by Gregor Ziemer
_Gregor Ziemer, who wrote the following story, might well be known as
the “Man who Stayed for Dinner.” He joined the Fourth Armored
Division at Polch, Germany on March 7, 1945. At the time he expected
to remain for three days to do some broadcasts for Radio Luxembourg.
He liked what he saw so much that he has been with the division ever
since._
_The three months he has spent with the Fourth Armored have presented
Mr. Ziemer with sights that he always hoped to experience--but never
thought he would--as he had lived in Germany for twelve years before
the war, both before, and during the Hitler regime. Consequently,
Ziemer probably knows Germany as well as any living American._
_During his stay in Germany, Ziemer headed the American School in
Berlin, and on his return to the States wrote “1,001 Days of
Hitler” and the best seller, “Education for Death,” which later
became the movie, “Hitler’s Children.”_
_Since he has been with the division, Ziemer has written a detailed
account of defeated Germany for Collier’s magazine, and at present
is hard at work on a full length book about Germany, based on his
experiences with the Fourth Armored, that he hopes to publish in the
near future._
_Although the story that appears here will probably never appear
elsewhere in print, we felt that it was a great and sincere tribute
from a man who ranks high among the nation’s authors and from a man
that we feel we can call a fellow member of our great division. With
this in mind we pass it on to you.--Public Relations Officer._
LANDSHUT, GERMANY, June 14, 1945--There are some moments which only
the Angel of History should be allowed to record.
There are occasions when pride and memory and gratitude and humbleness
are so mixed up that the emotions go dull and words become even less
effective than usual.
Such a moment I experienced this afternoon.
I stood out under the blue sky of conquered Bavaria, and saw American
boys pass in review--their first review since they had come to Europe
a year ago, I saw American flags carried over a field of green, I
watched color guards carry banners. I saw a Four-star General pin
pieces of blue cloth on the banners. I saw the same general pin a bit
of blue ribbon in a small gold frame on the tunic of another general.
I heard a band play the “Star Spangled Banner.”
And it was as if a million voices were shouting “Thank You! Thank
you for what you have done!” And it was as if the hills of Bavaria
were echoing the sound, until the whole world was full of it.
For this afternoon, on that level field outside the old historic city
of Landshut, the Fourth Armored Division of the Third Army passed in
review and received the Presidential Citation.
“It was a broad field, and there were many boys on it--boys in
their best garrison uniforms. And they passed in review with a
precision and a compactness and a spirit that amazed even the old
veterans of many reviews who were present.
Yes, the Fourth Armored received the Presidential Citation this
afternoon.
“Motivated always by the highest esprit de corps and displaying the
greatest intrepidity and determination, these units successfully and
swiftly executed missions of an exceptionally hazardous nature against
the enemy.”
Those were the words they heard, those boys out there on the field.
And they knew what the words tried to say--those boys--boys who are
now doing occupational work when they would much rather be home, boys
who were thinking of their buddies who helped to earn this citation
but were not there to see it presented because they are lying in
heroes’ graves in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Yes, I attended a review in honor of a Presidential Citation. And my
heart was so full that a drop could have overflowed it. For more than
three months I have been with this Fourth Armored. I have seen them in
action. I crossed the Rhine with them at Oppenheim. I rolled across
the pontoon bridge with them at Hanau on the Main. I made a detour
around that burning half-track at Buchenwald. I crawled across the
Bailey bridge that dark bitter morning when the Nazis thought they had
us cooped up at Ifta. I rode into Czechoslovakia with them.
I am only a civilian, and know next to nothing about the tactical
difficulties the Fourth encountered on this historic odessey across
Germany. But I was there when they opened the road blocks, when they
cleared out the machine gun nests, when they evacuated their dead.
And today tears rolled down my cheek as I held my hand at salute while
the American flags were carried past the reviewing stand where stood
General Jacob L. Devers and Major General William M. Hoge. Out on the
field I saw them all, the heroes of the Fourth--Colonel Creighton W.
Abrams, Colonel Hayden A. Sears, Colonel Wendell Blanchard, Colonel
David A. Watt, Lt Colonel Leslie D. Goodall, Colonel Alexander Graham,
Lt Colonel Harold Cohen, Lt Colonel Delk M. Oden, Lt Colonel James
Bidwell, Lt Colonel Albin Irzyk, Lt Colonel Robert Mailliard, Lt
Colonel William Nungesser, Lt Colonel Arthur C. Peterson, Lt Colonel
Robert M. Parker, Lt Colonel Neil M. Wallace, Major Henry Crosby,
Major William Hunter, Major Charles Kimsey and Major Erbin Wattles.
Behind them were their men, of Headquarters, tank destroyers, cavalry,
engineers, armored artillery, armored infantry, tank battalions,
trains, medics, and ordnance...
And I also saw all the others, who were not there...
I saw them as an American civilian would see them, a civilian who has
had the good fortune of having been with them when they earned the
Citation, as a civilian who represents the Nation which bestowed it on
them.
And because I am a civilian, and because I happen to know what brought
the Fourth this recognition, I make myself the spokesman of my Nation
at this moment, and I say:
“I wonder if you know what you have done? I wonder if you realize
how history will thank you for ridding the world of a fear which a few
short months ago was still cowing the entire globe? I wonder if you
realize how majestic, how significant your acts, your sacrifices, your
spirit are? It was you and men like you who have brought the world a
new hope, a new lease on humanity.”
