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| DATE | 2017-05-29 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout of NYLXS] Memorial Day
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http://www.timesofisrael.com/these-us-soldiers-liberated-dachau-while-their=
-own-families-were-locked-up-back-home/
These US soldiers liberated Dachau while their own families were locked
up back home
Troops who rescued death march survivors honored on 75th anniversary of
WWII order that forced Japanese-Americans into camps
By Rich Tenorio May 29, 2017, 11:51 pm
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Justin Ito-Adler, left, with father James and photo of grandfather Sus
Ito at Harvard. (Rich Tenorio/Times of Israel)
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BOSTON =E2=80=94 Sioma Lubetzky and his teenage sons Larry and Roman huddled
near the Dachau concentration camp in late April of 1945. The three
Lithuanian Jewish inmates had been led on a death march into the
mountains, where Nazi guards planned to push them off the edge. They
were saved by a freak blizzard. In the morning, the guards had
disappeared =E2=80=94 but when the abandoned survivors made their way to a
nearby village, soldiers approached on tanks.
The soldiers were from a unique American unit =E2=80=94 the 522nd Field
Artillery Battalion, part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. It was
the only unit in the US armed forces during World War II whose enlisted
men were all of Japanese ancestry.
=E2=80=9CThey had never seen what a Japanese-American person looked like,=
=E2=80=9D said
Larry Lubetzky=E2=80=99s son, Daniel Lubetzky, whose late father had shared
memories of the rescue. =E2=80=9CThey showed a kindness, love, tenderness t=
hat
had not been seen in 1945.=E2=80=9D
Events across the US are honoring the Japanese-Americans of the 522nd
who rescued Jewish survivors of a Dachau subcamp and death marches. The
brave soldiers=E2=80=99 recognition is tied to another observance of sorts:=
This
year marks 75 years since Executive Order 9066, under which a suspicious
US government at war with Japan relocated Japanese-Americans =E2=80=94 citi=
zens
and non-citizens alike =E2=80=94 to sites now called =E2=80=9Cinternment ca=
mps.=E2=80=9D In an
ironic twist, Japanese-Americans who rescued Jews from Dachau often had
family members in US =E2=80=9Cconcentration camps,=E2=80=9D as they were ca=
lled back then.
There is no doubt the 650 men of the 522nd proved their loyalty. In
1944, members helped rescue the =E2=80=9CLost Battalion=E2=80=9D =E2=80=94 =
the 36th Infantry
Battalion of the Texas National Guard, which had been surrounded in the
Vosges Mountains. The entire 442nd became part of the most highly
decorated unit of its size and duration of service in American wartime
history =E2=80=94 including over 9,000 Purple Hearts for wounds in combat.
A Japanese-American soldier poses outside the destroyed Berghof,
Hitler's mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
A Japanese-American soldier poses outside the destroyed Berghof,
Hitler=E2=80=99s mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps. (Courtesy USHMM/Eri=
c Saul)
Detached from the 442nd, the 522nd was sent to Germany =E2=80=94 the only
Japanese-Americans to fight there. In the Densho Encyclopedia on
Japanese-American treatment during WWII, Abbie Salyers Grubb of San
Jacinto College in Houston, Texas, described its =E2=80=9Csingle most infam=
ous
engagement.=E2=80=9D
In the spring of 1945, the unit =E2=80=9Cstumbled upon roughly 5,000 prison=
ers
marching through the countryside,=E2=80=9D Grubb wrote. =E2=80=9CTheir init=
ial encounter
with these thousands of emaciated and mistreated victims of Nazi
concentration camps was followed by the discovery and assisted
liberation of the Kaufering and Landsberg sub-camps of Dachau.=E2=80=9D
Roman Lubetsky with son Daniel. (Courtesy Ashley Herendeen, KIND Snacks)
Roman Lubetsky with son Daniel. (Courtesy Ashley Herendeen, KIND Snacks)
Organizers and participants in recent events honoring the 522nd told The
Times of Israel that the unit liberated a subcamp of Dachau, although it
was not specified which one.
At a May 18 panel at Harvard Medical School, Daniel Lubetzky praised the
men who saved his grandfather Sioma, father Roman and uncle Larry from a
death march.
=E2=80=9CThey traveled thousands of miles with their brethren to liberate p=
eople
they did not know and saved the world from who knows what could have
been,=E2=80=9D said Lubetzky, founder and CEO of KIND Snacks.
