CONTRIBUTIONS FROM  ASSOCIATION MEMBERS  of the
87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion

The following article was submitted by Rogers McCrae and is an excellent reminder
to us of what we were fighting for in WWII

;

"LIBERATION OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMP NORDHAUSEN"

By Rogers M. McCrae

(Hqs Battery Communication Section)

In response to the businesss meeting held in Tucson, Arizona, in September of 1989, I am prompted to record an eye witness account of the liberation of the concentration and death camp located at Nordhausen. No attempt is made in this report to pin exact dates, but a bracket of the time had to be before April 12th and after April 9th, 1945.

Several years prior to the Tucson Reunion the Kansas City Star printed an article quoting several Kansas University professors, that the "so called German death camps" were highly exaggerated and went on at length about historical records, etc., which brought out an angry resolve on my part, as an eye witness, to set down an account of what I saw. The "sands of time" are fast running out for those who were there, so I began researching the different libraries in the Kansas City area to refresh my memory after forty-six years.

Nordhausen has not been one of the favorites of the media, but it is certainly no less unspeakable with its horror. This account is meant to show one of the many historical experiences of this combat battalion as it fought across Europe from Cherbourg where it landed, some of its liaison units the 1st hour of "D" Day. Personally, I believe this account is not a pleasant subject, and I can't say I enjoy setting down this part of the record however, in later years I have heard various people say that Americans did little to stop the Holocaust. I wish some of the wretches we saved at Nordhausen could respond to that statement.

In regard to conditions, activities, and disposal of discarded human shells; General Eisenhower stated it the best: "We are constantly finding German camps in which they have placed political prisoners where unspeakable conditions exist" and "From my personal observation, I can state unequivocally that all written statements up to now do not paint the full horrors." The previous quotes were made several days following the over-run of the camp as well as the photographs, which were apparently taken at the time personnel from "Graves Registration" had moved in. These latter always followed behind the front line units.

Photographs used in this report are from United States Army Signal Corps taken one to three days after the 87th went through. Some of the quotes are taken from the book by Robert H. Abzug, "Inside the Vicious Heart" which he used. Abzug, in his book, mentions Patton's 3rd Army as the liberating unit which is obviously confused with the Third Armored Division, which the media often mistook at this time.

Actually the 87th AFA Battalion was fractured at this time with parts supporting the 24th Squadron to the north, and the 4th Squadron to the south; both of the 4th Calvary Group. Parts of the 1st Infantry and parts of the 104th were in our combat team. 3rd Armored were further south. From my memory and using the above as background, the story unfolds as follows:

THE STORY

The war was beginning to run down, Buford Dobbs and I were in the communications section operating a SCR 191 AM radio on one side and a SCR 608 FM on the other side of the rear end of an armored half track. Upon entering the Harz Mountains, radio reception was difficult and we picked up and relayed messages between forward observers with forward units each to the guns or fire direction center if it was set up at the particular time.

The time had come when many of us were beginning to believe we might get out of this "thing" alive. When this happens the fear increases (if you think you don't have a chance, fear leaves). My thoughts often were of my friend, Alvin Cowling, who had taken a battle field commission, and was killed outside Houffalize by a sniper. We had become close friends in Panama, and later in Europe would see each other, when Captain Dave Olson's survey section would cross our paths. The combat unit I was with at the time suddenly came to a halt on the north side of the town of Nordhausen. Radio activity picked up and we could tell on our assigned frequencies that we had met stiff resistance. Small arms, "burp" guns, and heavy gun fire went on through the night.

At one point aircraft flairs were dropped, being off the road under cover of some trees, we were fairly certain German M. E. 109's were doing the bombing and low strafing up ahead, but it sounded too far ahead, and later it was suggested it was U. S. Planes. We never found out for certain. We broke out some "C" Ration cans, a choice of corned beef hash, vegetable beef stew and hard tack biscuits, by pumping up the Coleman Stove we cooked the hash in canteen cups with coffee. This was done out the back armored plate door of the track. 88's and Neblleweffers were going off not too far away so slit trenches were dug and we slept with one blanket wrapped around for warmth and falling dirt clods.

