World War II Book.Indd
ARNOLD SAMUELS WWllHOLOCAUST EYEWITNESS “The Weimar Republic, with all its liberal trappings and blessings, was regarded as an imposition of the enemy. …and into that void after a pause there strode a maniac of ferocious genius, the repository and expression of the most virulent hatreds that have ever corroded the human breast—Corporal Hitler.” – Winston S. Churchill nyone who lost aunts, uncles and cousins in the Holo- caust never forgets. So it seemed fitting that the shades Awere drawn on an otherwise sparkling winter’s day at Ocean Shores, Wash. It was February 6, 2015. Arnold Samu- els, 91, pointed toward a binder of photos he took 70 years ago when he arrived at Dachau, the Nazis’ first concentration camp. Ordinarily, he’s so playful that what happened next was star- tling. He closed his eyes, held his head and made a low keen- ing sound—an anguished “Awwwwwwww”—as the memories flooded his brain. “People need to see them,” he finally said. “But they give me nightmares. I just couldn’t visualize how a cultured nation could do that to other human beings.” A cuckoo clock chirped. Its cheerfulness seemed hollow. “Take a look at the pictures!” Samuels implored. “You say to yourself, ‘Why?’ It’s just un-understandable.” U.S. Army Private First Class Samuels, a German Jew whose family had escaped to America, was back in Bavaria in the spring of 1945. Since entering combat with the 70th Infantry Division’s Artillery around Christmas, he had gone on many reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines. His flawless, idiomatic German yielded crucial information about Nazi de- fenses.
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