Holocaust
In early 1945, 1 was sent to join the 75th Infantry Division in combat on the west side of the Maas (Meuse in English) River in Holland. This was but a few miles from the English Channel. We fought our way across the Maas and to the Rhine River. There an 88mm field artillery shell threw me about 20 feet through the air. I successfully dodged many other bullets and shells. On the levee of the Rhine, the Germans pulled Hitler’s biggest gun in the world on a buddy and I. That biggest gun barrel in the world was aimed straight at us when the Army Air Corp dive-bombers stopped it. We were lucky.
The nearly starved, forced-labor people were all over. In Dortmund, Germany we saw bodies lined up side by side on a porch. Some of them were barely alive, others were dead. Only the medics could detect the difference. There were many of them that our medics feared they could not keep alive even with special diets. It was my privilege to briefly assist the medics in getting water to these unfortunate people.
We continued our ordeal to the middle of northern Germany. It ended on May 8, 1945. By the end of summer I was in Furth, Germany. A local Woolworth Department Store keeper told me that Furth before the war had had the highest percentage of Jewish population of any city in Germany. They were gone. Furth is a twin city to Nuremberg. Nuremberg was the site of Hitler’s night marches. Just south of Furth was the infamous March Field. The head Nazis were on trial at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
During my year as a member of the Army of Occupation in Germany, I traveled much of the country. I saw the holding barracks and the cremating ovens of the concentration camps. The claim is that 6,000,000 innocent Jews were put to death in those camps during the reign of the Nazis. The American military’s newspaper “The Stars and Stripes” reported with pictures and on-the-spot news items the facts of the sordid remaining evidence. The evidence certainly supported the claim. It happened. Those few trying nowadays to say otherwise are extremely foolish.
Much to the disgust of many, a holocaust is taking place in this country many of us love and fought to protect. The victims of this ongoing holocaust, innocent babies, are said to be approaching the 40,000,000 mark. The parallels are frightening. Hitler and his few thugs took over Germany and brought the downfall of its people. Here, in the USA only nine men’s decision began this holocaust by extending an unspeakable right. It is sad.
Is there any basis on which our God of mercy and justice should bless a nation whose undeniably innocent victims exceed the victims of the very evil German Nazis by almost seven times! (?) Will we, as a nation, come to our senses? Or, will we continue on this evil course? Is this 75 year old man to live to see his beloved country fall due to its own foolishness? Must a time come when only an invading military force can turn us around? As an alternative, shall we turn, and avoid a sure calamity? This nation of people does not need more men under arms. It needs the fervent prayers of the faithful. Will you join me?
This was written by Roy C. Watson on November 17, 2000 at Jackson, Mississippi.