Living with History
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SELL YOUR HOME EASIER! Local,Experienced&Trusted Getthe RIGHTRealEstateAdvice... GetGeiger JASONGEIGER It’s your paper! (608) 277-2167 Friday, April 10, 2015 • Vol. 2, No. 2 • Fitchburg, WI • ConnectFitchburg.com • $1 Office Next to GreatDane-Fitchburg GeigerRealtors.com adno=397500-01 Holocaust remembrance Spring election Inside City hires first Arnold female full-time Living with History firefighter Fitchburg author explores father’s role in death camp liberation Page 2 elected MICHAEL LEON City Star correspondent City considers TIF The letter to his family back home in Appleton left no doubt how Amer- mayor for Sub-Zero/Wolf ican top brass felt about Nazis in World War II. Unofficial results Page 3 “I mentioned to Gen. Patton yes- terday that while I was awaiting the show close election, Schools official entourage I had spoken to a council incumbents (Nazi) guard, an SS man. The gen- eral reprimanded me before about 500 prevail Voters approve other GIs when I told him that this referendums in man was still alive when I left him.” SCOTT GIRARD Dated April 13, 1945, and addressed Unified Newspaper Group Madison, Verona from Alois ‘Al’ J. Liethen, the officer- in-charge of a U.S. Army Military City of Fitchburg vot- Pages 8-9 Intelligence Service (Interrogation ers chose a new direction Prisoner of War) team, it’s just one of for the top leadership of the many pieces of memorabilia giving city, but also voted to keep a look at the life of a father who died incumbent alders on the long before his son could fully grasp Common Council. the enormity of what he had seen at the Preliminary results from Buchenwald extermination complex. the April 7 election show Longtime Fitchburg resident Michael Ald. Steve Arnold (Dist. Liethen is writing a book about the 4), who has service to humanity by his father, Al been on the A Madison-area parent’s guide Liethen, and the Allied forces. council for to everything kids! The elder Liethen is prominently 10 years, featured as the interpreter and guide beat incum- for Gens. Eisenhower, Bradley, Pat- bent mayor ton and his own commanding offi- Shawn Pfaff cer, Gen. "Bulldog" Walker of the for the may- A 2015 special supplement by Ohrdruf sub-camp (of Buchenwald), oral office. Arnold shortly after the liberation of the Arnold Pages 15-18 extermination factory, Buchenwald, Photos by Don Kosterman received 70 years ago this month. Michael Liethen explains hard-copy research of intelligence reports and documents in a 2,517 votes The trained German linguist had bookshelf at his home March 31. His late father, Al Liethen, was an interpreter and guide to Pfaff’s Sports interviewed both survivors and Nazis for American generals after the liberation of the Buchenwald death factory. 2,445, at the camps to find out what had according happened. ‘I researched the history to numbers Al Liethen, who spent about a year like a lawyer establishing from the City in Europe, is featured in an iconic a case.’ of Fitch- 1945 photo with those generals – a burg clerk’s Pfaff office. As of total of 21 stars at once – that is on Michael Liethen display at the United States Holo- the Star’s Wednesday dead- caust Memorial Museum. line, there were 67 absen- The subject matter of the younger tee ballots outstanding, not Liethen’s book, “World War II and enough to change the out- the Holocaust,” is expansive and hor- commemorated around the world this come. rid, and his commitment to precision winter and spring, he’s compiling his The four incumbent alders is clear. research to try to complete the pic- facing challengers in the “I am careful not to engage in hagi- ture of Al. No historical scholarship election also prevailed. ography (biographical or historical can do justice to the horror of the The election results are accounts of subjects as possessing Nazi extermination camp systems, expected to become official saintly qualities),” explained Liethen, a but Liethen’s commitment to careful Monday, April 13. retired attorney. “Objective and critical research has produced a large body Pfaff would have until research are imperative.” of original work. Michael shows letters sent by his father, Al, Thursday, April 16, to file Baseball season Michael, a former director of UW- The liberation of the Buchenwald through Victory Mail, often used by over- for a recount if he wanted. Madison’s Office of Legal Services system near Weimar in east-central seas troops and their families. However, If the difference between the begins at West who later went into private corporate Germany is the site of the first world- most of the mail Al sent did not go through candidates, which currently consulting, lost his father in 1961 to wide