April 20, 1945: Hemer Germany, War Memorial

Posted on by Thor

When driving out of Hemer towards Plettenberg Germany, I noticed this World War I and II memorial dedicated to the solders from Hemer who died in the wars. I usually planned my sketch opportunities in advance by researching the night before, but in this case, I just stumbled across this memorial as I was driving. I pulled off the main road and turned around to sketch.

On April 20, 1945, 300,000 German soldiers surrendered in the Ruhr Pocket. April 21, 1945, was the end of the Ruhr offensive. After seeing Stalag VI-A in Hemer, I started to drive to Plettenberg Germany where the 75th Infantry command post was in operation at the time.

On April 25, 1945, American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe River near Torgau, Germany, a defining, symbolic moment in World War II known as “Elbe Day”. This link-up cut the German army in two, signaling the collapse of the Nazi regime and marking the effective end of the war in Europe. By April 30, 1945, Adolph Hitler had committed suicide in Berlin. The World War in Europe would officially end on May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered. 1st Lieutenant Joe Colcord of the 75th Infantry Division wrote, “VE Day was quite a celebration as it meant that we were not going to the East to join up with the Russians at the Elba.”

After Germany’s surrender, the 75th Infantry Division became the civil-military government in Westphalia Germany, caring for 175,000 Allied prisoners of war and displaced persons which formed a central part of their duties. On VE Day the 75th Infantry Band marked through the streets.

Lieutenant Paul Cunninham of the 75th Infantry Division, wrote about his experience at a German camp for Russian POWs… “men to sick to work were sent there to recover. In reality they were sent there to starve to die, starved to death. If someone did get well, he was immediately sent to work in the mines. 25,000 men were kept where only 9,000 could be accommodated.”

My Father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Harold Thorspecken was in charge of C-Company in the 1st Battalion of the 75th Infantry Division which was part of the 290th Infantry Division. 290th Infantry Division.

A dedication was sent to all the soldiers after Germany surrendered… “ Today we have achieved final and conclusive victory over Germany. The monster that was Nazism lies crushed and broken. The road to victory has been long and bitter for everyone. It has been built by the unfaltering courage and the steadfast devotion of every man serving under the flags of the Allied nations. The darkest hours have been illuminated by the flames in the hearts of free men fighting indomitably onward to the final victory.

As we are gathered here to celebrate the great day, we must certainly be joined by the spirits of those of our comrades who have sacrificed their lives in order that we might accomplish this victory. To those men whose unselfish devotion to duty shall live forever asa torch of freedom, we most humbly dedicate this day. May God grant men the wisdom needed to carry on ideals for which they have died.

While VE Day is an occasion for thanksgiving and celebration, it comes to us with the realization that long dark months of trails and tribulations lie before us. Not only great dangers, but many more misfortunes, many shortcomings, many mistakes many disappointments will surely be our lot. Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey, hardship our garment, and valor our shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be unyielding. Our qualities and deeds must burn and glow through the gloom of the world until they become the veritable beacon of it’s salvation.

Today concludes the first phase of our titanic struggle. A struggle which will ultimately end with our crushing defeat of the last barrier to world peace.”

After Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany was captured by the Americans, it was renamed Camp Roosevelt. It was a long road to liberate all the POWs in the camp. Hundreds of Soviet POWs kept dying every week from the many months of starvation. Soviet prisoners sent back to Russia would be seen as traitors, so after all the horrors of capture and forced labor they would go back home to be treated with suspicion. Camp Roosevelt  was then used as a camp for detaining Nazi prisoners.

Stalag VI-A Model

Posted on by Thor

My father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken would have been in and around the area of Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany, helping liberate the prisoners from April 19, 1945 to June 1, 1945, a total of 43 days.

1st Lieutenant Joe Colcord in the 75th Infantry Division wrote… “We captured several unnamed cities in the Ruhr Pocket and liberated a displaced person’s camp, the poor souls were wandering around weakly, near death since the German guards had left. Some lay in stacked beds too weak to walk. All were in effect skeletons. They almost seemed non-human. I suspect this was a work camp.” Joe continued… “There were many Displaced Persons, that by treaty were to be shipped home by the easiest rail line. These people did not want to go East. We had to nail the doors shut on the 40-8’s to keep them on board. At least until they left the marshaling yard. For many there was no home to go to, and this act may have been a death sentence. I can still see the sad faces as they were boxed up to go “home’.” There were literally hundreds of these work camps, so I can not verify if Joe is talking about Stalag VI-A or another work camp.

