Jim Dorris displayed an equal measure of courage and compassion in WW 2. His deep Catholic faith provided him with a moral compass that guided him through combat at the Battle of the Bulge, Ingolsheim, Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, and Furth. He was a true light in the darkness of WW 2 resisting senseless cruelty whenever he saw it regardless of which side – be it the Nazis or the US GIs – who committed it. Nearly six months of combat wasn’t enough to prepare Dorris for the hell he witnessed when he walked through the gates of Dachau concentration camp to liberate it. Still, his deep faith guided him even there, and enabled him to find a sign of God’s love in the darkest of places. I am thrilled that Jim’s son and my good friend, Stephen Dorris, is joining us for these two episodes. Stephen will give voice to all of Jim Dorris’s quotes in both episodes.

Jim Dorris - My View of WW 2

Young Jim Dorris in uniform

Jim in basic training - picture taken to be sent to his mother

Jim and Charlotte Dorris church photo

Jim and Charlotte Dorris

Jim, his wife Charlotte, and all of his grandkids

Jim, John Ulferts, and John's daughter, Ashley, during our last visit

As a Jewish American, Murray Shapiro couldn’t wait to volunteer in WW 2. He was well aware of the Nuremberg Laws and the racist treatment Jewish people received in Germany. He lost his spot in officer school though because he objected to the racist views his Major Carvell held towards black people. During the Battle of the Bulge, Shapiro would receive the Bronze Star for his actions organizing a rear guard and defending it until his outfit was able to withdraw. In doing so, Shapiro was left completely surrounded behind enemy lines and had to make a harrowing journey back to his platoon. From the Battle of the Bulge to the Colmar Pocket to the crossing of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, this episode focuses on Murray Shapiro’s harrowing WW 2 experiences.

Young Murray Shapiro

Photo young Murray Shapiro sent home to family

Murray Shapiro

Murray and his wife Shirley Shapiro

Murray Shapiro - twilight years

Colonel Lloyd G. Huggins landed on Omaha Beach three weeks after D-Day as the replacement officer for Easy Company’s Infantry Regiment. They were in continuous combat for nearly one year fighting through France, the Siegfried Line, the Hurtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, across the Remagen Bridge, until VE Day. No one had more respect for his infantry men than Huggins did. Through it all, he put his men first and foremost in his mind. This is his story, as told in his letters to the podcast host and his unpublished 1988 autobiography that he sent to me.

Colonel Lloyd Huggins

Newspaper article - Ft. Wolter

Hurtgen Forest

Hurtgen Forest

Hurtgen Forest

Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge

Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen

Following the unconditional surrender of Germany on VE Day and the unconditional surrender of Japan three months later on VJ Day, spontaneous celebrations swept across the US with tinker tape parades, dancing and singing. In Times Square, an estimated two million people gathered to celebrate. But not every veteran participated or received the warm welcome they expected upon returning home. By the time Henry Heller was finally sent home from Germany, there were no hugs or parades. Suffering from a number of maladies, Heller struggled for years to get the help he needed from the VA. Bud Olson and Tom Carr both found the transition to civilian life difficult. The skills they had learned as fighting men in WW 2 didn’t open any doors in the domestic civilian job market. Having lost so many of their buddies in the war, many veterans were in no mood to celebrate. Arnold “Dutch Nagel, Richard Mandich, Lewis J. Gould, Michael Luciano, and Edward Heinle seemed haunted by the friends they left behind. WW II forever changed veterans. Some wore their scars on the outside and accepted them as challenges to overcome, such as Paul Leimkueler, who didn’t let losing a leg stop him from becoming a downhill US Ski Hall of Famer. It was the scars on the inside, the post traumatic stress, that were harder to overcome. Veterans like Robert Erhardt, Richard Morgan, Robert Bowen and Donald Chase dealt with the nightmares the rest of their lives. If they lived long enough, WW 2 veterans saw wars come again, though thankfully not on the scale of WW II. Some reenlisted to serve, while others saw their children serve such as Duane Stevens. Though proud of their service, many WW II veterans came out of WW 2 hating all war and regarded it as an abomination to be avoided whenever possible. Dennis Olson, Lloyd Huggins, Arthur Jackson, David Saltman, Charles Wysocki and Donald Chase wanted to make sure no one glorified war and saw it for what it was: HELL. Those stories and more in Episode 20 When Johnny Came Marching Home: Transitions and Remembrance.

