[Twelfth Armored Division, Scrapbook 6] Page: 187

                                
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in and for said state and county personally

after being duly sworn, deposes

Battery C of the 493rd

Armored Field

who is known to me and
fnrner   i ,,  n e1 i A. n

am Arn A. E erman, o r'      yd aso IaerI
illery Battalion of the 12th Armored Divis
t tell of my experiences in a concentratio
vision rear Landsberg, Germany, by quoting
ter was written by me to my wife on April2
ision captured a number of camps in the vic

"I read your letter about the death off
the same; he was a great man and away
ething here that overpowers the death of
called the living dead.

n ii

ion of the United Stated Army. I c
n camp captured by the 12th Armored

from a letter I wrote to my wife. Tt.i
27th, 1945, the day the 12th Armorcr

of Landsberg, Germany.

nd all of

Pres i dent Roosevelt a
s will be remembered.

I quote:

tH. sldiern

Cut we have "(+n

anyone back home.  We have seen wahat ca

hving up into a new position we cane across a prison
s from the different countries of Europe. After diggi
defense, we went out to see what a concentration camp
1gh to last us for the rest of our lives.

As we entered the camp the first thi
ittle further on we got the shock of

warp ther h

the burned buIdigwee
11 of the bodies was sickening.
S. Some with their mouths open

ureS, and still

others burned so

As the American soldiers rode by
saluted every vehicle that went
d niiHkn  what it means.

arre
The

camp (corncentra .iun c u);. fu
ng  our  fox  holes  an,  pr ',piring
looked like. What we saw wal

ng we saw was the burned down buildings, but
our lives. There on the ground in the Middle
d remains of the Jewish slave workers. The
y were stretched out in all kinds of misshap,'d
agony, others shot and burned looking like wax

badly you

could not recognize

them at all.

TE OF (ENrt'.'f
NTY OF

Before me the undersigned authority in and for
appeared Steve Peters who is known to me and after

I am Steve Peters
Command A of the 12th

and during World War II was aj
Armored Division of the United

said state
beinj duly

and cour'y pu    .   'y
sworn, d.pam-   a''I

jeep driver (messinner) fur CurLt.
States Army. The reason I wa:

at a concentration camp near Landsberg, Germany, in late April 1945, was that Lt. T
Nickols, the communications officer of CCA, asked me to take him somewhere. -He did
not tell me where he was going.

I had previously been in Landsburg taking Guy Thurman to the command post of ti.
66th Armored Infantry Battalion. I waited in the jeep while Guy Thurman went inside
the command post to deliver what he had for them.    There was fighting going on.
I waited a near-by half-truck opened fire with it's machine gun, but the operator

of the gun

on my jeep. I

jammed it. He asked me if he could use the machine gun we had mounted

asked him what he was shooting

for the troops below by
Hostile fire was corning
janmed it. I unjammed t

h

command post. Then we w

me to take him somewhere.

guar

the few survivors waved their arms in the air
by.  If you could only see the light in their
I t has been several years since many of these

'S  you  wou 1 l W Wl        ian.    iL  10Z  e  j  e  e     e  r  5iI~
III has been interned. Since they had been brought here none of
hope of living like normal people again.        It will take time for
well again for not one of them weighs over eighty pounds.          That'

as the living

dead, nothing but skin, bone and a little meat wit

1;I it was time to move again, so on we went.     We didn't go

1 into  a
t looked
vestigate.

into a new position.
like a gray roc

After getting out of the half-track
k, not 150 yards away.   So I took my

they peole had
These people had

these people

s why
ith a

very far

people to
I refer tu

soul.
before V.

I noticed something
gun and went to

firing at the windows

at. He said he was
of a building which

from those windows at our troops. He
e gun and gave covering fire until Th
ent back to CCA headquarters. That's

giving covering
he pointed cut.

fired my gun but
urman came out of
when Lt. Nichols

We went to a concentration camp where the buildings had been set on fire by
ds who had fled. But before leaving they had locked all the prisoners thay'

find in the barracks

and   set them on fire.

barracks and also lying on the ground. The
on their arms and had been starved to dean.

There were no liveF
Some of the dead looked

There were
poor souls

live people around when we were there

better than otners-probably

lat

Some of the barracks were empty and not burned.     Th

f r

als
t
as'p
St
c: I>

dead bodies in the ashes of
lying On the ground hac"
except sCih A Erican    :
ter arrivals.
ese looked like big frjit

cellars.   They were halfway underground with a slanting roof.     There was
about five feet wide on each side of a central aisle made of hard boards

inmates to

As I came upon the object, it turned out to be a person under some

y gvers. Not knowing who was under the blankets, I had to be careful so I
noted my gun at him and asked in German, "Who is there?", and then told him to get
But he did'nt move, so I grabbed the blankets and pulled them from over his head.

sight that hit me was more than a person could expre
of the Jewish slave laborers. He thought I was a Ge
as if to say, "Please put me out of my misery, please
ce."  But when I told him I was an American soldier a
d and started to kiss it. But I can't stand things 1

express in

words. It was another

laborers. He thought I was a German soldier and
put me put of my misery, please kill me and let
him I was an American soldier and also Jewish,h
it.  But I can't stand things like that andp

and he looked at
let me have some
h, he grabbed my

pulled my hand

y.
was too much for me for I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat as

This one man, had lived in the forests and fields for five days.I
a couple of raw potatoes and was so weak he could not stand up.
brought some food and water. It was hard to keep him from drinking

had not had any all

the time he was in the fields.