Dr. Nikolai Gubarew was a Soviet soldier captured and sent to Stalag VI-A as a 20 year old prisoner in 1942. He remained in the camp until it was liberated in April of 1945. In time he became an assistant to the StalagVI-A Captain Edmund Weller and thus he gained insight into the inner workings of the camp. The camp had a reputation among Soviets as the place Prisoners of War (POWs) went to die. Bread was the only hope to survive. For breakfast there might be a sip of liquid which was a replacement for coffee, lunch might consist of a thin soup with some turnips with unpeeled potatoes, sometimes with a bit of margarine. The best possible bread ration was 8 ounces which allowed for slow starvation. Soviet prisoners were always given the worst rations of food since the Germans considered then sub-human. Soviets would get 1 bowl of broth while other nationalizes got 2 bowls.

Clothing consisted of old uniforms marked with white phosphorus so a prisoner could be identified at night. Instead of shoes, prisoners were given old woolen pants which sometimes covered the feet. Clothing was regularly untied to fight the lice. If clothing got wet with outdoor work, then pneumonia was often the result. Prisoners slept in 3 story bunk beds. Being in the stone buildings was better than being in the wooden barracks since the wooden barracks were very drafty.

The death rates soured for prisoners who had tuberculosis and pneumonia. There were no drugs to treat the patients. Due to the risk of infection, these barracks were never entered by German camp staff. The door to the medial barracks was secured with a padlock and only Soviet medical personnel held the key. The dead would lie with the living in the bunks for a time, this allowed bread rations to be collected from the dead and distributed to the living. When bodies began to bloat, they had to be removed by medical staff with a horse drawn cart.

At 6am each day there was a roll call. If the numbers were not right then prisoners might have to stand for hours until the numbers were correct. Forced Laborers who were worked outside the camp would be marched away. During the night, illumination was provided solely by the beams of guard tower searchlights as they swept across the perimeter fences. Some guards were very brutal. They beat prisoners with truncheons.

POW camp staff enriched themselves by taking prisoner bread and other food. The food would disappear before getting to the camp warehouse. Staff would lift goods from the delivery train at the Hemer station to private trucks. Any meat, fat and bread would often be taken directly from the Stalag kitchen. Moldy bread is what usually would arrive at the Stalag with no replacement shipments. Bombing raids guaranteed late shipments. Potato and turnip supplies did run out. When serving food there was often chaos among the starved inmates.

Russian POW Dimitry Alexandrovich was a talented photographer. While in the Stalag, he was entrusted to work taking the pictures of incoming prisoners which were added to the inmate information card files. He also had to work on the mass burial detail, and at the risk of his own life, he photographed the grisly scenes of emaciated bodied being dumped into mass graves. Thanks to his access to the dark room, he was able to develop and print these scenes of horror.

On April 30, 1945, Adolph Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker.

Russians celebrate May Day on May 1st, which is a celebration of spring and renewal. The 75th Infantry hosted a May Day celebration at the camp where Generals gathered at a podium to speak. POWs lined up in tight military formations. American enlisted men and officers gave up their white bread rations for 3 days, so that the Soviets and other POWs could have more to eat at the ceremony. There was music, marching and the 75th Infantry Division General Ray E. Porter had a banquet set up for the delegates assembled.

May 8, 1945, was Victory in Europe day (VE Day), when Germany officially surrendered.

On June 1, 1945, the 75th Infantry Division was relieved by the British infantry since Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany was in the British occupation zone.

Russian Memorial Hocklingerweg Hemer, Germany

Posted on by Thor

In the final months of World War II, the area around Islerohn Germany saw the surrender of German forces to the American troops. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken with his C-Company in the 75th Infantry Division, moved into Hemer to help liberate Stalag VI-A, one of Germany’s largest POW camps.

