the first survivor to step forward with the grisly tale of the American soldiers held at Berga an der Elster, a subcamp of Buchenwald. After being captured during the Battle of the Bulge, Acevedo says he was sent to a POW camp near Bad Orb, Germany, where he was held with other American soldiers. About a month later, the camp's commander told the prisoners to line up and ordered all of the Jewish soldiers to take one step forward. When few volunteered, Acevedo says, about 90 Jewish soldiers and more than 250 others the Germans thought "looked like Jews" were put on a train to Buchenwald. Acevedo, a Mexican American, is not Jewish.
Subscribe Today
Once he arrived at the concentration camp, he saw dozens of his fellow soldiers beaten, starved, and in some cases executed for trying to escape. Forced to dig tunnels for 12 hours a day in the final weeks of the war, the prisoners were given 100 grams of bread per week and soup made from rats. As a medic, Acevedo was required to use wax to fill up the holes in the skulls of prisoners who had been executed. When American military units neared the camp, the prisoners were forced with the rest of the camp's inmates on a three-week death march. Fewer than half of the remaining soldiers survived.
Those who did were sworn to secrecy by the army. "We had to sign an affidavit…[saying] we never went through what we went through. We weren't supposed to say a word," Acevedo told CNN. Frank Shirer, the chief archivist at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, asserted that the men's stories were kept secret "to protect escape and evasion techniques and the names of personnel who helped POW escapees."
Last fall, Acevedo, 84, finally broke his silence, determined to share his experience with the world. After his story appeared on CNN, two congressmen asked the U.S. Army to recognize the service of Acevedo and the rest of the Berga soldiers. "These heroes have not received the recognition and honor they deserve," Reps. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) and Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) wrote in a letter to the army secretary in November.
Loading ...
this site sucks
i think your site is alright it is true history that will not ever be forgotton.
he should have broken his word when they got back to our people.no one should stay quiet about anything like that at all.not then and not now.
My father was liberated from a forced labor camp on April 8th, 1945 but I can't find which one. Is there somebody I can contact to see if he is on the list of Americans liberated from Berga? I have tried the military and VA, but they are of no assistance. Told me his records were destroyed by a fire in 1972 at the VA Adminstration in Oklahoma. I'd appreciate any help I can get as I want to take my children and grandchildren to where he was captured (St. Vith on December 23rd, 1944) and to where he was liberated from…. his strength and courage to survive is why we are here today.
POOR PABLO THINKS THIS SITE IS LESS THAN HE EXPECTS?
WELL, PABLO, WHY NOT DISCONNECT YOUR COMPUTER
OR DO YOU NEED HELP WITH THAT…….
CHANCE…VIETNAM VET
There is more to this story. I watched the CNN special. A movie should be made, to show what these men went thru and the truth be known. Acevedo, a Mexican-American who grew up in Pasadena, California, in a barro call " Chihuahita". Mexican_Americans have recieved so little reconition for their part in the war.
My grandfather was captured at the Battle of the Bulge and sent to a camp as well. I don't know that this was the camp that he was tortured at, but there was an Army officer that contacted my family in the last couple of years. He had a book with the names of the men that were there, and he was trying to write a book about their experience.
My brother was also captured at the Battle of the Bulge and sent to camp as well. He never told of being tortured, but I heard today he had told someone I know that he was tortured. He never told this to any family member. I feel so sad, he was a great brother to me and passed away in 2005. His name should be there also. He had to eat broth and dark bread one day and then the next he would wash in the broth it was so thin. This was in the winter.
I, too, am trying to find a roster of names of US GIs taken to CAMP BAD ORB and then to….? Maybe Buchenwald or Bergen-Belsen. Many of the stories he told me are so similar but I know he ended up "farming" for the German officers @ the last camp. He was captured near Bastogne in early Jan 1945. I recall he told me the day his camp was liberated was the day the American troops had gotten word that President Roosevelt died. So, I'd have to guess that it was Apr 12, or 13th, 1945. If anyone out there has any info, please respond. Thank you! I am trying to compile a history of these events for my children. They really don't teach much about WWII anymore and we cannot lose this information!
My uncle Vernon Jenkins was prisoner in BAd Orb. He was a member of the 5th regiment, 29th Division of the Maryland National Guard. He was captured in St. Vith during the Battle of The Bulge. My dad Robert P Jenkins was in Malmidy, app.23km distance from from St. Vith when my uncle was reported missing in action. He was liberated when the takenby American forces. My uncle was a staff Sargent so he was one of the leaders in the camp. Others in the camp referee to him as "Pops". According to my cousin Joyce my uncle kept a diary during his captivity. I only know of one quote from the diary.."when you found a worm in your soup, you cut it in half and gave half to your best friend"..