While I was there one of the boys
ting for the ambulance Italked

ig for the ambulance
e fifty. He told me tf

e cremated and
w where his wi

called

talked to him.

an ambulance
He was only

sleep on.

At another camp near the c e I
This was a Hungarian camp.    I saw s
of those in this camp were civilian

spent several days proces
cause the regular inmates

tatoo marks
Commis-ion.

on thcir arms.

sing them.
looked S)

was g in,  nrd treat everyorie way C    in t
ome of them coming into Landsberg.     I be
s.  The Interrogation of Prisoners of Wa

a C;
for the

to at C..,,
lieve r us
r Tea.

They fund some German troopers among them be-

thin and the troopers did not

These wer e pul led out and

I had a camera wi th nu and took scGe pictu's
and the negati ve are misp iced or lest.

have iden

turned over to the Wsr

I n: enclosing

two.

tifyi 2
I Crir

Th    otry.

big as a frog

All he had to eat
So a few minutes later
too much water for

to take him away and while

thirty years

old but he looked

told me that the children too young to work and the folks too old to work
if a man becomes sick the guards just killed him.      I asked him of he
wife was. He told me he didn't know where she is but as soon as he is

ong enough he was going back to the town he lived in and wait for her even if he had to
t the rest of his life.  There he was, a man not weighing over-eighty pounds and rot
e to stand on his feet or to lift a piece of bread to his mouth, talking about living
h his wife again, maybe having children if she was still able and enjoying life once
e. How can we complain about our little troubles when a man who has been in a

centration camp for several years, who
k of the good things he is going to do
)e horrible years.

As they put him in the ambulance
driver where he was taking him
se and make the people bath him
to a civilian hospital where he
enght and when they are able to
peace the rest of their lives.

has faced death every day of
instead of what has happened

teve Peters

S.-.orn to anJ sub-ri bid

to me on this tre.

,/ '__da,

//

Notary Public

My commission

expi res

'--

the year c.i
to him through

the last thing I could hear was him praying.     Iu
ind he told me thy first bring him into a Germ~arn

him and he told me th
hand put clean clot

thes on him.

asked

.Then they will take

where he will be treated and given care untill he regains

hi;

able to be moved,sent back to their homes where they can live
lives. I forgot to mention a lot of them were made sterile.

I have talked with quite a few of theseE
t the Jewish prople back home had not fo
ch are raising money, clothing, medical
w that Mom can back that statement up.I
e seen what I have, they would help allt

ped ruin
Although
t I have

in so few years.
I may never talk about what I
seen. If I don't write for a

some old and some young.

I told the:,;

rgot about them, that there are organizations
supplies and other things of importance. I
If the other Jewish people back home could

the more to make good

the things that Hitler

C---

i9

(

S~ /Q5/

STATE OF Illinois
COINTY OF Lake

Before me th
appeared Robert
and says:

e undersigned au
d. McMenamin who

I am Robert J. McMenamin

of the United

thority in and for said state andc
is known to me and after being du

who was an ammunition

States Army and was a member of the Headquarters of

Maintenance Battalion

of the 12th Armored Division.

camp I visited. This was one of the camps captured by

have wi
few day

tnessed today, I
s I hope you will

i .

will never forget

understand.

Aaron A. Eiferman

La ndsberg,

Love

Germany.

officer of the 12th
the1

county, personally
ly sworn deposes
Armored Div"'

134th Artnore

I want to comment on a concentr':

the 12th Armored D^ixsir- .

,-I heard of the Landsberg affair the day after our troops arrived

immediately went there.  I

graves under the
Officer) of THE 1
wooden buildings

supervision of L
2TH Armored Divi
that they lived

recall that hundreds of bodi
t. Col. Edward F. Seil
sion. They had been k
in had been set fire i

both prisoners and evidence. As I recall the people in
Polish workers and the story we were told was that when

tiere and

es were being buried in mis
ler, G-5 (Military Gove m'm:en'

killed by

asphyxiation vnen t.

n an apparent effort to dustr.

in the camp were for the imnc:

unable to work, becax*

Sworn to and subscribed

before me on

this the       $e    day of

disease or injury, They were removed to this

1986.

camp for systematic

starvat'io.

r  rt -  L . %1 .  -,

.UCKS:C PUNT
MY Ca!.MjSSION EXPIRES APRIL 18, 1988

Notary Public

One of the buildings had not been destroyed

that it had gone out after being
litter of straw-shelf-like racks

vivid recollection that I

destroyed by
s.It was still

set. It was still
on either side of

will remember until

who had drawn herself up on one elbow

fire, although th
1 occupied with pe
the center 3 foot

there was
ople   l

re vas e.
ple  ying o
wide aisle.

on

!r untilI myself go to the grave, was a won:'.
in an effort to draw our attention.     Witn
and from her bed of filth this poor wcm n
We are good people- we are good :...

STATE OF
COUNTY 0F

a
Cr

.c r

T

a
t
a

n ri

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