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Show - 111 - tors and representative groups from the national legislatures. I felt that the evidence should be immediately placed before the American and Brit-ish publics in a fashion that would leave no room for cynical doubt. The brutality of Hitler's system was very disturbing to me. To witness the physical condition of slave workers in caves and compounds was pathetic. As we Ameri-cans came through the land, we had or-ders to release all of the slaves. They had a hard time believing it. They came out of hiding as their energy would allow, crying and moaning. One experience I can hardly stand to re-member. I don't know where we were or what day it was, but I will never forget the stench of the fluids that I saw running down a hill from a pile of corpses. We were told that it was the smell of human body juices. Sometimes, the enemy counterattacked, but the G.I.s kept coming. Old German men and boys with no training were given rifles and told to fight the Ameri-cans. We had Air Corps flying over to report armor concentrations. A different formation of 309th, 310th and 311th Infantry Divisions fought abreast through forested areas and valleys. They alternated their advance, leapfrogging ahead one day, then halting in reserve the next. The rapid pace of fighting cre-ated sizable casualties for our troops. By April 15, 1945, all three main battal-ions had crossed the Wupper River and entered Wuppertal, Germany. After the fifty-mile advance, the troops were prac-tically walking in their sleep. When the 310th moved in after nine days of march-ing and shooting, it was a relief. The Ruhr Pocket was kaput! Our unit was ordered to march, clear out buildings and keep on moving toward Wuppertal. We walked for hours and hours. Periodically, I noticed soldiers from the First Army and the Ninth Army. Thousands of soldiers were on the march. We did have halts every once in a while when we relaxed. I got teased, probably because I was one of the youngest and newest replacements. One guy, a bartender in Brooklyn, was always playing tricks, dozens of tricks! He pushed me down in the dirt, and we wrestled. A bunch of guys held me down, ripped open my jacket, pulled up my t-shirt and pulled out my chest hairs. I only had about three, and I moaned as the hairs came out. It ended in wild laughter. The teasing lasted several days, but it was fun. I remember another time on such a halt. We were all spread out on the dirt when |
