Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project
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Interviewer
Michael Hirsh
Publication Date
March 2022
Date
December 2008
Abstract
Robert F. Enkelmann was in a mortar battalion in the 102nd Infantry Division, which discovered the Gardelegen massacre on April 15, 1945. Two days earlier, several thousand prisoners from nearby camps were locked inside a barn which was then set on fire. The 102nd found the remains, and their commander ordered the townspeople to bury the bodies properly. Enkelmann guarded the barn while the bodies were being buried. After the war, he stayed in Europe with the Counter Intelligence Corps investigating war crimes. Enkelmann, the son of a German immigrant, was the interpreter for SS General Heinz Harmel and arrested the secretary of Hans Frank, the Nazi Governor-General of Poland. In this interview, he recounts his experiences at Gardelegen and in CIC, and describes a close call during the Battle of the Bulge.
Keywords
World War II (1939-1945), Holocaust (1939-1945), Concentration camps, Battle of the Ardennes (1944-1945), Gardelegen Massacre (Gardelegen Germany 1945), Concentration camps--Liberation, Veterans, Genocide, Crimes against humanity, United States. Army. Infantry Division 102nd, Translators
Extent
00:41:01; 20 page transcript
Subject: geographic
Gardelegen (Germany)
Language
English
Digital Date
2022
Media Type
Oral histories
Format
Digital Only
Identifier
C65-00038
Recommended Citation
Enkelmann, Robert F., "Robert F. Enkelmann Oral History Interview" (2022). Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project. 30.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/concentration_OH/30
Rights Statement
