Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project
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Interviewer
Michael Hirsh
Publication Date
March 2022
Date
December 2008
Abstract
Elton Oltjenbruns was a medic in the 102nd Infantry Division, which discovered the Gardelegen Massacre in Gardelegen, Germany. On April 13, 1945, 1,100 Jewish prisoners were corralled in a barn which was then set on fire. The 102nd arrived on the scene a day later, made the townspeople bury the bodies, and put a sign at the cemetery. Oltjenbruns assisted the battalion surgeon, who was in charge of the aid station. Although his unit was in the vicinity for nearly a month, he spent part of that time in the field hospital himself recovering from appendicitis. He and some other men from the 102nd went back to Gardelegen in 1979, at which time the original sign was gone, but he believes that it was put back after the Berlin Wall fell.
Keywords
World War II (1939-1945), Holocaust (1939-1945), Gardelegen Massacre (Gardelegen Germany 1945), Massacres, Veterans, Genocide, Crimes against humanity, Military medicine, United States. Army. Infantry Division 102nd
Extent
00:14:19; 11 page transcript
Subject: geographic
Gardelegen (Germany)
Language
English
Digital Date
2022
Media Type
Oral histories
Format
Digital Only
Identifier
C65-00095
Recommended Citation
Oltjenbruns, Elton, "Elton Oltjenbruns Oral History Interview" (2022). Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project. 83.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/concentration_OH/83
Rights Statement