The Americans of the 75th Infantry Division distributed U.S. Military rations to the starving prisoners. Approximately 22,000 men were found at the camp with 9000 of those in the camp “hospital”. Patients suffered from Tuberculosis, Dysentery, Malnutrition, and Typhus fever. Inmates were from the Soviet Union, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Romania, Great Britain, Canada and America. American War photographer Joseph D. Karr was on the scene documenting the struggle to keep men alive. Despite being offered food rations, many men were just too far gone. Over 100 men (mostly Soviets) kept dying every day. Soviets were given half or less of the rations that other nationalities were given and over the week before liberation there was no food distributed in the camp since the cooks and guards had retreated East away from the advancing American troops.

Two cemeteries were established for the mass graves for all the men who were dying. The exact number of men who died is hard to calculate. Some researchers think 24,000 men lie in the two cemeteries. Others think that number is too high, while others think that number may be far higher, based on the rising numbers of inmates who died at the end of the war. The goal of commemorating is to never forget. Future generations need to know what man is willing to do in the name of an ideology and how quickly a society is willing to throw away basic moral principles.

Early in the war, the first men who died were buried in a forest near the Stalag. The dead were buried in simple wooden coffins. Most of these men were French (166) and Polish (42). By 1945 there were 335 graves. War graves agreements after the war, insisted that the bodies be returned to home countries. The remaining graves were then moved to the two cemeteries dedicated to the Stalag dead in Hemer.

The numbers of Soviet dead kept growing exponentially. They had been through the hell of war, capture, forced stays in the front-line Stalags followed by excruciatingly long cold train rides into the Reich where they were immediately put into forced labor details. Additional land had to be acquired from a Protestant parish for the hundreds of men who were dying each week. The bodies were carried on a horse drawn carriage on the shortest route up the hills and winding roads to the cemetery. Long excavated trenches had been dug, and the bodies were unceremoniously thrown into the pit. People walking down the street, or passing by train could see the grisly scene. There was no secrecy to the mass murder taking place.

By the end of 1943 all the rows had been filled with bodies. The capacity of the cemetery was exhausted. More than 3,500 Soviet prisoners were buried in 16 mass graves in about 15 months. Since men were buried with bodies stacked on top of one another, about 3 men deep, it became impossible to figure out who was buried where. At first there were distinct rows with metal plates to delineate the rows, but over time the landscape was flattened and a featureless lawn with a few birch trees remains. The metal plates had been discarded or lost.

A small concrete monument had been built by Soviet inmates after the liberation of the camp, but it was replaced by a memorial stone designed by Menden Germany sculptor, Walter Voss. It was dedicated on the Sunday of the Dead, in 1967. The stone says: Rest. Soviet Citizens who died in the years 1941-1945 far from home. The number of deceased, at 3000, was the credible number at the time when the stone was carved. As of 2021, 3,513 of the Soviet prisoners could be named. The exact number may never be known.

April 14, 1945: Wetter Germany

Posted on by Thor

By mid April, 1945, the Ruhr factories were silenced.  Thousands of German prisoners filled the Allies’ compounds.  Elements of the German army were retreating further east.  Concentration camps were discovered and liberated.  The indescribable conditions at these camps shocked the world.

After the American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, the final stages of the Ruhr battle were still under way.  Vice President Harry Truman was now Commander in Chief. Wetter Germany is on the Ruhr River. It is southeast of Witten. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken, was leading C-Company of the 75th Infantry Division when they captured Wetter on April 13, 1945. There was desperate German resistance since the German troops knew they were surrounded.

When the 75th came into one German town, they found a barbershop where some of the men decided to stop in to get a haircut and shave. One of the soldiers would stand watch over the others while they were getting a clean shave. The soldier, who was standing guard, left his post early when a chair became available, but before someone else could keep guard. The exposed soldiers felt a bit nervous that the German barbers might cut their throats with the straight edge razors and drag them out back with no one the wiser. Thankfully nothing of the sort occurred and the men tipped the barbers VERY well for the services provided.

Most cities seen by C-Company soldiers were completely demolished.  The Allies encountered pockets of German resistance in the drive to the Ruhr industrial complex.  Hundreds of German soldiers were captured daily. Many were teenagers.  Others were much older—in their sixties or more.  These young and old, made up the untrained German people’s army. Conscripted soldiers from occupied nations were glad to be captured. They were aware a prisoner of war of the Allies was assured of food and shelter—much better than being a weary and starving German soldier.

