“American G.I.s and the Holocaust”, a lecture by Kyra Schuster

Kyra Schuster began her talk with a friendly, professional demeanor and an expressive use of her hands in introducing the subject of her lecture. In the small conference room located in Hillel Hall at the University of Florida, Schuster identified herself as a curator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Schuster presented both orally and with a visual PowerPoint aid. Introductory slides included pictures without words that later gave way to a clip from the National Geographic documentary “Hitler’s GI Death Camp”. The documentary focused on first-person interviews with former Berga, Germany camp detainees.

Survivors explained their dog-tags were marked with the letters H, C or P. These letters indicated which religious sect a GI belonged to and which “last rites” they were entitled. The audience also learned from survivor testimony how it was common practice to eat snow and icicles to supplement rations or substitute for a lack of food while prisoners were still in the process of being transported to concentration camps.

Specifically, American GIs with their specialized set of skills were widely assigned to dig underground tunnels during individual twelve-hour shifts. It was thought that German Nazis were hoping to build a synthetic fuel plant, however GIs’ intentionally shoddy workmanship would prove this mission unsuccessful.

It was explained that American families would not hear of their relatives’ prisoner-of-war (POW) status until eight weeks had passed. One detainee recognized this lack of communication between families and their loved ones as a call to action, a “moral obligation” to keep a “wartime log”. The log contained a diary with a written record of the names of all who had died, escaped or been injured while at the Berga camp.

On April 3, 1945, in pursuit of escape and with the promise of American and Russian forces coming to their aid; Berga prisoners began a “death march” which lasted two and half weeks. There was an estimated 280 Americans in the camp.

Between 150 and 180 prisoners are estimated to have survived out of 350 total prisoners at Berga. Of those who survived, GIs recall vivid memories of seeing large white stars on the sides of the tanks and hearing “Raus, Raus!”, a call for the prisoners to get up and get out.

Throughout describing this heavy subject matter and providing her own insights from first-hand interviews with survivors, Schuster maintained an appropriate degree of humor and great accessibility.

Schuster went on to explain why further testimony from former GIs was not available. Strict protections placed on military documents were designed to conceal escape techniques and military maneuvers. As part of these precautionary security measures, many POWs were compelled by the military to sign non-disclosure agreements. Additionally, historians estimate that over 70% of military documents from World War II were lost to fire.

Enough time has passed for such non-speaking restrictions to be lifted, but many GIs have since passed or are unaware of the value of their testimony to institutions such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Kyra Schuster has personally attempted contact with survivors and has successfully met with GIs like Tony Acevedo, the first Mexican-American Catholic registered with the museum.

Mertz and Metz, two Nazi officials who oversaw the activities of the Berga camp, were tried for the crimes. They mitigated their sentences to five and twenty years, respectively.

It wasn’t until Summer 2009 when Berga victims were finally publicly acknowledged. This was the first honorable military recognition of Berga detainees as POWs but not as concentration camp victims. Tony Acevedo stipulated his donation was contingent upon this event.

Schuster was an engaging and informative lecturer. She expressed her own personal connection as a Jewish woman to the subject manner and gave the audience a clear idea of what led her to be interested in the plight of American GIs in the time of the holocaust. Schuster balanced serious subject matter with the injection of humorous recountings of her personal experience while maintaining the dignity of the victims and their stories.