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Patton’s 4th Armored Division and 89th Infantry Division liberated Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald on April 4, 1945.Īfter viewing the shocking scene at Ohrdruf personally, General Patton asked the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Patton, Jr.’s Third Army, which the group often supported in the battles from Normandy to Germany, liberated the first concentration camp and prisoners freed by the western Allies. Here, near the end of the war, unit personnel began to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust and the massive disruption of the European population, the upheaval of millions upon millions of lives amidst all the death and destruction.Īt about the same time the 371st moved forward across the Rhine to Y-74, Lt. The 371st claimed to be the first USAAF combat group to be based at a forward airfield in Germany, east of the Rhine River, in the first week of April, 1945 at Frankfurt-Eschborn Airfield (ALG Y-74) just northwest of Frankfurt-am-Main. It was both a sad and joyous occasion.” It was perhaps the unit’s first brush with the impact of the Holocaust. The sight of their synagogue filled by over 2,000 American young men moved their thin ranks to tears. Over 100 French civilians were there, out of several hundred left from the pre-1940 population of five thousand. The group’s War book mentions that “It was the first Passover observed in Metz in five years, and was conducted by Chaplain Feldhym of XIX TAC, assisted by Capt. Group members participated, with other American military personnel in the area, in Easter and Passover celebrations held in the city. The 371st Fighter Group’s last base in France before moving forward into Germany was at Metz (Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) Y-34). The group began combat operations from England in the spring of 1944, then moved to France after D-Day, and operated from various bases eastward across France into the spring of 1945.

We must remember the terrible times and events of the past which could happen again if we are not careful and ignore the lessons of history.ĭuring the Second World War, the 371st Fighter Group, today’s 142nd Wing, flew the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter and fought in the northwest of the European Theater of Operations in order to help liberate the continent from Nazi tyranny. Human beings are capable of doing profound good, yet also of extraordinary evil. Popravak, Jr., USAF (Retired)ĭuring this April 24 through Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust, with the Russo-Ukrainian War raging in Europe and perhaps some of the ghosts of World War II being stirred, we remember the terrible things that can happen when one group of human beings are demonized, scapegoated, abused and killed by another group of people because they are different in some way.