The next morning we moved out at daylight moving slowly with a column of tracks, light tanks, and jeeps. When we finally entered Nordhausen a strange site appeared, walking skeletons, clothed in filthy striped prison suits, wandering or really staggering along the sides of the road; some were lying on their sides at the curbs lifting one arm from their sides in a wave as we passed, others were just lying too weak to move. A strong odor of dead bodies soon became quite evident,and when we came to what was the center of the concentration camp we left the vehicles and went over to observe what was going on.

The gates, barbed wire, and entrances had been broken down and in the center of an open area surrounded by one-story flimsy barrack-type buildings, the infantry guys had captured the SS Commandant of the camp and tied him to a stake located in the center of the prison yard. Their purpose was to allow the ex-prisioners to stone him. But they were too weak to do much more than spit on him. The man himself fit the picture-tight fitting riding boots Wehrmact SS black breeches and shirt, shaved head, and Heidelberg scar down one cheek. Other SS prisoners were taken and we would tear off their shirts to see if they had the SS tattoo on their right shoulder.

There appeared to be more dead in and around the prison yard than alive. One of the units quickly moved forward and set up a kitchen tent to try and feed the souls, but few were able to eat. Moving south on the road, we passed a railroad switching yard lined with box cars where dead bodies were lying grotesquely along the tracks, hanging out of the box car doors, and even up to the road where they had crawled before they died.

The information was that the SS were trying to evacuate these prisoners before we overran the town, then when they saw they weren't going to make it, they called in the Luftwaffe to bomb and strafe the trains, and kill as many as they could. The survivors were what we saw in the camp and along the road when we came in. Somewhere in the midst of this Dobbs and I were separated and this is his story:

"The scene in the railroad yard was so awful, I long since tried to put it out of my mind. What I do remember was being a part of a detail pulling bodies out of the box cars and lining them up along the station platform while Doc Paull, 87th AFA Battalion M.D., with others, checked each body for signs of life to separate these for medical attention. Not many were still alive." Following are quotes from Robert H. Abzug's Book, "Inside theVicious Heart":

It was April 11 that the Timberwolf Division pulled into Nordhausen. It came upon 3000 corpses and more than seven hundred barely surviving inmates. The vast majority of both the living and the dead lay in two double-decker barracks, piled three to a bunk or half-hidden in mounds of excelsior and straw on the floor. Many were too weak to move, and the rooms reeked of death and excrement. Already prey to starvation and tuberculosis, the prisoners had also suffered numerous casualties from American bombings of the V-2 factories the week before. "Only a handful could stand on rickety pipstem legs. Their eyes were sunk deeply into their skulls and their skins under thick dirt were a ghastly yellow. Some sobbed great dry sobs to see the Americans. Others erely wailed pitifully, and one poor semiconscious Jew...kept crying 'Ey yaah'".

"We laboriously tried to pick out the ones who still showed signs of life. And we used the German civilians to help us in that, and, frankly, I must say that they were as sick as our guys were. They always said that they had no idea that these things were going on, and in many instances it is possibly true, because certainly they weren't publicized. And some of them refused to lend a hand because they said, "We had no part in this." And, of course, at that time, nobody would accept that as an excuse, and then they offered to pitch in. -Fred Bohm"

We started getting these bodies and we wound up--I was told--the total number was about 2000, and we just had them in big long lines and I know our chaplain was just running up and down the lines, just straining and cursing and everything. It was just a silent stink putrid death is. I mean, you know, we would even communicate with each other in whispers and things like that, don't know why you do that, don't ask me, you just do. I guess half my thoughts were really prayers, but right at that point, we were trying to get these bodies out. We were afraid of disease and this kind of thing, and we wanted to get them under the ground and restore some sort of dignity to them, but then we had another mission after that one. I guess really later the profoundness of the situation gradually came to me. - C.W. Doughty"

As I think back over the years, I realize that God used us to uncover this evil and release these prisoners, whether Jew or Gentile, but what a price was paid until we got there.

May God forbid the human race from ever again descending to such a level.

Rogers M. McCrae

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