Henry Heller

Bud Olson

Tom Carr

Arnold "Dutch" Nagel

Lewis J. Gould

Robert Erhardt

Richard V. Morgan

Robert Bowen

Stan Davis

Donald Chase

Paul Leimkuehler

Dennis Olson

Lloyd Huggins

Arthur Jackson

David Saltman

Charles Wysocki

When Germany unconditionally surrendered and Victory in Europe or VE Day was announced on May 8, 1945, American GIs were in a mood to celebrate. For Russell Darks in France and Charlie Toole in London, it was an unforgettable night of celebrations. But, in Germany, Murray Shapiro found that German civilians had nothing to celebrate, and all was quiet. Tom Carr wanted to celebrate, but he was recovering from war injuries in a Czechoslovakian hospital. Within days of VE-Day, Tom Morris had to establish a camp for German POWs and civilian refugees who now numbered in the thousands. Lloyd Huggins was already questioning whether the Soviet soldiers, our so-called allies, were any better than the Germans we defeated when he was kept awake all night by the screams of German women being raped in the Soviet occupied quarter. Harry Koty figured he was pretty lucky. His 97th Infantry Division was one of the first to be sent home to the US. Then, he learned they were sent home so quick so they could be redeployed in the Pacific. But his luck continued. En route, the Japanese surrendered and Koty had an enviable assignment once he arrived to occupied Japan – guarding a house full of Geisha girls and preventing GIs from visiting them. The invasion of mainland Japan was expected to be costly for both American and Japanese lives. 370,000 Purple Heart medals were ordered by the U.S. Army in preparation for the invasion. They weren’t needed. Instead, the US became the only country in history to drop the atomic bomb first in Hiroshima killing 80,000, then in Nagasaki, killing 70,000. Almost all of the dead were civilians. Fearful that more cities would soon be obliterated, Japan quickly surrendered. While the US action remains controversial even today, most GIs supported the decision crediting the dropping of the bombs with saving their lives and that of their buddies. But some GIs saw the dropping of the atomic bombs on innocent civilians as an immoral, dirty act, and would have preferred to have kept fighting. In any case, all of the GIs fighting in the Pacific were glad the war was finally over when VJ-Day was announced. These stories and more in Part 2 of our Victory at Last episode.

Russell Darkes

Murray Shapiro

Charlie Toole

Tom Carr

Tom C. Morris

Lloyd Huggins

Harry Koty

Robert B. Nett

Joe Lawhn

Ralph Keller

Rex Whitehead

James and Eva Mae Spaulding

Raymond Komro

Charles Wysocki

Having led his country through the most devastating and consequential war in world history, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died just as the war’s end seemed in sight. For GIs like Roland Schump, Murray Shapiro, and Samuel Erlick, the loss of the only President they had ever really known, was as unsettling as it was shocking. In the final weeks of the war, as Germany’s defeat seemed all but certain, GIs still didn’t know what to expect as they liberated city after city. Many German soldiers couldn’t wait to surrender to the Americans who they preferred over the Russians, while other Germans fought on ferociously. No GIs wanted to lose their lives, or see their buddies lose theirs, so close to the end. Commander of A Company, Michael J. Daly felt so protective of his men in the final days of the war that he took out Four machine gun nests and fifteen Germans on his own during fierce fighting at Nuremberg. Most of the German soldiers Roland Schump now met didn’t seem to want to fight any more than he did. In the confusion of the final days, Sherril Hayes nearly accidentally shot an elderly grandfather and his grandchild. Hayes would never have forgiven himself. In fierce fighting at Cheb in Czechoslovakia, Harry Koty’s outfit found themselves outnumbered and outgunned by ten German tanks. Charles Savage exchanged fire with a deadly sniper in Pilzen, Czechoslovakia before he liberated a baby factory in Marienbad. Arnold Dutch Nagel was nearly taken out by friendly fire in the final days of the war. Earl Lovelace remembered a man from his company that was. An excited Dallas Finch couldn’t wait to pen a letter home as he stood guard outside the War Room at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces as the Allied commanding officers accepted the unconditional surrender of the German forces. These stories and more in this episode of Always Remember World War II Through Veterans Eyes.

Roland Schump with his wife Phyllis and their grandchild

Murray Shapiro

Samuel Erlick

Harry Koty

Michael J. Daly

Arnold "Dutch" Natel

Earl Lovelace

Dallas Finch in the War Room

Dallas Finch returned to the War Room in 1995

Adolph Hitler’s “Final Solution” was carried out in an estimated 44,000 concentration camps, ghettos, and forced labor camps spread out throughout Europe. An estimated 15 to 20 million people were murdered in these camps including six million Jews. For the young American GIs who liberated them, the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps far outweighed anything they had experienced in war. Alex Bourdas liberated an auxiliary camp that had housed 20,000 POWs. Their bodies were now stacked on carts and covered with lime to cut down the odor. Tom Carr entered a small camp, the name of which he could not remember. But he could never forget the emaciated prisoners still housed in the cells or the bodies stacked in piles outside. General Patton himself sent down orders for his personnel to see what they were fighting for and against by visiting a small concentration camp near Erfurt, Germany. Mark Wilson recalled the few survivors they found there walked around in a daze, looking more like living skeletons. In 1997, more than 50 years after the war had ended, Charles Savage returned to Marienbad, Czechoslovakia. Accompanied by a local historian, Savage searched for the remains of Flashenhutten, the small camp that Savage had helped liberate and the mass burial site that had shocked him. These stories and more in this 17th episode of Always Remember World War II Through Veterans Eyes.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower himself visited the first concentration camp liberated by GIs - Ohrdruf

