By josh davidson
Staff Writer
In his studies on the Holocaust, Mitchell Bard came across a group of American soldiers who were ignored by their own country and treated in an unspeakable manner by their enemy.
Bard’s seminar March 27 at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, examined about 5,000 American Jews, non-Jews, civilians and soldiers who were held in Nazi internment and concentration camps during World War II.
"One of the things that the United States government learned early on is that American Jews who were in internment camps were treated worse than anyone there," he said.
In 1939 about 80,000 Americans were in Europe, said Bard, executive director of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
At that point, the United States had not entered World War II. When foreign relations grew hostile, the U.S. State Department created a special division to help, he said.
The state department, however, discourage these Americans from returning home because of fear that they would not be financially secure and could become possible welfare cases, he said
During his studies, Bard found comments from one U.S. official who said those returning home should be treated like any other immigrant.
By 1941, anti-Jewish foreign policies were developed in Europe, he said.
In 1942, after America entered World War II, the U.S. government received reports that the first American citizens were arrested by Germans, he said. By March 1942, about 5,000 were placed in internment camps, he said.
The U.S. government made a decision not to help these Americans, and then covered up that fact, Bard said.
There were also a number of Americans living in Europe who escaped arrest, he added.
Hungary was the most dangerous place to be held, according to Bard. About 100 American and British citizens were in a Hungarian internment camp that was bombed by Allied forces, he said.
In 1943, the American government received the first report of Americans being sent to concentration camps, Bard said. At the time, the American press hid details about the Holocaust, he said.
"Back in the ’40s, the press paid little to no attention to what was happening to Americans," he said.
Almost every major concentration camp had at least a handful of Americans, according to Bard.
Nearly 600,000 Jews served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II, Bard said.
Jewish-American soldiers wore an "H" on their dog tags, he said. The letter stood for Hebrew and was present to ensure a proper burial, he said.
"When Americans went into battle, few of them had any idea of the concentration camps," he said.
No official German rule was given to mistreat Jewish captured soldiers, he said. Since this was the case, individual camp commanders made their own decisions on how to treat captured Jewish soldiers, he said.
The story of Adolph Hitler’s American victims remains untold for separate reasons, he said.
One was that the U.S. government was afraid to admit that they allowed it to happen, he said. Another was that victims did not speak of the occurrences even to their closest family members, he said.
Bard is working on a documentary about a concentration camp located in a small German town called Berga. Here, 350 American soldiers were forced to work in mines, and many died.
Many survivors he interviewed were speaking about it for the first time, according to Bard.
"They hadn’t said anything to anybody in 50 years," he said.
The soldiers felt ashamed, he said.
"In World War II, a POW wasn’t seen as a hero," Bard said. "They were seen as cowards."
Reports of the soldiers’ treatment sent home from the American Red Cross made it seem like they were treated in a very fair manner, he said.
After the war, the press did not reveal facts of these occurrences to the public, according to Bard.
During the war, family members did not know where these soldiers were, he said. They were believed dead by the military.
"There was also the belief that what happened to Americans was just the price of war," he said.
Much could have been done to avoid this, he said.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt should have taken action to prevent this, he said.
More press attention might have forced him to help, Bard said.
Other officials also could have paid more attention, he said. The State Department ignored a request to find out which Americans were in Europe. In addition, European Americans who wanted help needed documentation to prove they were American, he said.
"Finally, one thing that could have been done is to try the war criminals on what they did to Americans, and to have the Americans testify," Bard said.
The number of Holocaust survivors who have died makes Bard’s job more difficult, he said.
"If I were starting this project today, it would be infinitely more difficult," he said. "Survivors’ memories are difficult to deal with as well," he said. "Things are forgotten over the years."