The truck driver of C-Company was busy transporting food and supplies to the liberated forced labor camps.  Those forced laborers were taken to rail stations to be returned to their homelands.  Most did not know if their homes and families survived the war years. Many would find they would be greeted at traitors when they got back to their home country.

As Allied troops, including the 75th Infantry Division, closed in the SS forced thousands of concentration camp prisoners on “evacuation” marches to prevent their liberation, resulting in mass deaths from hunger, exhaustion, and shooting. Despite the war being clearly lost, Nazi officials continued to demand high-speed production of war materials, with prisoners working in subterranean tunnels, factories, and on construction projects. The liberation of these camps was a slow, sometimes violent process. Many survivors were in critical condition, and thousands died even after liberation.

The 1st and 9th Armies split the Ruhr Industrial Pocket in half by April 14, 1945, specifically in the Hagen-Witten area, which is immediately west of Wetter on the Ruhr River. The organized resistance in this specific area collapsed around April 18, 1945, after the pocket was subdivided.

April 14, 1945: Herdecke Germany, Ruhr River Viaduct

Posted on by Thor

The Ruhr River-Viaduct was opened in 1879 as part of the Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund South Railway, In May 1943, it was damaged by a flood wave following Operation Chastise (Dambusters Raid ). 19 British Lancaster bombers from Royal Air Force 617 Squadron aimed to destroy the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams using “Upkeep” bombs, designed to skip across water and sink against the dam wall. The Möhne and Eder dams were breached, releasing massive floods. The Sorpe dam sustained little damage.

The devastating floodwaters traveled down the Ruhr river, impacting several towns and villages downstream in the Ruhr Valley, including the area surrounding Herdecke Germany, which is situated on the Ruhr between the Sorpe dam and the Rhine. The flood wave swept away a pillar of the viaduct, narrowly missing an approaching train. The destruction caused massive, though temporary, damage to water, power, and industrial infrastructure in the region. Over 1,600 people died in the flooding, a significant portion being allied prisoners of war and forced laborers.

Forced labor was used to reconstruct the arch destroyed in the floodwaters of the Dambusters Raid, but then in 1945, the Wehrmacht demolished two of the Viaduct’s arches to hinder Allied advances.

The three battalions of the 75th Infantry Division continued to press south towards the Ruhr River. Every yard was bitterly contested by the German enemy whose freedom of movement was limited and compressed on all sides. German troops were hopelessly trapped and were being fired upon by artillery from all sides. The American foot troops continued to press forward three abreast. The Germans were attempting to prevent the Americans from capturing a main road that could offer an escape route across the Ruhr River.

The 2nd Battalion found resistance weakening, and they took advantage of this to drive south through to the Ruhr River. E- Company of the 2nd Battalion wrestled their objective from the enemy. My father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was in the 1st Battalion which found it’s sector crumbling and they reached the Ruhr without major difficulty.

The 3rd Battalion encountered stiff resistance from Germans who had entrenched themselves on the opposite slope of a hill slightly north of the river with the intention of defending that high ground at all cost. As elements of the 3rd Battalion advanced toward the hilltop, F-Company of the 289th Infantry Division, pushed through on the enemy right flank, catching the enemy in a deadly cross fire.

The German positions collapsed and the advance continued to Herdecke with the enemy fighting a delaying action as they retreated. An airstrike was made on the town of Herdecke, and the city was offered an opportunity to surrender by L-Company. The offer was accepted and K and L Companies crossed the Ruhr River on the south side of the town.

The 290th Infantry Division was relieved on April 14, 1945 by elements of the 313th and 314th Infantry in what would prove to be the final battle action in the European Campaign.