You don’t wish thanks. You didn’t do this because you wanted to be
heroes. You refuse to be heroes now. But, please believe me when I say
that for generations you will earn the undying thanks of a nation, a
world which has come out of oppression to the light as bright as the
sun which shone this afternoon over your polished helmets, and the new
paint jobs of your tanks on parade.
This thanks the world may not express in words. The world itself is
sometimes inarticulate when it comes to expressing gratitude. But
History, that timeless element which runs through the strains of life
and anchors in eternity, History knows, and History will give you
credit.
General Devers expressed it well when he said that on your
shoulders--on your young shoulders--rests the hope for the future.
You will accept this added responsibility for the future as you have
accepted every order for a new rat-race.
But meanwhile accept the humble thanks of your people; accept the
deeply rooted “Thank You” of a nation which has come to know its
own strength, when it watched your strength.
For as long as our nation can produce a unit like the Fourth Armored,
as long as it can create a spirit like yours--just that long there is
no fear for the future of America.
At I looked at you this afternoon, at the faces as they passed quickly
by, faces which came from every walk of American life, I knew I was
seeing a new America. It is an awakened America--an America which has
taken its place in the family of nations--and which will be a watchman
of the nations if necessary.
American soldiers marched under a German sky, on German soil, under a
German sun, and received a citation of an American President--how
impossible it would have seemed a short time ago.
And now I can quote the sacred words of our Savior who died to save
mankind, “It is finished.”
But, as for Him the task was not finished, even as He spoke those
words, so our task is not finished. But we of the Fourth Armored, we
Americans all who know so infinitely more of the world, of mankind, of
the human mind than we did a year ago, we fear not the future, we fear
no enemy, we fear not ourselves, nor our miserable charlatans and
fools who would make America a nation of bickering merchants and a
rabble of hypocrites.
We are going home with the bit of blue ribbon in the gold frame over
our right breast pocket. And it will always bring us just one message:
“We of the Fourth are not vainglorious. We are not conceited. We are
humble and grateful. We are conscious of our duties and our
responsibilities--now in peacetime as we were in wartime.
“But never again--NEVER AGAIN--will we be afraid of Fear; never
again will we be afraid to attack that which we consider wrong, no
matter where it is, no matter what kind of wrong it is. Never again
will we permit evil to grow under our feet!”
And so I salute the Fourth--today, every day, until the Last Review is
over, until the last one of us has joined those of the Fourth who have
gone before ...
And even then, from beyond the grave, we shall keep alive this spirit
born in battle, confirmed in peace, made symbolic by our Presidential
Citation.
So Help us God!
Amen!
[Illustration: Collier’s banner]
_The following paragraphs are excerpts from a Collier’s story written
by Gregor Ziemer. Although the story deals basically with the German
people, it is based on Ziemer’s experiences while traveling with the
Fourth Armored._
I am writing this on the running board of a confiscated automobile.
For what seems a century I have been rat-racing across Germany with
the famous U. S. Fourth Armored of Presidential Citation fame.
I, who have been worrying for many months how I could get back into
Germany soon after the war, have entered with a spearhead. With my
senses keyed to unaccustomed intensity, I crossed the Sauer, the
Rhine, the Mosel, the Nahe, the Main, and the Fulda and the
Werra--driving a civilian car, in battle khaki, as part of a column of
tanks and half-tracks, of jeeps and trucks.
My mind is urging me to get down on paper my first impressions of the
defeated Germany. I lived in Germany. I knew the sadistic, the
scheming, the malignant Hitler Germany. Now I am getting firsthand
impressions of a different Germany: the Germany of the white flags;
which shrugs its shoulders, which stares in amazement--and which takes
orders.
Overhead a dogfight is filling the blue April sky with staccato bursts
of death. Not more than a quarter of a mile away I see the green
shacks of the infamous Ohrdruf concentration camp which I have just
visited. I have seen such destruction of German war weapons recently
that my mind is a shambles. . .
“We had no idea you Americans were so strong.” That is another
chorus. A captured general, Edgar Rohrich, to whom I spoke in the
small town of Ifta, made that clear. And then he gave me an insight
into German psychology. “I’d ask nothing more of life than a chance
to command a division like this Fourth which I see here,” he said,
in that narrow corridor of the farmhouse where I interviewed him. And
if he had such a division? He would continue to fight, and he would
continue to attempt to conquer the world, of course .....
From where I am sitting I can still see in the evening twilight the
mound of the mass grave of Ohrdruf. I still smell the odor of death.
But I also see an old peasant trying to obliterate the traces left on
his field by tanks and foxholes. He is looking forward to the harvest
many months ahead. It will take almost bucolic patience, almost
superhuman endurance, to put Germany back in order, Is it worth it?
There will be many who say no. There will be others who will say yes.
After weeks of rat-racing with the Fourth Armored across Germany which
is, for the time being, humble, I can say only this: Let the world
decide, but only after a long heart-searching interview with its own
conscience, as to which is cheaper--another war or a long, patient,
firm, disciplined occupation of this country which we have conquered
with so much effort, so much weariness, and at the cost of so many
lives.