D-Day Plus Seventy Years: A Wartime Odyssey

By Siegmund Spiegel

As a refugee from Nazi Germany, Siegmund Spiegel came to the United States in 1938. Shortly before the United States declared war on Germany, he volunteered for the Army to help defeat his homeland which destroyed the lives of his family and so many others. He spent three years overseas, serving in the African, Sicilian and Normandy campaigns.

This is Siegmunds poignant, eye-witness account of the war, as experienced by a young immigrant determined to fight injustice. He describes events, both tragic and humorous, with such clarity and emotion that one cannot wait to read on.

Follow Siegmund as he re-visits those same places years later and offers us his insightful retrospective of the seventy years following D-Day.

Twenty years after first writing these memoirs, Siegmund, now in his 93rd year, offers us his prognosis for the future based on current events and history past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479713837

Siegmund Spiegel

Born in Germany in 1919, Siegmund Spiegel is a Holocaust Survivor committed to ensuring that the Jews murdered by Hitler did not die in vain. As a refugee to the U.S. in 1938, he attempted, to no avail, to have his parents and relatives join him. Before war broke out, he volunteered to join the U.S. Army to defeat his homeland and spent 3 years overseas serving on European-African fronts. At war’s end, he studied Architecture, opening his own office in 1956. He practiced for over 30 years in 12 states, specializing in designs for hospitals and people with special needs. Now at age 93, Siegmund continues to lecture extensively on the perils of the Holocaust to schools, houses of worship, and organizations across the state of Florida, where he resides with his wife, Ruth, of 67 years. His two daughters live nearby.

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Pre-Foreword

Foreword

Entry Into The Service

North Africa—Baptism By Fire

Sicily

Sicily Revisited

Return To The British Isles

European Theater Revisited

Retrospective (1992)

Afterword

DEDICATION

In loving memory of my dear parents,

Jacob and Sara Spiegel,

And of my wife’s parents,

Willy and Rosa Josias,

Who succumbed to the horrors of the Holocaust.

PRE-FOREWORD

Wanting to make sure that my thoughts are not misconstrued, I declined to submit this manuscript to any editor. I wanted to make sure that it is read just as if I spoke this to you, directly from my heart.

FOREWORD

Is it ordinary nostalgia or advancing age that makes one wish to see the places where one’s life hung on a thread a long time ago? Is it the wish to recount those incidents which proved to be so influential in one’s future life? Is it the recollection of episodes, both tragic and humorous, which would be brought to life if recalled in the locale wherein they occurred? Or is it conceivably, even the recollection of past experiences, by revisiting the place, to once and for all dispel that still lingering shadow of being fallible?

Having had the good fortune of being able to reach the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany in the Fall of 1938, I became obsessed with joining the American Army once War broke out in Europe in September of 1939. It became important for me to fight against Nazi Germany, the Country of my Birth. I attempted to enlist but my application was declined on the basis of my not being a citizen of the United States. But, being told that I could volunteer for the draft, it gave me an opportunity to pursue this goal, and I found myself inducted November 12, 1941, before America was at War.

ENTRY INTO THE SERVICE

While the Army felt it necessary to keep me, as an immigrant from Germany, ‘under surveillance’ for fear that I might be a German Spy, I was not given the privilege of joining the Engineers which I had chosen as my Branch of Service. Instead, they assigned me to receive my Basic Training in the Infantry, and upon completion, sent me to Radio School, training me to become a Front Line Radio Operator.

The First United States Infantry Division, the ‘Big Red One’, needed personnel, and as soon as my training was completed, I was assigned to this Division at Camp Blanding, Florida, as a member of a Heavy Weapons Platoon. Hardly a week had passed when I received the order to appear at the G-2 Section (Intelligence) of Division Headquarters. It seems my Personnel Record indicated my background in languages and other data to make me a candidate to serve in the Infantry Branch of Intelligence. No sooner was I assigned, I was sent on Detached Service to a Training School of II Corps, to act as an instructor to members of the First Infantry Division, the 36th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Regiment to teach some of their intelligence personnel German commands, drill them in German, and teach them identification of German Uniforms, Ranks and Insignia. This was followed by being promoted to Technician 4th Grade (Sergeant’s stripes with a T). Once returned to the First Division, I immediately went into study of the German Order of Battle in which I became highly proficient.

After I became a fixture in the Big Red One’s G-2 Section, I was asked to attend a dinner of the division HQ’s noncommissioned officer (NCO) club. It was a rather prestigious club made up mostly of longtime members of the division staff, many regular army men, and a few draftees. There were very few Jews among them, and certainly no one who spoke with an accent. I specifically recall a master sergeant of one of the division sections (G-3) who distrusted me, not only because I was Jewish, but also because I was German and spoke with an accent.

After many drinks and dinner, and general cajoling, I got up and asked to be heard. I expressed my thanks for having been asked to attend and said that I was proud of being in the U.S. Army with this group, but especially proud to be with a group that was helping me, as I was helping them, to fight and hopefully to defeat the German enemy from whom I was fortunate to have been able to escape. There was roaring applause—a standing ovation. After much handshaking and as we were ready to leave, I passed a group of other higher noncoms, and heard that particular master sergeant say to the others, You know, this guy is alright. I must say that the inclusion meant a great deal, but it didn’t make me elated, which I didn’t feel until I had the chance to confront the Germans.

When the Division was ready to leave for Europe, it suddenly became apparent that I was not yet a Citizen. The Army at that time would not take non-citizens overseas, whereupon, while at the Staging Center at IndianTown Gap, Pennsylvania, I was restricted to my office. All my co-workers were called out.

After several hours an MP escorted me to the Division G-2, Lieutenant Colonel Porter, my Commanding Officer, who told me that at General Allen’s request, the FBI had conducted an investigation of me, as to my trustworthiness, since it was the General’s wish that I leave for Europe with the Division. He pointed to a man in civilian clothes who was sitting at a desk, who then interviewed me for some time, he having interrogated all my colleagues previously. Upon conclusion of the interrogation, he announced to Colonel Porter that I would not be a Traitor to America.

The following day, Major Gale and Captain Ogi accompanied me in a Command Car, to act as witnesses for me, when a Federal Court in Philadelphia, at a Special Session, swore me in as a Citizen on July 29, 1942. The following day the Division left for New York to embark on the Queen Mary for England.

NORTH AFRICA—BAPTISM BY FIRE

No sooner did we arrive in England and