Witten Germany: Berger Memorial

Posted on by Thor

The Ruhr River was the final objective of the 75th Infantry Division. When the 75th reached this objective they had split the surrounded German troops in half and finally crushed the Industrial Ruhr Pocket. The Berger Memorial sits high on a hillside overlooking on a particularly beautiful section of the river Ruhr River between Wetter and Witten Germany. The memorial was built between 1902 and 1904 to honor Louis Constanz Berger, (1829-1891), an industrialist and community co-founder. Its construction occurred during a period of industrialization and modernization of the Ruhr region. I imagined that my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken and his C-Company might have come to this overlook to view their final objective. The memorial would have stood at this spot in April of 1945, having been built between 1902 and 1904,

The monument made of Ruhr sandstone commemorates one of the most important Witten entrepreneur and politician of the early industrialization: Louis Berger. In 1854 Berger father founded a cast steel factory in Witten, which, Louis, developed into one of the first large industrial companies in the Ruhr. The quality of Berger’s cast steel was the “basis” of the Prussian needle gun and Krupp’s gun barrels. The needle gun was ahead of its time allowing a trained soldier to fire 12 rounds a minute. Most countries were still using muzzle-loading flintlocks which only allowed a soldier to fire 3 to 4 rounds a minute. Krupp gun barrels, produced by the German industrial giant Friedrich Krupp AG, were known to be of high quality being made of durable steel.

During WWII, the Krupp steel works in Essen, led by Alfried Krupp from 1943, were the cornerstone of the Nazi war machine, producing artillery, tanks, and u-Boats.  Despite massive Allied bombing, the works managed to remain standing until 1945. The firm heavily utilized over 100,000 forced laborers, prisoners of war, and concentration camp inmates in over 80 plants. Alfried Krupp was convicted of crimes against humanity at Nuremberg Germany, sentenced to 12 years, and had his assets confiscated, but he was released in 1951 by the US, and his fortune was restored.

The Berger Memorial seemed like a monument to a corporate entrepreneur and civic minded politician. But the steel he manufactured became the cornerstone to building the German Military war machine in the first and second World Wars. In that sense it is a monument to the senselessness of war.

Witten Germany

Posted on by Thor

The 75th Infantry Division, 1st Battalion moved south with the other 2 Battalions against heavy last ditch German opposition on April 11th, 12th and 13th. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken lead C-Company as part of the 1st Battalion was part of this attack. They advanced towards Witten Germany and encountered stiff resistance as they neared the objective. They broke up a large scale counterattack with mortar and artillery fire. They then had to fight a fierce house to house battle through Witten to advance to the Ruhr River.

The 2nd Battalion followed the 1st Battalion for a short time and then it changed its angle of attack to the south, southeast, meeting heavy enemy resistance but reaching the town of Annen. Road blocks and large numbers of riflemen made taking Annen difficult. After entering the town just before it got dark, the Battalion held it’s ground and then continued the attack in the morning.

The 3rd Battalion met equally stiff resistance, with K-Company getting pinned down. Air support helped break up the situation and the Battalion continued it’s attack to the Ruhr River.

The remaining German forces were being backed up against the Ruhr River with no retreat route. Their freedom of movement was curtailed, and they were being pressed in from all sides. The hopelessly trapped units receiving artillery fire from all directions from the Americans and the infantry kept pressing in making their plight hopeless.

Witten, a Ruhr industrial town, was heavily damaged by Allied bombing, particularly in late 1944. Ruhr AG Steelworks was crucial for weapon production, leading to high demand for forced laborers, including a Buchenwald sub-camp. Up to 25,000 people from different countries, including several hundred Poles, were forced to work for the National Socialist regime during the Second World War.

At the beginning of 1945, for example, the forced laborers constituted about 55 % of the total workforce in Witten. The different areas of work that they did meant that a large-scale accommodation was needed. As a result, it is thought that between 230 and 250 forced labor camps of different sizes were established in the town during that period.

The steelworks were not the only place where forced laborers were made to work: they were also used on farms, in various different trades and in other factories producing armaments, or even in private households. The majority of the forced laborers were the so-called “workers from the east”, who made up around 50% of all the prisoners working in Witten. The forced laborers in Witten also included Soviet and Italian prisoners of war. A far smaller number of the forced laborers who were made to work came from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Czechoslovakia.

The Buchenwald sub-camp in Witten-Annen was created in September 1944 to supply prisoner labor to the Ruhr AG Steelworks in support of increased German rearmament efforts in the last year of the war. Like other sub camps attached to the Buchenwald main camp and within the camp system more generally, the supply of prisoner labor to the steel factory, followed from an agreement between the SS-Business Administration and the administration of the factory. Inmates were hired out from the SS by the firm at a cost of 6 Reichsmark (RM) per skilled laborer and 4 RM per unskilled laborer per day.

