Remembering St. Ottilien

E. Edward Herman, who along with Robert Hilliard is responsible for changing U.S. policy towards concentration camp survivors at the end of World War Two, passed away a few days ago, as previously reported on this blog. His funeral will be Monday in West Palm Beach, Florida. I heard today from Bob Hilliard, who said he'd seen Ed several weeks ago in West Palm Beach. These two men, who met in 1945, were bonded together by their wartime experience, and it is only fitting that they were together near the end. My heartfelt sympathies go out to Bob and to the Herman family.

I found the following story about a recent reunion of the survivors of St. Ottilien, their children, and grandchildren, held recently in West Palm Beach in 2006. Starting a number of years ago, Bob and Ed had arranged for reunions of survivors of the displaced persons camp and hospital. These survivors and their descendants love and honor the two men who came to their rescue in 1945. I have had the opportunity to talk with a number of them over the years. Many of these individuals went on to lead great lives after the war, becoming artists, writers, political leaders and doctors. But they all remember how their lives were changed by two young Air Corps enlisted men over sixty years ago.

The following was written by writer Helen Schwimmer, whose parents ended up at St. Ottilien and who was born there after the war.

"The Jews of St. Ottilien


Traditionally, this is the time of year for reunions, however there was nothing traditional about the gathering I attended in West Palm Beach, Florida recently. People who had never met, of different ages and backgrounds, reunited because they shared one common bond, St. Ottilien, a Benedictine Monastery nestled in the idyllic countryside of Upper Bavaria in Germany.

Named for a pious and charitable nun, known as the “saint of vision” because of her remarkable healing powers, the monastery had been converted to a Displaced Persons Camp after the war. It was here that I was born in 1947 when my parents, Polish Jews, were waiting to emigrate to America.

In 1997, I traveled back to Germany to confront my past and to make peace with it. And although I toured the grounds of the monastery and interviewed the monks, it was not until three years later that many of my questions, both personal and historical, would finally be answered by Dr. Robert L. Hilliard. Fate brought us together at a conference on Displaced Persons, sponsored by the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. During a panel discussion on the role of the military in the DP camp experience, I learned of his book “Surviving The Americans: The Continued Struggle of the Jews After Liberation” and the miraculous story of the role he played in the lives of the Jews of St. Ottilien.

The Power Of The Pen

In 1945, 19 year-old Robert Hilliard and 25 year-old Edward Herman, two GIs stationed on an army base in Germany after WW II, were so distressed by the conditions they observed at nearby St. Ottilien they started a massive letter writing campaign to the American people. Ultimately, the contents of the letter came to the attention of President Truman and played a key role in reversing US policy towards the Jews. An excerpt from their lengthy letter, which appears in Dr. Hilliard’s book and details the plight of the survivors, reads:

At the hospital of St. Ottilien there are today 750 people including a staff of doctors...attempting to preserve the life they find it hard to believe they still have. Four months ago this same hospital was being used to care for German soldiers. At the same time there were thousands of Jews roaming Germany, sick, tortured, wounded, without food, clothing or help of any kind. One particular group was led by Dr. Zalman Grinberg. For months he has tried to obtain aid for these people. The Germans refused him. The local governments refused him...For these people the Red Cross, UNRRA, the various Hebrew organizations were, although present, nonexistent. If they are to survive the coming winter they need shoes...they need sheets and blankets...medical supplies...the necessities of life and they are depending on you to get it for them. The intolerable situation of the Jews having to beg the Germans for food exists...We are writing to you for you are the only ones that can help...These surviving Jews of Europe want to live. The fact that five children have already been born at St. Ottilien is proof enough.”

Olga Salitan was one of those first babies to be born in St. Ottilien. I met her recently during the gathering organized and sponsored by E. Edward Herman, now a retired financier in Palm Beach and Robert Hilliard, presently a Professor of Mass Communication at Emerson College in Boston. By the time I was born in 1947, conditions at St. Ottilien had greatly improved due to the crusading efforts of these two remarkable men.

“Most of us have no family so when we get together with surviviors we consider them family. That’s what our meeting is all about...the living,” said Jean Einstein, Olga’s mother. This same sentiment was echoed by the participants who came from California, Ohio, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Chicago and New York to join those now residing in Florida. When I traveled to St. Ottilien three years earlier I had never met anyone connected with that DP camp. Now, suddenly, I was surrounded by an entirely new “family.” The reunion brought together eight St. Ottilien “babies” who were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet each other and Dr. Isaac Vidor, the obstetrician who delivered many of those born in the monastery. The group also consisted of former patients and orphans who brought along family members to share the experience.

