Ben's Guestbook.
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14:10 16-04-2015
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Hallo Ben, heb net laatste bladzijden van het boek De Margraten Boys gelezen. Indrukwekkend hoeveel adoptie van graven betekent voor familie van de gesneuvelde soldaten.
Groetjes Cor
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14:02 24-03-2015
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Hallo Ben !
Indrukwekkend wat je allemaal al hebt verwezenlijkt met deze fantastische website ! Ook ik heb een graf geadopteerd gekregen. Het was al lang een wens van mij om zoiets te doen maar ik wist niet goed hoe dit moest gebeuren. Dankzij mijn man is deze wens verwezenlijkt ! "Onze" peetsoldaat ligt begraven te Neupre (Luik) en heeft de naam John Spendolini. afkomstig uit Providence, Rhode Island. Ik hoop dat ik meer kan te weten komen over deze soldaat, misschien kan U mij hierbij helpen. De volgende gegevens heb ik al : Pvt John Spendolini, 175th Infantery Regiment, 29th Infantery Division, Service # 31447149. KIA op 13/9/1944 te Bretagne (France) fort de Montbarey.
Het zou fijn zijn mocht je me op de goede weg zetten om mijn zoektocht te starten, alvast bedankt !
Groetjes van Wendi !
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17:09 31-01-2015
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As a student of history, and especially armor of WWII, it was a great find to discover your site. What an amazing story, sacrifice and heroic witness to inspire generations to come. May God continue to bless all those who served, and their families.
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15:20 20-10-2014
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My Dad, Col.William Darien Duncan, was the 743rd Tank Battalion Commander during WWII. The battalion "captured" a train full of Jewish adults and children which was on its way to a concentration camp. There is general information on the battalion on Wikipedia (743rd Tank Battalion)
16 October 2014
Dear Friends,
Below is an article my sister, Karen Duncan Moretti (who lives near Tampa) sent me about a talk given by Mr. Frank Towers in Boston. Mr. Towers mentions the U.S. Army 743rd Tank Battalion which my father, William Darien Duncan, commanded. Under Dad’s command, the battalion captured a cattle train carrying over 2000 Jewish adults and children being taken to a concentration camp.
Mr. Towers was a lieutenant in an infantry division (soldiers on foot and with some vehicles such as Jeeps) that, as you will read below, worked diligently to get medical, transportation and other badly needed resources for these people.
Ernest Kahn (mentioned in the article) gave a heart-wrenching eulogy at Dad’s funeral here in Florida in 2001. Among other things, he said Dad was “one of the righteous men for what he did, which it is an honor to be called.”
Dad had never spoken of such things, and we were all, as a family, overwhelmed by the amazing story Mr. Kahn told as part of his eulogy about what my father did, and how, without Dad, he and thousands of other Jewish adults and children would not have survived the Holocaust. Mr. Kahn has since died.
Frank Towers contacted my sister, Karen, who has the copies of Dad’s “After-Action Reports”. Mr. Towers used these reports as a major source in his research. He is coming to Sarasota to present his talk.
From the Boston Globe:
WW2 liberator reunites with Holocaust survivors
By Victoria Bedford
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER 12, 2014
“If not now, when?’’ asked Rabbi Joel Sisenwine, quoting from Hillel the Elder, a revered Jewish leader who lived at the time of King Herod. “If not me, who?”
It was Oct. 4, Yom Kippur, and Sisenwine stood before the congregation at Wellesley’s Temple Beth Elohim, introducing a very special visitor.
Page 1 of 4
As Frank Towers walked up to speak, the teary-eyed congregation of 1,500 rose to give him a standing ovation.
Towers never considered himself special. Now 97, the South Boston native is living in Florida, where he spent most of his adult life as an office manager at a university data processing center. But in the early spring of 1945, in Farsleben, Germany, he was among a group of soldiers who liberated thousands of Nazi prisoners.
The rabbi invited two of those survivors, and their families, to step forward and stand beside Towers.
Yvette Namias, 92, of Peabody, did so. She was 22 in 1945 and long a prisoner at the notorious Bergen Belsen death camp before the liberation. She had never met Towers. Her family — children, grandchildren — stood around her.
Namias was joined by Charles Elbaum of Providence, a 17-year-old prisoner at the time of liberation, now surrounded by his children and grandchildren.