April 9-10, 1945: Dortmund-Oespel Germany

Posted on by Thor

It started to rain as I sketched. Rain drop blasts littered the surface of the sketch. I could not protect the page. I closed the sketchbook and sat as it rained, thinking it might stop. I was sheltered in a rain jacket. I finally gave up and put the sketchbook away. After walking half way out of the cemetery, the rain stopped. I went back to my spot and sketched again quickly. I managed to cover the page before another wave of rain started. As I was leaving, I noticed a headstone for Fritz and Gerta Torspecken. My last name is Thorspecken and in America that is quite unique. With just one letter missing, I thought these might be long lost relatives. I know that my original ancestor, Dr. Elias Julius Thorspecken emigrated to America in 1830 or so to build a new life. He served his new country as a doctor during the Civil War. Arolsen Germany the city that Augustus left, is just 142 miles due west. This headstone left me thinking that I might have deep roots in this area of Germany.

Oespel is a district in Western Dortmund Germany. The attack by the 75th Infantry Division continued through April 9-10, 1945 with the 2nd Battalion advancing south to capture Oespel and Dorney Germany with light enemy opposition to their regimental objective which was ultimately the Ruhr River.

Searching the Arolen archives online, I found 225 Forced Laborers listed as being in Dortnund-Oespel. The first was named Marta Albert born Butschgau. She was 55 years old in 1945 and was born in Belgium. I was left wondering if she survived the war and returned to Belgium.

The Oespel coal mine was in operation in 1945 and this is possibly where Marta would have been forced to work. The mine had up to one thousand nine hundred and twenty workers in the underground shafts and in the sorting area. The Oespel coal mine was one of four mines in the village of Oespel.

Stalag VI-D POW camp was in Dortmund Germany. Over 70,000 prisoners-of-war were imprisoned here in World War II.  The camp was closed in March of 1945, one month before my father’s unit was fighting to take Dortmund. Prisoners in the camp were primarily from Poland, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and Italy. The POWs were forced to perform labor in armaments and industrial plants, in mines and in private and municipal enterprises under inhumane conditions. Several thousand of the POWs died from chronic illness, malnutrition and Allied bomb attacks. There were no air raid shelters for the POWs.

From September 1, 1939, Oespel suffered from Allied bombing raids, direct casualties, and soldiers killed in action during World War II.

On June 4, 1941 there was a low-level air raid that claimed ten lives. Residents sought refuge in the air-raid shelter at the Oespel 3 mine. Forced laborers were not granted shelter in the mines although they were forced to work there.

On March 23, 1944, an American B-17 bomber with a crew of ten, was shot down by an anti-aircraft gun stationed at Dorney Germany. The plane crashed on the spoil heap of the Oespel 3 mine and landed in two gardens in Heuerlingsweg Germany, just south or Oespel.

On December 1 and 12, 1944, the Protestant church, parsonage, community center, and the school were severely damaged in air raids.

On April 10, 1945, after a heavy artillery duel, American troops, including the 75th Infantry Division captured Oespel and Kley and looted valuables. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was leading C-Company during the capture of Oespel Germany and the surrounding area.

On April 13, 1945, with the end of World War II close at hand, the Allies began efforts to repatriate foreign forced laborers from the coal mines. Once liberated, forced laborers became known as displaced persons. Rebuilding lives torn apart by war was a task above an beyond what any soldier could accomplish.

On June 7, 1945, the Americans withdraw from Oespel Germany. The British took over the occupation, and Oespel citizens were transferred to Allied prisoner-of-war camps.

April 12, 1945: Mahnmal Bittermark Massacre

Posted on by Thor

As Allied troops along with my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken who was leading C-Company of the 1st Battalion of the 75th Infantry Division, were attacking Dortmund Germany and moving south, the German Gestapo were looking to hide atrocities before they retreated.

