DOD MEDIA ON V-E DAY

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
V-E Day Marked End of Long Road for World War II Troops
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2015 – When President Harry S. Truman, British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin simultaneously announced that Nazi Germany had surrendered on May 8, 1945, the joy Americans felt was tempered by where they were.

The war that began with Germany invading Poland Sept. 1, 1939, ended with the total defeat of the Nazi menace and the unconditional surrender of the German military.

In New York, London and Moscow the eruption of joy was instantaneous. Men and women rushed to the streets to hug and kiss and dance. The war against Nazi Germany was over. The killing had stopped. A great evil ended.

The End of a Long Road

On the front lines deep in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, the celebration was more muted, with soldiers gradually realizing they were not going to be shot at anymore and were going to go home.

Their joy was further tempered because, while Germany was defeated, Japan fought on. The soldiers realized their divisions, brigades and units would be part of the invasion of Japan.

In the Pacific, there was a brief acknowledgement that the European battle was over, but it didn’t really matter to the soldiers and Marines who were still attacking Japanese positions on Okinawa or to the sailors who were fending off kamikaze attacks on ships off the island.

V-E Day signified the end of a long road. Just between June 1944 and May 8, 1945, there were 552,117 U.S. casualties in the European theater of operations. Of those, 104,812 were killed in action.

In January 1945, many believed the war in Europe would last much longer.
In January, U.S. Army soldiers were still battling against German forces that had launched the Battle of the Bulge. That battle was the largest the U.S. Army ever fought and out of the 90,000 casualties around 19,000 soldiers were killed.
Events accelerated from there.

The War Moves into Germany

Bombing missions continued over Germany and every B-17 or B-24 lost over the Reich meant a loss of 10 Americans. On the ground, Allied troops mopped up German resistance on the west bank of the Rhine River.

On March 7, 1945, soldiers from the 9th Armored Division secured the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River in Remagen, Germany. The U.S. 1st Army vaulted the water barrier and struck deep into Germany. The 3rd Army also crossed the river and moved on. On March 22, U.S. and British forces launch a massive operation over the Rhine in Oppenheim.

On April 2, U.S. forces surrounded 600,000 Germans in the Ruhr Pocket. Throughout the month, American forces begin discovering the consequences of the Nazi ideology as they liberated death camps like Buchenwald, Ohrdruf and Dachau.

On April 12, Americans were shocked by the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Harry S Truman was sworn in and vowed to continue Roosevelt’s policies.

On April 21, Soviet forces began their assault on the German capital of Berlin.
With the Soviets closing in, Hitler committed suicide on April 30 and turned power over to Admiral Karl Donitz.

Surrender

On May 2, German forces in Berlin surrendered to the Soviets.
On May 7, formal negotiations for Germany’s surrender began at the Supreme headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force headquarters in Rheims, France, and the Germans surrender unconditionally the next day.

At the conclusion of the surrender, the allied staff attempted to write a message for General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower to send to allied leaders. He opted for “The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, May 7th, 1945.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STATEMENT ON 7Oth ANNIVERSARY OF DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP LIBERATION

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE
April 29, 2015
Statement by the President on the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Dachau

On this day, we remember when American forces liberated Dachau 70 years ago, dismantling the first concentration camp established by the Nazi regime.  Dachau is a lesson in the evolution of darkness, how unchecked intolerance and hatred spiral out of control.

From its sinister inception in 1933, Dachau held political prisoners – opponents of the Third Reich.  It became the prototype for Nazi concentration camps and the training ground for Schutzstaffel (SS) camp guards.  As the seed of Nazi evil grew, the camp swelled with thousands of others across Europe targeted by the Nazis, including Jews, other religious sects, Sinti, Roma, LGBT persons, the disabled, and those deemed asocial.

Our hearts are heavy in remembrance of the more than 40,000 individuals from every walk of life who died, and the more than 200,000 who suffered at Dachau.  As we reflect on the anniversary of Dachau’s liberation, we draw inspiration from, and recall with gratitude, the sacrifices of so many Americans – in particular our brave soldiers – to win victory over oppression.  Drawing from the words of Captain Timothy Brennan, who wrote to his wife and child after liberating the camp - “You cannot imagine that such things exist in a civilized world” – we fervently vow that such atrocities will never happen again.  History will not repeat itself.

