Lawmakers to Army chief: Honor soldiers held as slaves by Nazis
By Wayne Drash
CNN.com Senior Producer
(CNN) – Two U.S. lawmakers have urged U.S. Army Secretary Peter Geren to recognize 350 American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II, saying “these heroes have not received the recognition and honor they deserve.”
Bernard “Jack” Vogel died in a Nazi slave camp in the arms of a fellow U.S. soldier, Anthony Acevedo, in 1945.
“As Anthony Acevedo, one of the soldiers chosen, recently described to CNN, the Nazis picked those soldiers who looked Jewish, had a Jewish name or were considered ‘undesirable,’ ” Reps. Joe Baca, D-California, and Spencer Bachus, R-Alabama, said in a letter sent to Geren last week.
“The trials and sacrifices made by those detained have largely gone unrecognized even to this day. As proud Americans, we wish to recognize and honor them for their service.”
Both congressmen have pushed for a congressional resolution to honor the 350 soldiers held at Berga an der Elster, a subcamp of Buchenwald where dozens of American soldiers were beaten, starved and killed. Baca and Bachus say they will continue to fight for the resolution. Listen as Acevedo tells brother of victim: “I had him in my arms”
Army spokesman Paul Boyce told CNN that the Army is in the process of responding to the congressional letter.
“The U.S. Army has recognized hundreds of thousands of veterans of World War II and has expressed interest in this group’s history to see what could be done,” he said.
Anthony Acevedo was a 20-year-old medic when he was sent to Berga with the other soldiers in February 1945. Acevedo kept a diary that details the day-to-day events inside the camp and lists the names and prisoner numbers of men as they died or were executed.
“More of our men died, so fast that you couldn’t keep track of their numbers,” Acevedo wrote on April 19, 1945, four days before he was liberated by advancing U.S. troops.
Asked what it would mean if the U.S. Army officially recognized the soldiers of Berga six decades later, Acevedo, now 84, wept.
“This is for all the fellas,” he said.