The panel honored 522nd veteran and former Harvard Medical School
professor Dr. Susumu Ito, who died in 2015 at age 96. Ito had received
the Congressional Gold Medal with the 442nd and was commended personally
by then-president Barack Obama.
With the 522nd, Ito was promoted to lieutenant, won a Bronze Star
directing artillery, and took thousands of photos with a 35mm Agfa
camera =E2=80=94 all while his family was interned at the Rohwer, Arkansas,
concentration camp.
Ito=E2=80=99s photos form an exhibit at the Japanese American National Muse=
um in
Los Angeles entitled =E2=80=9CBefore They Were Heroes: Sus Ito=E2=80=99s Wo=
rld War II
Images.=E2=80=9D A traveling version is at Harvard Medical School through J=
une 26.
Some photos show =E2=80=9Cmen younger than I am enjoying themselves,=E2=80=
=9D Ito=E2=80=99s
grandson Justin Ito-Adler said. =E2=80=9CThere=E2=80=99s a lot of down time=
in war.=E2=80=9D
Others show =E2=80=9Cgruesome, terrible parts.=E2=80=9D
On April 30 in Seattle, the 522nd was the subject of =E2=80=9CJapanese Amer=
ican
Soldiers and the Liberation of Dachau,=E2=80=9D the culminating event of a
three-part series, =E2=80=9CThe Holocaust and Japanese American Connections=
,=E2=80=9D
initiated by 442nd veteran Tosh Okamoto. Partners included Seattle=E2=80=99s
Holocaust Center for Humanity, the Nisei Veterans Committee, the
University of Washington Department of American Ethnic Studies, and the
Consulate-General of Japan in Seattle.
Two Japanese-American soldiers with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion
stand in front of the crematorium in the Dachau concentration camp soon
after the liberation. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
Two Japanese-American soldiers with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion
stand in front of the crematorium in the Dachau concentration camp soon
after the liberation. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
=E2=80=9CBeing a community activist, many of our fellow Americans know abou=
t the
Holocaust, but few know about the Japanese and [Japanese Americans=E2=80=99]
relatively small part in the Holocaust [narrative],=E2=80=9D Okamoto, 90, w=
rote
in an email. =E2=80=9C[It] seemed to me that the Holocaust horrible story i=
s not
getting the interest it should, therefore adding the Japanese part could
add to the Holocaust [narrative], in some shape or form.=E2=80=9D
Okamoto, who did not serve with the 522nd, was a late replacement with
the 442nd in war-ravaged Italy in 1945, after the conflict had ended.
=E2=80=9CI wanted to volunteer, but [my] mother [told] not me to do so,=E2=
=80=9D he
wrote. =E2=80=9C[My] father had a severe heart attack while we were in what=
our
[government] called =E2=80=98relocation centers=E2=80=99 but really were co=
ncentration
camps. So after Dad recovered [somewhat], I was drafted. Dad was
disabled for [the] rest of his life.=E2=80=9D
The first two events in the Seattle program addressed concentration
camps in Europe and the US, as well as Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara,
who saved thousands of Lithuanian Jews from the Holocaust.
The concluding event coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day. The
master of ceremonies was Ken Mochizuki, author of the children=E2=80=99s bo=
ok
=E2=80=9CPassage to Freedom: the Sugihara Story.=E2=80=9D He was a featured=
speaker at
the Sugihara event.
=E2=80=9CAmazingly, the [522nd] event became like a confluence of history, =
with
those in the audience including a survivor of the Auschwitz
concentration camp, a woman raised in Amsterdam who knew Anne Frank=E2=80=
=99s
family, and a veteran of the US 42nd Rainbow Division which liberated
Dachau=E2=80=99s main camp,=E2=80=9D Mochizuki wrote in an email.
Survivors originally from Kovno liberated by Japanese-American troops
with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion line the road into the town of
Waakirchen where US forces set up a field hospital to care for them.
(Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
Survivors originally from Kovno liberated by Japanese-American troops
with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion line the road into the town of
Waakirchen where US forces set up a field hospital to care for them.
(Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
Historian Eric Saul, whose research areas include the Holocaust and
Japanese-American soldiers during World War II, addressed an audience of
250. Attendees watched a 1993 documentary, =E2=80=9CFrom Hawaii to the
Holocaust: A Shared Moment in History.=E2=80=9D
The film mixed interviews with Japanese-American veterans with intense
images, including the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941, which brought the US into World War II; Japanese-American soldiers
training while visiting family members interned nearby; and emaciated
corpses and survivors from Dachau.