General Eisenhower cabled General Marshall requesting that a Congressional delegation and reporters be sent to the camp so that the atrocities committed there would not be forgotten.

Fewer than 75 prisoners were found alive at Ohrdruf

Alex Bourdas liberated an auxiliary camp near Ranshofen, Austria

Tom Carr may not have recalled the name of the camp he liberated, but could never forget the horrors he witnessed there

Charles Savage liberated a small concentration camp near Pilsen, Czech Republic. The camp was largely forgotten until he returned to the Czech Republic and, along with a local historian, found its remains. Savage donated all of his photographs of the camp to the local museum.

Adolph Hitler’s “Final Solution” was carried out in 42,400 concentration camps, ghettos, and forced labor camps spread out throughout Europe. An estimated 15 to 20 million people were murdered in these camps including six million Jews. For the young American GIs who liberated them, the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps far outweighed anything they had experienced in war. When Barney Zylka broke into Dachau, its crematoriums were still burning with hands and feet sticking out of them. Zylka wished he could see a Nazi so he could empty his rifle into the Nazi’s belly. Karl Mann recalled how American GIs. Angered by the pathetic condition of Dachau’s prisoners, and the bodies stacked around the camp like firewood, recalled his fellow GIs, lined up dozens of concentration camp guards against a wall and, for a few seconds, mowed them down with a machine gun until the battalion commander stopped them. Standing guard at Dachau, the liberated inmates seemed more like skeletons than men to Jim Dorris. The horrors he saw at Dachau made Dorris think he must be in hell. Dorris prayed, and a concentration camp prisoner soon answered his prayer making Dorris realized that goodness could still be found even at Dachau. Just outside Dachau, Dee Eberhart passed the death train filled with some 4,480 prisoners from Buchenwald, packed 80 men to a car. All but one of the death train’s occupants had perished from exposure, disease, starvation and SS bullets. Local townspeople claimed total ignorance of the camp, but GIs like David Israel didn’t believe them for a minute, as during the day many of Dachau’s prisoners were marched around town and forced to work in local industries while Dachau’s cruel prison guards boasted about their work at night in local bars. In the first few weeks following the camp’s liberation, Edward S. Weiss recalled how deaths at the rate of 20-30 men per day still occurred, the prisoners so weakened by disease and malnutrition. These stories and more in this 16th episode of Always Remember World War II Through Veterans Eyes.

Dachau Concentration Camp

Medical experiments were conducted on prisoners

Prisoners were brutalized by SS guards and starved

As GIs approached Dachau, they passed the Death Train from Buchenwald

Bodies were stacked like cordwood throughout Dachau

The ovens in the crematorium were still burning

Angered by the brutality of the SS, American GIs lined them up along the fence and began mowing them down with a machine gun before a ranking officer stopped them

Like at Buchenwald, German civilians were brought to the camp so they could bare witness to the cruelty

Bernard "Barney" Zylka was wishing he could see a Nazi guard so he could empty his rifle into their belly.

Barney and his wife Josie are pictured with the podcast host, John Ulferts, and his young family

Karl O. Mann recalled a tremendous roar from the prisoners as they were liberated

The terrible odor of burned bodies given off by the crematorium made Jim Dorris feel like he couldn't get his breath. He is pictured with his wife Charlotte.

Dachau taught Dee Eberhart that we must always be on guard against the hatred and vilification of others

Richard J. Tisch recalled the 32,000 prisoners liberated at Dachau were suffering so much from disease and malnutrition that another 4,000 died in the weeks following the camp's liberation. Richard is pictured with his wife Roseanne.

David Israel was assigned to a five man intelligence team whose mission was to interrogate the 15,000 SS officers who were imprisoned at Dachau after the war ended. He admitted to having "harbored brutal thoughts" to them knowing that they had tortured and killed so many innocent civilians in the very same camp where the SS were now imprisoned.

Edward S. Weiss stayed on at the camp in the weeks following its liberation. He had the grim job of bringing bodies to the crematorium. He wrote his parents a letter and informed them that there were now 3-4 American hospital units operating in the camp trying to save as many of the liberated prisoners as they could. At first, prisoners were still dying at the rate of 20-30 per day.