My daughter Sara accompanied me to Florida and spent the next four days learning first-hand about the DP era as she listened to survivor’s stories, looked at the precious photograph albums we each brought along and participated in activities which included a special Yom Hashoah program at the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach; a visit to Florida Atlantic University where we listened to a performance of their klezmer band and viewed the Jewish Library and exceptional work of the Jewish book bindery; a meeting with a member of the Jewish Claims Commission who focused on the status of current negotiations; and discussions about how to locate missing relatives with representatives of the American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing and Information Center.

Connecting Past And Present

But it was the conversations with the other survivors, over meals and during the lengthy bus rides, that proved to be the most significant part of our reunion. As we got to know each other and caught up on the last 50 plus years, each of us made new connections and discovered old ones. Philip Sal, who met and married his wife Esther in St. Ottilien, had been the ambulance driver who brought patients from Munich to the hospital between 1945-50. More than likely he was the one who had transported my ailing mother from the Gabarze DP camp to the monastery where she gave birth to me. Yetta Marchuck, who came with her father, Max Goldsammler, was born the same year as I was. Today she lives in a house right next door to my uncle Moshe Berger, my mother’s only surviving family member.

Like a pebble thrown into the water that creates ripples far beyond what the eye can see, the two young GIs had poured out their hearts in a letter to the American people which continues to make waves fifty-five years later. As we gathered together on the last evening of our reunion, we presented Bob and Ed with a momento, a photo-poster of the St. Ottilien hospital expressing our gratitude and appreciation for their efforts, then and now and signed by the survivors, their children and their children’s children."



Though both Bob and Edward are Jewish, both were also adament to me when I was writing my book that it wasn't their motivation for saving the Displaced Persons. They would have done the same thing had these people been Christians, Buddhists, or atheists. They did it because they saw and injustice and wanted to make it right.

Another Hero Passes--Edward Herman---Rescued Concentration Camp Survivors

Ed Herman, left, and Robert Hilliard, Right, saved thousands of displaced persons in Germany at the end of World War Two. Ed passed away yesterday.

I just received the sad news that E. Edward Herman, who with Bob Hilliard helped change US policy towards concentration camp survivors in US-occupied Germany, has passed away.
Ed and Bob's story is told in my book "Untold Valor" as well as in Bob Hilliard's excellent book, 'Surviving the Americans', and in an acclaimed video entitled 'Miracle at St. Ottilien'.

Ed and Bob were Army Air Corps enlisted men in Germany. Bob had been wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and had been transferred into the Air Corps, where he held a job as a reporter for an air base newspaper. Bob was assigned to cover a concert staged by concentration camp survivors shortly after war's end. The concert was held at a former monastery named St. Ottilien, part of which had been converted into a hospital for the Holocaust survivors. At the concert, Bob noticed that most of the people at St. Ottilien still wore their striped concentration camp uniforms, and that nearly all were emaciated and sickly.

He noted that the freed concentration camp survivors, now called Displaced Persons, had no place to go, in most cases. Many were from Jewish ghettos that had been literally wiped off the face of the earth by Nazi pograms. These 'free' people now were kept in camps. Because of the danger of typhus and other communicable diseases, the American armed forces had strung barbed wire around many of the displaced persons camps to prevent the DPs from getting out and infecting the general population. Many DPs were still dying of malnutrition, disease, and neglect. Several had been shot while trying to sneak out of the camps to find food.

Bob returned to the American base and told his good friend, E. Edward Herman. Though he and Ed were privates, they decided they had to do something. And they did. By the time they were done, they had managed to get President Harry Truman to change US policy towards liberated concentration camp survivors. Truman sent a top deputy named Earl Harrison to Germany to investigate the situation firsthand. His report lambasted the treatment of the DPs. President Truman wrote to Eisenhower, saying, in part:

"As matters now stand, we appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them, except that we do not exterminate them. They are in concentration camps in large numbers under our military guard instead of S.S. troops. One is led to wonder if the German people, seeing this, are not supposing we are following, or at least condoning, Nazi policy."