reporting disseminated by the V-Mail because of security concerns. is at 1.5 percent, were less Page 19 a heart attack at age 53 and “didn’t U.S. Army Signal Corps and Office than .5 percent, he would know much” about Al’s service of Strategic Services of the Nazis’ in disfavor by the totalitarian Nazis, not have to pay any fee. Business growing up. “final solution.” collaborators and bystanders. Otherwise, he would have “He alluded, I think, when I was As the World War II genera- Wrote Al Liethen in his April 13, to pay $5 per ward, or $95. Realtime Utility 17, to experiences that he had, but tion passes, voluminous oral and 1945, letter about the liberation: “I haven’t ruled it out, Engineers moves they really did not make much of an other historical treatments mark the “One look at their faces since they but I haven’t ruled it in yet impression on me,” Michael admitted. attempted state-sponsored, system- have been liberated and you will get either,” Pfaff said. to Fitchburg “I was too full of myself at 17.” atic annihilation of European Jews, a worms eye view of what they went Arnold said Tuesday As the 70th anniversary of anni- gays, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma through; One minute in this camp night after the unofficial Page 31 and Sinti (Gypsies) and others held hilation camp liberations are Turn to Holocaust/Page 28 Turn to Election/Page 11 PRSRT STANDARD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID UNIFIED NEWSPAPER GROUP 2 We’reMore Than Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing &Rehab See Page fo on for in ries We’reaDaily Dose of Fun with Weekly Musical Events! entia Se Dem ona t the Ver April 16, 2pm -Old Time Fiddlers a enter Senior C April 22, 2pm -SteveDoyle, Guitar,Older Songs April29, 2pm -Stephan Rich: Vaudeville, Comedy,Yodeling adno=401967-01 www.fourwindsmanor.com (608) 845-6465 Better Care. Better Living. 2 April 10, 2015 The Fitchburg Star ConnectFitchburg.com Fiery determination Fitchburg hires Julie Griessmeyer as its first female full-time firefighter JACOB BIELANSKI ‘You have to tread Madison, the first female Unified Newspaper Group firefighters did not appear lightly sometimes - until 1978, four years after It was a bike ride that I think sometimes the department hired its catalyzed Julie Griessmey- first black firefighters. er’s career change. more so from the “It can be a bit intimidat- In 2012, the Vanderbilt men’s perspective ing,” Griessmeyer said of biology graduate and Indi- being in an overwhelming- ana native unexpectedly with me around.’ ly male field. “You have to lost her job in Madison. tread lightly sometimes - I In the wake of this, she Julie Griessmeyer, think sometimes more so wound up with a bicycling Fitchburg Fire from the men’s perspective group that included Laura Department with me around.” Laurenzi, the Madison Fire Her rise began in 2013, Department’s assistant when she became a paid chief. on-call firefighter. During Laurenzi, who has been service?’” that time, she returned to with the department for 25 On March 4, Griessmey- Madison College to earn years, was hired shortly er became the Fitchburg Firefighter I and II certifi- after the first “wave” of Fire Department’s first cates, as well as an EMT- female firefighters came to female full-time firefight- Basic license. She said her the area. It was at a dinner er. time as an on-call firefight- after the bike ride that Lau- “It’s exciting,” Griess- er has made the full-time renzi recalls Griessmeyer meyer said. “I don’t look transition a smooth one. discussing plans to return at it as any different from “The department has to school for a nutrition- my normal tasks, but it is been great,” Griessmeyer related degree. an honor.” said. “They’ve accepted “She didn’t really sound According to the Nation- me with wide open arms.” Photo by Jacob Bielanski like she had her heart in al Fire Protection Asso- In addition to her fire- Julie Griessmeyer poses in the truck bay of Fitchburg’s Fire Station number 1. Griessmeyer became it,” Laurenzi said. “I said, ciation, women today com- fighting training, Griess- the Fitchburg Fire Department’s first female full-time firefighter on March 4, after almost two years as a ‘so why don’t you con- prise less than 4 percent of meyer is passionate paid on-call firefighter. sider a career in the fire firefighters nationwide. In about fitness and said she “trained with the guys” young girls to consider also work well in a team. in high school. In her off fire service a “real occupa- “An athlete makes a time, Griessmeyer takes tion.” good firefighter, because boot camp classes and “Its tough, because most often times they encoun- teaches fitness at a local of the females I do know ter discomfort and have gym.