Archive/File: holocaust/reviews bard.001     
Last-Modified: 1994/09/27

From: adams@liszt.eecs.berkeley.edu (Adam L. Schwartz)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Book Review: The Abandonment of Americans in Hitler's Camps
Date: 25 Sep 1994 03:01:30 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Message-ID: <362p6a$14o@agate.berkeley.edu>

Exerpts from:

	    THE ABANDONMENT OF AMERICANS IN HITLER'S CAMPS
		    Mitchell Bard (Westview Press)

		     Book Review, by John Rothman

Bard's work discusses the tragedy of U.S. citizens who perished in the
death camps of Nazi Europe.  Who were these people?

Their ranks included those trapped in Europe as the Second World War
broke out, as well as soldiers in the Army who became prisoners of
war, and American Jewish soldiers identified by the letter "H", for
Hebrew, on their military dog tags.

Most shocking of all, however, was that these American citizens were
abandoned by their government.

According to Bard, it was common knowledge that more than 30,000 were
there during the war.  It also was known that American Jews in Hungary
were being mistreated, and there were U.S. Jews at Bergen-Belsen as
well as in the Warsaw Ghetto.

One American Jewish citizen, Bard writes, was even paraded through
Frankfurt with a sign reading: "I am a member of the race which
started the war."

According to his research, the U.S. government refused to check the
records of passports to find Americans trapped in Europe and was
inflexible in verifying citizenship claims.  In some instances,
U.S. authoriites expected Americans in concentration camps to have
proof of citizenship, even though officials refused to send documents
to help them establish it.

In particular, the fate of Jews who served in the U.S. military and
were captured by the Germans is told in graphic detail.  The trauma of
soldiers being exposed as Jews because of the letter "H" imprinted on
their military dog tags is presented dramatically.

-- 
      Adam Schwartz      |  The opinions expressed here are my own 
adams@eecs.berkeley.edu  |  and those of anyone who agrees with me.

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