The Gestapo marched 300 people into the Bittermark Forest which is just to the south of Dortmund. They were members of the resistance and forced laborers from France, Belgium the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Poland and the Soviet Union.
The killings ended on April 12, 1945, one day before, the area was liberated on 13th April.

The Mahnmal Bittermark Memorial in Dortmund, Germany, was designed by German sculptor Karel Niestrath (1896–1971), with the memorial ensemble completed in 1960.

Hundreds of thousands of forced laborers were exploited in the armament factories and coal mines around the Ruhr River during the Second Word War. An estimated 30,000 forced laborers were deployed in Dortmund during the Second World War. They were accommodated in about 300 camps, one of those being a branch of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Forced labor was no secret, it was a public crime. During World War II, forced laborers were exploited on almost every building site and farm, in every factory, mine and even in private households in Germany. Every German had to decide how to behave towards forced laborers. Every German citizen would see the forced laborers being sent to work under armed guard. A few showed a bit of humanity, but most showed the coldness and disdain of a supposed higher race. How people responded to the laborers showed something not only about the individual but also about the influence and attractiveness of National Socialist ideology and practice.

Forced laborers made up 40% of the workforce mining in the Ruhr Region. Russian prisoners of war and slave labor from the east made up a majority of the forced labor force after 1942. Hard work and meager food rations drained the strength of the men. Physical violence was a daily occurrence. Cold and bad hygienic conditions were further accompanying aspects so that diseases like tuberculosis spread in many camps.

In March of 2012, Dortmund City Council. Lord Mayor Ullrich Sierau said: “The knowledge of the Nazi crimes is a precondition for fighting the ideology of the extreme right. The fight against right-wing extremism is at the top of our urban agenda.”

Saint Reynold’s, Dortmund Germany

Posted on by Thor

I knew of several photos of the partially destroyed Saint Reynold’s Church in Dortmund Germany after the Allies had captured the city in April of 1945. I found the exact location where one of the 1945 photos was taken but I would have been run over if I sketched from that spot. I decided to sketch from the next street over which was more pedestrian.

As I finished my basic pen and ink line work, it started to rain. I only had a short time in Dortmund, so I had to finish the painting despite the rain. Rain drop splashes can be seen all over the sketch. I started scribbling with colored pencils to try and darken spots which were flooded with water making darker watercolor washes ineffective.

Saint Raymond’s is the oldest church in Dortmund. St. Reinold’s was built from 1250 to 1270, and is located in the center of the city, The church was heavily damaged in World War II.

In December 2016, nine neo-Nazis from various German cities who were associated with the Die Rechte right wing group occupied the church steeple and appeared to set off fireworks from it. The members were subsequently taken into custody by police. Neo-Nazi slogans shouted from the steeple through a megaphone were drowned out by the church bells, ordered to be rung by the vicar of St. Reinold’s.  The illegal occupation of the church’s tower was met with disbelief and anger from the church’s spokespersons and the vast majority of the public.

Dortmund was the most heavily bombed city in Germany by the end of WWII, resulting in over 6000 deaths. Dortmund was the largest industrial city captured at the end of the war by the Allies. With the City surrounded, the Ruhr ceased to exist as an industrial powerhouse. Hitler’ bread basket was empty. American troops captured flak trains, guns, ammunition and supplies.

In 2020 . about 14,000 German residents were ordered to leave their homes when several WWII undetonated bombs were discovered in western Dortmund. German disposal experts were brought in to detonate the bombs. The two devices — an American bomb and a British bomb — were successfully detonated on Sunday afternoon. Shipping containers stacked as walls blocked streets to absorb potential blast waves, and barriers warned that “entry is forbidden,” (verboten) as the operation got underway. Police helicopters scanned the streets from overhead to ensure residents had left as instructed.

The 290th Infantry Division which my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was in, kept to the west of Dortmund proceeding south. By April 10, 1945 they were getting close to Witten Germany. The 2nd Battalion advanced south and southeast through light enemy opposition to capture Ospel and Dorney Germany and then continued to the regimental objective. The 3rd Battalion followed the 2nd Battalion then passed through them to attack and capture Duren. With Duren captured the Battalion moved ahead and took Stockum Germany, reaching the regimental objective an hour before midnight.

Prisoners poured into the 75th Infantry Division cage. The battle raged on from one town to town.