| No one has been able to
calculate the number of wounded, certainly amounting to several
millions, whose lives were permanently scarred as a result of the war.
Physical scars, from the severest disability to disfiguring wounds, and
mental scars, accompanied these millions for the rest of their lives.
Many died as a direct result of them. Others lived in pain, discomfort,
fear or remorse...The greatest unfinished business of the Second World
War is human pain. Martin Gilbert, The Second World War: A complete history, 1989, revised 1991. |
| On June 5, 2009, as part of the
observances of the 65th anniversary of
D-Day, President Obama visited
the concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany.
His
remarks about his great-uncle may also describe how Felix was
effected by what he
witnessed at Dachau: I've
known about this place since I was a boy, hearing stories about my
great uncle, who was a very young man serving in World War II. He
was part of the 89th Infantry Division, the first Americans to reach a
concentration camp. They liberated Ohrdruf, one of Buchenwald's
sub-camps.
And I told this story, he returned from his service in a state of shock saying little and isolating himself for months on end from family and friends, alone with the painful memories that would not leave his head. And as we see -- as we saw some of the images here, it's understandable that someone who witnessed what had taken place here would be in a state of shock. |
| R. Richard
Kingsbury in his autobiography, The
Eighteen-Year-Old Replacement: Facing Combat in Patton's Third Army describes suffering cold injuries, possibly trench foot. After the war, the VA paid him two 10% disability for the permanent damage to his legs and feet. (Page xiii.) At a minimum, that is what I believe Felix also deserved if not more as his hands were also permanently damaged. |
| Cizewski,
Lovetere, Musbach, & Robinson Family History Ibiblio Index © 2006 Leonard H. Cizewski Last Modified on July 29, 2009 |
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