WARREN WOLFR

Cordova, Illinois

LETTER

This note is in reply to your article in the QC Times concerning liberators of the Holocaust. My friend Warren Wolfe was one of the very first to go into Dachau. He was an MP during the war and at Dachau; it was his job to protect the place so that Nazis couldn't destroy the evidence. I told him about your project and he said I could give out his name and that he would be willing to talk to you about his experiences. What you're doing is a great idea. Good luck with this project.

INTERVIEW

Q: How were you involved in the War? What were you doing in Europe?
A:  I worked with the Army here. Then I was with the Military Police attached to several individuals. I was with Patton's Third Army, etc.. I landed in France 35 days after D-Day, and then proceeded with Patton's Army. I was with an Infantry Division when we entered the camps. I live in Cordova now. I'm originally from . 

Q:  How did you experience the Holocaust?
A: I was at Dachau and Buchenwald. The troops were told little purposely. They weren't told where they were going, so if they were captured they didn't know anything. We got to Dachau, and they were still burning bodies. We saw dead German soldiers. I'm glad we didn't see who shot them or we would have had to arrest the GIs. I saw the ring fingers of the Germans were gone. There were several piles of clothes. They continued to burn bodies when we got there. There were several hundred bodies there still. I saw only one female body, but I knew women were gassed as well. I saw the train and the dead bodies. What got me was the shape of the bodies...they were just skin and bone. Ex-prisoners were all around.  We were flagged down by a prisoner at one time. He got in the jeep and he told where an SS soldier was in town. We just missed him...he had just left his bed.  In Germany we put up information stations where we posted photos of Dachau. I stood and listened to the comments as people looked at the photographs. Most of the people said they didn't believe what they saw. They believed they were mannequins. That demonstrates the depths that human beings can sink to. Here's a guy , nice house, nice family in town, and he goes to work and kills people. It's almost unbelievable! I can see why Germans deny it happened!

Q:  How did you experience the Holocaust?
A: I was at Dachau and Buchenwald. The troops were told little purposely. They weren't told where they were going, so if they were captured they didn't know anything. We got to Dachau, and they were still burning bodies. We saw dead German soldiers. I'm glad we didn't see who shot them or we would have had to arrest the GIs. I saw the ring fingers of the Germans were gone. There were several piles of clothes. They continued to burn bodies when we got there. There were several hundred bodies there still. I saw only one female body, but I knew women were gassed as well. I saw the train and the dead bodies. What got me was the shape of the bodies...they were just skin and bone. Ex-prisoners were all around.  We were flagged down by a prisoner at one time. He got in the jeep and he told where an SS soldier was in town. We just missed him...he had just left his bed.  In Germany we put up information stations where we posted photos of Dachau. I stood and listened to the comments as people looked at the photographs. Most of the people said they didn't believe what they saw. They believed they were mannequins. That demonstrates the depths that human beings can sink to. Here's a guy , nice house, nice family in town, and he goes to work and kills people. It's almost unbelievable! I can see why Germans deny it happened!

Q:  Were you at any other camps?
A: A: No. The purpose of us being there was to see that nothing was disturbed. Delegates of the U.S. Congress toured the place later. They wanted to see the camp as it was and to see that evidence was not destroyed. There was no attempt to do so. Lots of guards were dead.

Q:  In terms of war criminals, escorting them to trials, what was involved?
A: We didn't speak the language. We were told not to get friendly with the soldiers. I didn't do it, but others were given rifles and bayonets and acted like they were going to kill them, to get information from them. Officers who escorted them to the war trials had no contact with the prisoners. One time, I was in Salzburg...it took a day to get there and back transporting prisoners...were were in a jeep and we got lost. The German officer we were transporting helped us find the town. We weren't aware he could understand us. I don't know how many were involved in the trials.

Q:  Do you wonder how they could be involved in this and then go home?
A: I don't know if they were just obeying orders. I don't know the specific crimes they were involved in.

Q:  When you went back to your unit, how did you describe things to your own comrades? How did they react?
A: They went to see for themselves. They couldn't believe it. They saw the cattle cars. They were just 21 years old. They just couldn't believe it. They'd just say that any officer with an SS uniform would kill his own mother. He was the worst person on earth. He only cared for himself. He'd fight to the end.

Q:  Think about people like me, who were born long after the war was over. What message do you as GIs who did what you did want to leave with me and people younger than me?
A: Number one, You've got to have faith in God that sooner or later all will work out. And, number two, you've got to be prepared. You've got to teach our young people about the Holocaust, as a example of what can happen. The Holocaust can be the result of prejudice. We've got to teach our kids not to be prejudiced. It's very important to teach them not to be prejudiced...most starts in the home.