“Well,” Towers said to Namias after the ceremony, “I’ve spent a long time chasing you around the world.”
“He’s responsible for my family,” said Namias. “Without him, my family would not be here.”
Nothing in his life had prepared Towers for what he came upon on April 13, 1945. He was a young lieutenant in the 30th Infantry Division, a unit of the US Army National Guard, heading for Magdeburg, Germany, to fight one last major battle. In the town of Farsleben, they encountered a cattle train that had been seized by the Army’s 743d Tank Battalion (my emphasis). Towers was told it held 2,500 Jewish prisoners, and he was responsible for taking them to safety.
“What if you find a train loaded with Jews, what are you going to do? Nothing was ever said about anything like that.” Towers said. “If you come across a camp, like Dachau or Buchenwald, what are you going to do? We didn’t know anything about that situation.”
But the lieutenant found himself faced with a train full of death camp prisoners, 60 to 70 men, women, and children crammed into each cattle car, forced to stand until they collapsed from exhaustion, with a daily ration of thin potato soup, and one bucket for a bathroom. They were starved, sick, overworked, and in desperate need of medical assistance, which Towers and his men were wholly unprepared to provide.
Still, Towers and his men sprang into action, rounding up as much transportation as they could, and took the prisoners to the town of Hillersleben. There, a Red Cross unit processed the thousands of Jewish prisoners, gave them showers, provided clean clothes and dusted them with DDT, now a prohibited carcinogen, to kill lice and fleas.
Page 2 of 4
Knowing that he was leaving the prisoners in good hands, Towers went on to fight a last battle, and returned to the States later in 1945. Soon, he started a family with his wife, Mary. Like many who lived through the war, he put his experiences in the rearview mirror for years, never talking much about what he had seen of the Holocaust.
“But I could tell it was eating him inside,” Mary said. “I knew that.”
Towers said his focus was just to move on. “Not much thought was given to the victims,” Towers said. “They were starting out on a new life somewhere.”
That all changed for him in 2005, when he was invited back to Magdeburg to speak about what happened 60 years before. There, he met Ernest Kahn, a survivor of Buchenwald who had been liberated by Towers’ division (“It was very emotional,’’ said Towers), and Kahn put him in touch with Matt Rozell, a high school teacher from Hudson Falls, N.Y., who was assembling an online archive of stories from the war. The two began working together to locate survivors from the train in Farsleben.
“The thing just snowballed,” Towers said. “Today we have located 275 of these children.”
Like Towers, Charles Elbaum, who was a 17-year-old prisoner when rescued from the train, rarely spoke about the Holocaust to his family. After his liberation, he went on to become a physics professor at Brown University, a husband, a father to three sons, and a grandfather to eight children. His son Dan, of Newton, and grandson Nathan met Towers at a reunion, and invited him to speak before the congregation at Temple Beth Elohim.
“Without what they did,” Dan Elbaum said, “I wouldn’t be here. Frank is the last known surviving veteran who was actually present at the liberation of the train.”
For Towers, who now travels around the world to tell his story, preserving the memory is the most important aspect of these talks.
“Dan and his family, and others just like him, he’s second-generation,” Towers said. “Many of them knew nothing about the incarceration of their parents. This second generation is entitled to know what happened, and how it happened, so that they in turn can pass it on to their children, and this will never happen again. That’s the hope in all of us.”
Victoria Bedford can be reached at [email protected].
Page 3 of 4
Frank Towers, the man who gave this talk in Boston, will be giving the talk in Sarasota. Here is his most recent email re the Sarasota presentation.
“Dear Friends:
Just in case that I have not contacted you before,
And, if I have, and Just in case you have made plans to attend the event at which I will be the featured speaker, on “The Train at Farsleben”, just let me refresh you with the latest details of the event:
Place: Gold Coast Eagle Distributing Co.
7051 Wireless Ct.
Sarasota, FL 34240 (Google this for location)
Time: 5:30PM to 7:00 PM
Bag Pipers* (my emphasis) will be welcoming guests from 5:15 to 5:30
Refreshments will be served from 5:30 to 6:00
Introductions
Start of Talk: 6:15 PM
Return to Refreshment area to mingle with guests 7:00 PM
Please e-mail me if you have any questions. And please let me know if you plan to attend.