A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SPEAKS TO CADETS

FROM:  U.S. AIR FORCE
Holocaust survivor: 'You're the last generation that will hear from us'
by Amber Baillie
Academy Spirit staff writer

4/23/2012 - U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFNS) -- To this day, 77-year-old Marion Blumenthal Lazan feels a strong sense of fear when she sees a German shephard.

It takes her back to that cold, rainy night in 1944 when she arrived at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a 9-year-old, and was threatened along with thousands of other Jewish families by Nazi guards with vicious police dogs.

Although it's difficult for Lazan to revisit that dark period, she shared her story with 90 cadets at a luncheon April 17 in the Mitchell Hall Formal Dining Room for Holocaust Remembrance Week.

"Although I've spoken to upward of 1 million students and adults over the past 20 years, it still hasn't become easy," Lazan said. "I do recognize the importance of sharing that period of history because in a few short years, Holocaust survivors will no longer be able to give a first-hand account of it."

"You're the last generation that will hear from us, so I ask you to share my story, or any of the Holocaust stories that you have read and heard about," she added.

Lazan spoke about her experiences during World War II from Nazi concentration camps to liberation, and how she started her life anew in the United States.

"Mine is a story that Anne Frank might have told had she survived," Lazan said. "This is a story that could bring a message of preservance, determination, faith and above all, hope."

Lazan said she will never forget the night of Nov. 9, 1938. Often referred to as Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, Nazis and their followers destroyed Jewish stores, synagogues and books, and Lazan's father was sent to a concentration camp.

"This was the beginning of a massive physical and verbal assault against Jews in Germany," Lazan said. "In reality, this was the beginning of the Holocaust."

The Blumenthal family, Marion, her mother, Ruth, father, Walter and brother, Albert, had filed papers to immigrate to America but were trapped by the Germans in the Netherlands. Eventually the family was shipped to a concentration camp.

"When we saw the cattle cars we were to travel in, our fears began to mount," Lazan said. "Adults suspected and they somehow knew what was in store for us."

Lazan said while at Bergen-Belsen, 600 people were crammed into crude, wooden barracks with two people per bunk.

"There was no privacy, no toilet paper, no soap and hardly any water to wash with," Lazan said. "In the almost year and a half we were there, never once were we able to brush our teeth."

Lazan said she never knew if she'd survive while being marched to the showers once a month.

"Watchful eyes of the guards ordered us to undress and because people had heard about exterminations and gas chambers, we were never quite sure what would come out when the faucets were turned on: Water or gas."

Lazan said death was an everyday occurrence often caused by malnutrition and dysentery. The dark living quarters would cause people to trip and fall over the dead, she said.

"We as children saw things that no one, no matter the age, should ever have to see," Lazan said. "I know that you've probably heard and seen movies and documentaries about the Holocaust, but the constant foul odor, filth and continuous horror and fear surrounded by death is indescribable. There is no way that this can actually be put into words or pictures."

Lazan said she would play make-believe games in her pastime, one in which became very important to her, and eventually became the title of her book, "Four Perfect Pebbles."

"I decided that if I was to find four pebbles of about the same size and shape, that it would mean my four family members would all survive," Lazan said. "I always found my four pebbles, and this game gave me some distant hope."

Lazon said her meager diet caused her stomach to shrink, and hunger was no longer painful.

"By liberation, at age 10-and-a-half, I weighed 35 pounds and my mother, a mere 60," Lazan said. "There is no doubt in my mind that it was my mother's inner strength and fortitude that finally saw us through."

In April 1945, the Russian army liberated the Nazi train one which Lazan and her family were aboard. The train was headed to the extermination camp and gas chambers.

"It's truly remarkable how any of us were able to survive in such horrendous conditions," she said. "Five hundred people died on the route or shortly after."

Among the dead was Lazan's father, who succumbed to typhus six weeks after liberation.

Two years later, at age 13, Marion, alongside her mother and brother, immigrated to the United States.

"It's a wonderful story of how we gradually recuperated and started our lives anew," Lazan said.

Lazan graduated from high school on time, after a delayed education, and married her husband Nathaniel Lazan, who later became a B-25 Mitchell Bomber pilot in the Air Force.

"My relationship with the Air Force goes back to the 1950s," Lazan said. "It was a proud moment when I pinned the silver wings on my husband in 1955 at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas."

Lazan said despite all of the terrible things that happened to her as a child, her life today is full and rewarding.

"I'm very grateful that I survived body, mind and spirit, and was able to perpetuate my heritage with my husband and family," Lazan said.

Holocaust Remembrance Day was April 19