In the film, several 522nd veterans, and Dachau survivor Fred Gilbert,
said the unit liberated Dachau itself. Different units have claimed
credit for the liberation. Narrator Ed Asner said footage indicates the
45th and 42nd infantry divisions entered first.
=E2=80=9CThe US Army and the Holocaust Museum officially credit the 42nd
Infantry Division, the 45th Infantry Division and the 20th Armored
Division with liberating Dachau, the main camp,=E2=80=9D John McManus, a
professor of military history at the Missouri University of Science and
Technology and the author of =E2=80=9CHell Before Their Very Eyes: American
Soldiers Liberate Concentration Camps in Germany, April 1945,=E2=80=9D wrot=
e in
an email.
Liberation =E2=80=9Cmeans being part of the first units to enter a camp and=
free
the prisoners, not follow-on units,=E2=80=9D he wrote.
Tahae Sugita (right), a Japanese-American soldier with the 522nd Field
Artillery battalion, stands next to a concentration camp survivor he has
just liberated on a death march from Dachau. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
Tahae Sugita (right), a Japanese-American soldier with the 522nd Field
Artillery battalion, stands next to a concentration camp survivor he has
just liberated on a death march from Dachau. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
=E2=80=9C[There] was still a lingering question about who actually liberated
Dachau, the 522nd, or another unit?=E2=80=9D Mochizuki wrote. =E2=80=9CEric=
Saul cleared
that up for the Japanese American community. Previously unknown was the
fact that there were numerous subcamps located in towns surrounding
Dachau, and that the [522nd] was more involved with rescuing Dachau
inmates who were forced on a march as the Nazis fled in the face of the
Allied advance.=E2=80=9D
Dachau operated for 12 years before its liberation on April 29, 1945.
Over 200,000 people were held at the main camp and subsidiary camps;
41,500 were slain.
Its subcamps numbered =E2=80=9Cat least 90,=E2=80=9D McManus wrote. (The Da=
chau
Concentration Camp Memorial Site cites 140.)
Liberated concentration camp prisoners. (Sus Ito Collection, Japanese
American National Museum)
Liberated concentration camp prisoners. (Sus Ito Collection, Japanese
American National Museum)
And, McManus added, =E2=80=9Cthe Holocaust Museum in DC is still documenting
evidence of obscure labor camps.=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=9CThe Holocaust was really every bit as much about slave labor as it=
was
about genocide,=E2=80=9D noted McManus. =E2=80=9CThe main way that Germany =
maintained
war production and a reasonable standard of living for its civilian
population, even after six hard years of war, was through slave labor.
Dachau was like many other longstanding concentration camps within
Germany, in that prisoners were parceled out to work as slaves in nearby
factories, workshops, construction sites and the like.=E2=80=9D
A photo taken by Sus Ito, on the back of which is written, 'Dachau
Prison Camp.' (Sus Ito Collection, Japanese American National Museum)
A photo taken by Sus Ito, on the back of which is written, =E2=80=98Dachau
Prison Camp.=E2=80=99 (Sus Ito Collection, Japanese American National Museu=
m)
Subcamps =E2=80=9Caccount for some of the latter year confusion over
liberation,=E2=80=9D McManus wrote. =E2=80=9CFor instance, the 4th Infantry=
Division and
the 99th Infantry Division both liberated subcamps. It was fairly common
for veterans in these and other subcamp-liberating divisions to claim
they liberated Dachau. Technically that was true, but they did not
liberate the main camp north of Munich which is what we all think of
when we hear the name Dachau.=E2=80=9D
The 522nd =E2=80=9Clikely played a role in liberating a subcamp,=E2=80=9D h=
e wrote,
although he could not recall which one, =E2=80=9Cbut they were not in on the
liberation of Dachau, the main camp.=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=98They saw many people who had all been left to starve to death=
=E2=80=99
James Ito-Adler =E2=80=94 Ito=E2=80=99s son-in-law and Justin Ito-Adler=E2=
=80=99s father =E2=80=94 told
The Times of Israel that Ito =E2=80=9Cwas very, very, very modest about
=E2=80=98liberating=E2=80=99 Dachau=E2=80=A6 They went through a subcamp. T=
hey saw many people
who had all been left to starve to death. They would give them K rations.=
=E2=80=9D
Ito-Adler said his father-in-law =E2=80=9Cinsisted he would not make a false
claim. It was not like, =E2=80=98I fought my way in with a tank.=E2=80=99 T=
he Germans
were in full retreat. Sus=E2=80=99 group was out front.=E2=80=9D
A group of concentration camp prisoners who were liberated on a death
march from Dachau sit on a bench waiting to receive food from
Japanese-American soldiers with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion.
(Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
A group of concentration camp prisoners who were liberated on a death
march from Dachau sit on a bench waiting to receive food from
Japanese-American soldiers with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion.
(Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
=E2=80=9CWe saw a lot of dead Dachau prisoners, dead along the road,=E2=80=
=9D Ito said
in a 1998 C-SPAN interview. =E2=80=9CThe gates would be open and they were
heading south into Bavaria. It snowed a day or two after. There would be
lumps in the snow.=E2=80=9D
Of fellow soldiers who claimed they liberated Dachau, he said, =E2=80=9CI d=
idn=E2=80=99t
experience any of this, but there were many small subcamps.=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=98We were not told that there were these concentration camps whe=
re
they gassed people and cremated them=E2=80=99
They encountered =E2=80=9Csomething we were totally unprepared for,=E2=80=
=9D he said.
=E2=80=9CWe were not told that there were these concentration camps where t=
hey
gassed people and cremated them. I went to see the [crematoriums] later
and you kick around in the ashes and there=E2=80=99s still bone and so forth
coming up. The gas chambers were a small room where they crowded people
and gassed them before they cremated them.
=E2=80=9CBut I think it was really shocking to have these walking skeletons=
come
by. And even worse to see them trying to salvage food that we would
throw in a mess area, garbage pits and stuff.=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=9CMy husband was six feet tall and weighed 37 kilos,=E2=80=9D Roman =
Lubetzky=E2=80=99s
widow, Sonia, told The Times of Israel. =E2=80=9CRoughly 75, 80 pounds.=E2=
=80=9D
Survivors from a death march from Dachau huddle around a campfire
prepared by Japanese-American soldiers with the 522nd Field Artillery
Battalion. The soldier on the left is George Oiye. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric
Saul)
Survivors from a death march from Dachau huddle around a campfire
prepared by Japanese-American soldiers with the 522nd Field Artillery
Battalion.
The soldier on the left is George Oiye. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
His older brother, Larry, =E2=80=9Cattached himself to Sus=E2=80=99 unit as=
an
interpreter,=E2=80=9D Ito-Adler said. =E2=80=9CHe traveled with Sus in Germ=
any several
months. He spoke three, four languages.=E2=80=9D
The Lubetzkys eventually immigrated to Mexico. Larry Lubetzky and Ito
stayed in touch =E2=80=9Cfor many years,=E2=80=9D Ito-Adler said, but lost =
contact.
In September 2015, Ito screened his photos for the American Jewish
Committee.
=E2=80=9CThere was a picture of Larry Lubetzky,=E2=80=9D Daniel Lubetzky re=
called.
=E2=80=9C[Former AJC chairman Stan Bregman] texted me. =E2=80=98Do you know=
Larry
Lubetzky?=E2=80=99 He was my uncle, who had just passed away recently. By
September 12, I connected with Dr. Ito.=E2=80=9D
A group of Jewish DPs pose on shoulders in the Landberg displaced
persons camp. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
A group of Jewish DPs pose on shoulders in the Landberg displaced
persons camp. (Courtesy USHMM/Eric Saul)
Then, on September 17, =E2=80=9Center Lubetzky=E2=80=99s zillions and zilli=
ons of
descendants, who would try to come out for Ito,=E2=80=9D Daniel Lubetzky sa=
id.
He recalled being =E2=80=9Cexcited to come look Dr. Ito in the eyes.
=E2=80=9COn September 30, [Ito=E2=80=99s daughter] Celia and James emailed =
me. He passed
away two short weeks after [the] blessing to hear his voice. At least I
got to say thank you to Celia, [Ito=E2=80=99s daughter] Linda and the Ito f=
amily.=E2=80=9D
At Harvard, the next generation connected: Justin Ito-Adler and Daniel
Lubetzky=E2=80=99s 8-year-old son Roman.
=E2=80=9CHe has the name of my father,=E2=80=9D Lubetzky said. =E2=80=9CFor=
me, it=E2=80=99s very
important he connect with his grandfather, like Justin=E2=80=A6 I hope my
children bond with the Ito grandchildren and make sure we don=E2=80=99t take
anything for granted.=E2=80=9D
And one day he too will thank the Japanese-Americans who, with families
interned at home, rescued other families abroad.
-- =
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
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