Yours in Old Hickory Friendship,
Frank
Frank W. Towers
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Historian & Editor
The 30th Inf. Div. Veterans of WWII”
* We Duncans are Scots, you realize.
Michael and I plan to attend his talk with my sister, Karen and her husband, Freddie (who is also a Scot ).
Page 4 of 4
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15:32 19-10-2014
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Dear Ben,
Your website requests that we contact you should we wish to use copyrighted material. What are your contact details? I couldn't seem to find them on the site.
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21:08 10-10-2014
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My Dad was in "A" co./743rd TB. A friend and I are working on a book about the 743rd. My Dad/his Uncle n same platoon. Any assitance..such as photos would be appreciated. look forward to hearing from you. WE KEEP THE FAITH
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05:52 02-10-2014
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Hi I was wondering if anyone had any information about my great grandfather Cliffton Charles Barker Tech Sgt. 743 tank BN World War II BSM. I know he received a Purple Heart and a bronze star medal during the war. My grandmother said he came home a very changed man and died in 1949. But I don't know much else. If anyone has information about him or pictures of him or the 743rd please e-mail me. Thank you.
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10:44 19-08-2014
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Ben, Wat een document, voor de eeuwigheid. RESPEKT !
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09:27 03-08-2014
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Dag Ben,
Belangrijk werk voor onze bevrijdingsgeschiedenis.
Mijn complimenten!
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21:57 21-07-2014
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Hi Ben, I recently received a link about my dad from your page. I read that our photograph of my dad and documents about his service are copyright. I own the original copy sent to my dad and never gave anyone permission to copyright our photos or documents. Many of us know my dad's syory and it belongs to our family. The original documents were passed down to me from my parents. Also, it is essencial to ask all family members before publishing family names while people are alive and without permision of each individual. Please be sure to answer my email as it is included above. Thank you.
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03:49 02-07-2014
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My Dad Samuel L. Warren served in he headquarters company as a tank driver from the activation of the 743 till the end of the war in Germany. Dad would never talk much about his war expiriences and after reading Move out Verify I too find myself looking for answers. I know his ribbons are missing quite a few decorations and Im looking to see the awards and dec's the unit received. I know Dad had five or six battle stars and two purple hearts. thanks for your site
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09:05 14-06-2014
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Hi Ben,
I got the opportunity in 2012 to go to Europe, for the first time, with a buddy. I told him if we got got the chance I would love to go to the military cemetery at Omaha Beach to visit my Uncle's grave. We toured 5 countries, but the highlight of the trip was absolutely to the cemetery! This week I found some old documents and photos my grandmother had and through them learned that he was in "C" company, of the 743rd. He was wounded on 7July44, and passed the following day. He is buried in Plot J, Row 9, Grave 25. Sgt. Ernest L. Nichols, ASN 37 259 408. He was from England, Arkansas. Suddenly it seems I am starved to know more, as he was never married and had no kids....I feel he needs to be remembered.
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11:48 01-06-2014
Dennis Smith
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My father, Clarenc Smith from Bode, Iowa proudly served with thec743rd, and earned a Purple Heart. RIP dad.
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18:53 19-04-2014
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Dear Mr. Savelkoul,
Thank you for your website. My uncle Teddy Guss was in the 643rd and killed on March 2 1945 in Germany and I appreciate your putting these facts on record where they are easily obtainable. I still remember when the telegram arrived and I saw my father cry - I was seven years old at the time. i didn't take him that he'd been killed and thought he was missing in action. For years I dreamed of finding him lost, amnesiac, in the subway. It was the most terrible event in my life and I never completely recovered from it. It darkened my childhood. My son is a fine arts photographer and his work deals with loss and grief - one of his photos is his update of an Unknown Soldier. My cousin Marlene is in touch with you and told me about this website. She will forward this information to my son David Birkin. His paternal grandfather was also a war hero who made nightly trips by sea to rescue the British from France. On one of his trips he rescued Prime Minister Mitterand for which not long ago he received the crois de guerre.
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19:45 28-03-2014
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Dear Mr. Savelkoul,
After watching the Band of Brothers series, I became interested in knowing more about my dad's role in the army. I found a pass from San Lubispo CA which identified this as his battalion. I was thrilled to see his picture on this website. Shall I send you any of his photos?
Thanks you so very much for the job you have done.
May God Bless You,
Felicia Montineri,daughter of Tec4 Paul Montineri
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