What was found when the war ended -- xxxi

Nursing staff at Hadamar Killing Camp

 May 7:

According to reports, the war in Europe was officially declared ended at 5:30 this afternoon. If the war is over, it is not noticeable. No celebrations. All is quiet.

All around him the world is in flux and transition. Literally thousands walk country roads. displaced persons from every occupied European nation, all of them determined to get home, no matter what the distance. Often, Chaplain Van notes the rubble--rubble everywhere, sometimes 15 feet high. Germany is a horrific mess.

Even worse, what arises from the madness is camps, dozens of them, big and small, and the impossible stench they raise, often piles of the dead rotting. I'm guessing that simply viewing the horror is, at least at first, as compelling as it is horrifying. What happened in those death camps made the war's death toll somehow noble--Chaplain Van visits several places where dying was preferable to living. 

May 9: 

At Kassel a vast number of ci­vilians were killed and buried beneath the rubble. When the siege was over, relatives threw wreaths of flowers upon the rubble, where they thought their dear ones were still lying under the rubble. 

May 10, Thursday: 

I went to Giessen today to make arrange­ments for Sunday services. Giessen is a large rail center and is located about 25 miles South of Marburg. Next to the railroad station was a medical school, which had been hit by our bombers. In the basement of this school, we saw 20 large tanks filled with human bodies. Other dead bodies were piled high, like cord wood and covered with lime. Some boxes were filled with heads, arms and legs. 

I do not know whether those dead bodies were victims of atroci­ties or not. But there were too many parts of human bodies for such a small school for experimentation. It is a very gruesome sight to see large boxes full of nude bodies, heads, and limbs all mixed through each other. 

According to Stars and Stripes, dated May 8, 1945, the war thus far cost the United States $85,000 per minute. Cost of the war for all participants is $250,000 per minute or one trillion dollars.

May 11, Sunday: 

Two hundred and fifty soldiers attended services at Marburg, 30 at Treysa and 10 at Giessen. Giessen was badly damaged. All rail equipment was demolished. I held a Sunday service in a box car, in which the soldiers lived. 

All of nature is beautiful around here. All hills are covered with trees, mountains, valleys, streams, and birds. What a contrast to the scars of war, which I see every day. 

That he still notes the beauty around him is remarkable.

May 16: 

I visited the Death House of Hadamar. The German doctor in charge showed me the inside of the entire building. About 500 insane people are housed here. Finally, we asked to see the place where the in­mates were gassed and cremated. He showed us the gas chamber and said that 46,000 people had been ­gassed and cremated. When I ex­pressed my disgust, the doctor said, "Well, they were all useless they could not serve their country." 

The first site of purposeful Nazi atrocity Chaplain Van witnessed was at Hadamar, an institution first used as a psychiatric hospital, then converted into one of six major Nazi euthanasia centers under the Aktion T4 program, Nazi strategy initiated in 1939 to exterminate men and women the regime determined to be “life unworthy of life,” people with mental illness, disabilities, and later, other marginalized groups.

Hadamar inaugerated its horrors as early as January of 1941, long before people outside the camp knew much of anything about Aktion T4. Ten thousand individuals had their lives snuffed out by later in the year. The "doctor" Chaplain Van spoke to tells only half-truth. Among those murdered at the Hadamar death camp included European displaced persons incapable of work, elderly men and women who'd lost their homes due to Allied bombing, and children thought to be "half Jewish." 

Late in the war, busloads of men, women, and children came in daily and were met by a staff of one hundred men and women who determined to do one of two things--either look the other way or buy into the program. 

The picture is just as unimaginable as any photos of dead bodies. How could those nurses, ordinary people, day after day, go to work in a death camp. Human beings are capable of unimaginable horror--that's the lesson of the picture. 

According to Stars and Stripes, 20,000 political prisoners were put to death at Hadamar. Five thousand were killed by drugs and buried in a common grave near the asylum. They were all foreigners shipped into Germany to work in their fac­tories. This building was in operation since 1941, and the facts and figures were confirmed by two inmates who operated the plant. Hadamar is four miles north of Limburg and 50 miles south of Giessen. 

May 17: 

I visited six soldiers in the hospital. I sent a large Nazi flag home and several Army news­papers. I also wrote a letter to my relatives in Holland and informed them that if ever possible, I would make a trip to Holland. I sent my mother seven German darning nee­dles, seven crochet needles, and straight pins. 

Col. Pruett told me that he read all my sermonettes and sent them to his wife. 

 May 23: 

I attended the service at the University Chapel. A negro chaplain had charge of the service. A negro choir sang beautiful Negro Spirituals. Of course all this was contrary to the ideas of Hitler and his super race. But Hitler is dead and the Word of God goes on for­ever. What a contrast. 

But there is much of the war that doesn't end with armistice or homecoming.

Pinelli and his problem. He is married and has one child. He was 13 months overseas and was wounded in combat. A few days ago his unit was creeping up on the Germans. In the distance he saw a German soldier and shot him. As his unit moved up, he passed the soldier which he had shot and looked at his face. Now he sees the face in his dreams every night and cannot erase it from his memory. He told his buddies about his prob­lem and they merely laughed about it. He came to my office with his problem and I tried to ease his con­science. The experience of Pinelli indicates that it is an awful thing to kill a human being even in combat.