Both Bob and Ed were threatened with courts-martial for bringing the plight of the DPs to light. They stood fast and did the right thing.

It has been my honor to know these two great Americans for a number of years. Both were of great help to me when I was researching their story. It is a story known to only a small segment of historians, but one which deserves a much wider audience. For this reason, only two weeks ago, I nominated Ed and Bob for induction into the Jewish-American Hall of Fame.

Ed was a wonderful friend and a great man. He lived many exciting events in his life, and was one of the original catalysts behind supplying the new state of Isreal with arms and other material after its creation.

The world is poorer today because he is not in it. However, thousands of Jews and other concentraton camp displaced persons lived because of his efforts and those of his friend Bob Hilliard.

Here is a list of books and a video about these two great men:

Surviving the Americans: The Continuing Struggle of the Jews after Liberation, by Robert Hilliard. Written by the man who was there and helped save the Displaced Persons, this is the best book on the subject. I note Amazon has used copies from under two dollars.

http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americans-Continued-Struggle-Liberation/dp/1888363320/ref=sr_1_9/105-7816715-3986865?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192572096&sr=8-9

Displaced: Miracle at St. Ottilien, a Film by John Michalczyk, available at this site: http://www2.bc.edu/~michalcj/displaced.html

A review of this fine film:

Displaced: Miracle at St. Ottilien (2002; 47 minutes) is a documentary based on the true experiences of US Army privates Edward Herman and Robert Hilliard, who were stationed in Germany at the close of World War II. They discovered the horrendous treatment of displaced Jews in St. Ottilien, a camp run by the US military. In an effort to alleviate the suffering, the two GIs stole food from their own mess hall and smuggled it into the camp. Then the two soldiers started a letter writing campaign which caught the attention of President Harry Truman, who ordered an investigation which led to the end to the abuse. The film is based on a memoir written by Mr. Hilliard. The world premiere, attended by Mr. Hilliard and survivors of St. Ottilien, was held at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in November 2002. A New England premiere was held at Boston College in February 2003 and was attended by Mr. Hilliard. It was recently featured at the Toronto and Boston Jewish Film Festivals.

Untold Valor, my own book, has an extensive chapter about Bob and Ed, and relies on first-person interviews with both, as well as with survivors of the death camps and their children.

One of the Most Important Books You've Never Read

As a writer, I often feel guilty that my book sells so well when there is a book out there that is so much more important that hasn't gotten the readership it deserves. 'Surviving the Americans' makes 99% of all books written about World War Two look pretty insignificant. Author Robert Hilliard is alive and well, still teaching at Emerson College and also living part-time in Florida, and his World War Two friend E. Edward Herman lives in Florida. These two great men, as young Army Air Corps privates, changed United States policy towards Displaced Persons in American-Occupied Germany after World War Two. In the process, they saved the lives of thousands of liberated concentration camp survivors--Jewish and Gentile. If ever there were heroes of World War Two, Bob and Ed are the epitome.

I got to know them when researching my book, Untold Valor, and was honored to attend the international premiere of a movie about them entitled 'Miracle at St. Ottilien', which has since shown on PBS, in many film festivals around the world, and is on its way to becoming a classic war documentary.

What's amazing is that this ground-breaking work, on a topic of great historical importance, is available on Amazon.us for just over a dollar. There is even a copy, inscribed by the author, Bob Hilliard, for sale for around twelve dollars. One of the ironies of modern American culture, when a man who was responsible for saving thousands of Jews after the war, and who stood up to no one less powerful than Dwight D. Eisenhower--and won--is a relative unknown while useless athletes and talentless actors rake in the accolades and the glory.

Following is my review of the book from Amazon:

This is an extremely important work, one that should be read by everyone who has any interest whatsoever in World War II in general, in the Holocaust and its aftermath, or in how the liberating American forces dealt with the 'problem' of what to do with the Jewish survivors of Hitler's death camps. It will make the reader reassess the accepted historical view of Americans as the saviors of Europe after World War II. Author Robert Hilliard was a young enlisted man stationed in Germany at the end of the war. Hilliard takes up the cause of helping the freed concentration camp survivors after attending a 'liberation concert' staged by Jews and hearing the speech of a Jewish doctor who has set up a hospital to care for the freed Jews. He learns that though the Jews are free, in most cases they have nowhere to go, no food, no medical care,and no clothing. Many are still wearing their concentration camp clothes months after the war ends, and some are even wearing the clothes of the hated SS guards because they have nothing else. In addition, Jews are dying with startling regularity at the hospital due to lack of food and medical supplies. To make matters worse, they must watch the 'former' Nazis who ran the country under Hitler resume their old lives, despite the evils they have perpetrated. Hilliard finds that American policy in Germany is little better than that of the Germans. Many Jews are kept in barbed wire installations, under MP guard, and have to try to live on 700 calories a day. They watch the former Nazis ingratiate themselves with the US brass through bribery, lies, and sexual favors. Hilliard and his friend Ed Herman decide to do what they can for the hospital, and this book chronicles their efforts. By the end of the book, they take their plea all the way to the top, and are instrumental in changing US occupation policy towards the freed Jews in Germany. Because of the actions of these two enlisted men, President Truman in effect reprimanded Gen. Eisenhower for his laissez-faire attitude in dealing with former Nazis and treatment of freed concentration camp survivors. The book is well-written, and could easily have run hundreds of pages. Hilliard has crafted a lean and powerful book. I hope that it will be read by many students of history, and I recommend it to any person who is not content to accept the sanitized, for-the-masses packaging of complicated historical periods.

This is one of those books that changes you if you read it. You will never look at the history of World War Two the same again. It is, literally, a must-read.

Order it from Amazon.us here http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americans-Continued-Struggle-Liberation/dp/1888363320/ref=sr_1_1/103-0080273-1490215?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188607020&sr=1-1

The following is a review of the important documentary about Bob and Ed entitled 'Miracle at St. Otillien':

LOCAL JEWISH FILM FEST 2007

'Displaced' tells true story of survival

BY CATE MARQUIS, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT

"Displaced: Miracle At St. Ottilien" is a little-known "Greatest Generation" true story, about a couple of ordinary American G.I.s who showed extraordinary courage, persistence and intelligence to save some concentration camp survivors — after the war had ended.
This short documentary is narrated by writer Studs Terkel, and features interviews with the former American soldiers, two army privates named Robert Hilliard and Edward Herman, and a group of Buchenwald survivors in a displaced persons camp.

Everyone has an image of the Allied troops defeating the Nazis and setting the inmates of concentration camps free.

But what happened next to those survivors?

The Allied Commander was too busy, with mopping up after the war, hunting down the Nazi stragglers and putting the broken countries back in order, to really pay much attention to the barely-living concentration camp survivors who had been liberated. Those well enough could make their way home could but the sickly and weak, some far from home, or with no home left, were herded into displaced persons camps, often to be neglected or forgotten.
St. Ottilien was one such little camp, a former monastery, where a group of survivors huddled on the brink of starvation.

Army privates Robert Hilliard and Edward Herman were disturbed by this treatment and began smuggling food to the refugees.

When sickness broke out among the neglected survivors, the commanders thought of fencing them in, lest disease spread to the general population.

This was too much at last for Hilliard and Herman. They set out to do something about it, using their wits to circumvent the system, with a letter writing campaign. Eventually, their efforts got the attention of President Harry Truman.

The documentary's story is told through interviews with documents and archival stills.
The story is told step by step as it unfolded, leading up to the clever twist that did the trick. Survivors are interviewed along with the soldiers themselves.

The combination of cleverness, resourcefulness and determination to do the right thing, to save these strangers, makes this short documentary a heart-warming, inspiring winner.
I am continually amazed at the remarkable moral character and sense of right and wrong coupled with the brainiest and creative wit in being able to circumvent obstacles that marked this generation that grew up in the hardships of the Great Depression.

Maybe it was FDR's message of "we are all in this together" that cemented this determination to rescue the weakest and leave no one behind.

Displaced: Miracle At St. Ottilien is a wonderful little tribute, a bit belated, to some ordinary guys who did something extraordinary, just because it was the right thing to do."

Order the movie 'Displaced: Miracle at St. Ottilien here: http://www2.bc.edu/~michalcj/displaced.html

E. Edward Herman, Left, and Robert Hilliard, Right, were two American privates who changed US policy and saved the lives of thousands of liberated concentration camp survivors after World War Two. Never heard of them? Shame on you. Time to find out.

Bob and Ed are not only my friends, I am unashamed to say they are my heroes.

Thank you, both of you, for your courageous efforts on behalf of those who were powerless, voiceless, and alone in the year immediately after World War Two.