May 7, 1945, Late Pasta Lunch in Paris

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A block from the hotel I was staying at in Paris was a breakfast place that was really popular. I tried to get in, and the hostess pointed out the door. There was a long line of people hoping to get inside waiting in the street. That was not going to work for me. I walked past the place every morning and there was always a long line. It was too popular for me. I walked a few shops down the street and walked into Ricci which was a pizza and pasta restaurant. I sat at a table towards the back of the restaurant and ordered a plate of pasta.

I sat at this table because there was a group of men eating across from me at a long table. However, they were close to being done. I noticed their cups near empty and there was no food left on the plates. Sure enough as I started laying in my sketch, they got up to leave. I was left with a large empty table and a small family tucked away in the corner. Their, two children were squirming and impatient. The waiter was really good with the kids, entertaining them as their parents also got up to leave.

I was left to sketch the gaudy and tasteless painting of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and I think Leslie Caron as Gigi, hanging on a mirrored wall. Each of the women was blowing a big bubble. The tacky paintings had gold leaf and bright colors. The owners might have thought this is the type of art that tourists wanted to see. Maybe they think that people come to Paris for gaudy pop art rather than to see classical masterpieces in the world class museums.

The German Generals signed the surrender document on May 7, 1945, in a red brick schoolhouse in Reims France in a room whose walls were covered with war maps. This was General Eisenhower’s headquarters. I thought this was too humble a spot for signing such an important document. It really should have been signed in a more opulent setting. The Russians had the same idea, and they insisted that a second document of surrender should  be signed the next day at the former Soviet engineering school in Karlshorst, Berlin Germany. This room felt more like a courtroom with dark wood paneling, dark leather chairs and above was a golden chandelier.

Then I thought to myself it might be more fun to sign the Document of Unconditional Surrender in a gaudy Paris restaurant with Marilyn, Audrey and Gigi blowing bubbles. What the occasion needed was plenty of mirrors, cheep restaurant chairs and pop art. Of course, pop art wasn’t a thing until late in the 1950s and it didn’t become popular until the 1960s, long after the war was over.

My spaghetti Marinara was good and I ordered two Cokes for the caffeine rush. I also ordered a dessert since the sketch was taking some time to create. I nursed my desert taking my time to complete the sketch. The waiter walked over to my table. I was the only person in the place. He informed me that they needed to shut the restaurant down. I did not realize that some restaurants took a break between lunch and dinner. I tended to eat at odd time on my trip since I would only eat between sketch opportunities. I apologized and wolfed my desert down. The sketch was as done as it was going to be. I kept hoping that someone might sit down at the large table I was drawing but that was not going to happen.

I got up to pay my bill. I got some stink eye from a second waiter. He must have been annoyed that the American tourist would take so long to eat a plate of spaghetti. He wanted his afternoon break. I walked back to my hotel and made plans for what I might sketch the next day.

Paris France: Foch’s Tomb

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This Tomb of Marshal Foch is in the Cathedral of Saint-Louis of the Invalids. Also in the cathedral is the Tomb of Napoleon. Adolph Hitler saw himself much like Napoleon conquering all of Europe. The Dome of the Invalids is the tallest church building in Paris France at a height of 351 ft.

Ferdinand Foch’s tomb has a really nice statue of soldiers carrying his body still clutching a sword. Foch was a French General and Marshal of France. He was born in 1851 and died in 1999. He distinguished himself as the Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front during the First World War. Foch became Supreme Allied Commander in late March of 1918 in the face of the all-out German spring offensive. He successfully coordinated the French, British and American efforts. He stopped the German offensive and launched a war-winning counterattack. In November 1918, Marshal Foch accepted the German cessation of hostilities and was present at the Armistice of November 11, 1918.

Foch was seen as a master of the Napoleonic school of military thought. It seems appropriate therefore that his tomb would be within yards of Napoleon’s tomb.

The Cathedral of Saint-Louis of the Invalids was not significantly damaged during WWII. While many cities in France were heavily bombed, Paris was declared an open city and escaped major strategic bombing during the conflict, preserving its major landmarks.

With Paris under German occupation, there were severe food shortages, strict curfews, constant surveillance, and systematic persecution of Jewish residents. Life was characterized by long lines, a thriving black market, German soldiers occupying luxury hotels, and a tense, silent atmosphere where the swastika flew over major landmarks. The French government moved to Vichy France.

A 9 p.m. curfew was enforced, and only Germans were allowed to drive cars. While many Parisians struggled to survive, some collaborated, while others joined the Resistance. I am left wondering how I might act under such circumstances, and yet the situation isn’t that abstract as history repeats itself. The Gestapo operated with extreme brutality, leading to widespread fear of arrest and torture

The Nazis, supported by French authorities, systematically registered, arrested, and deported Jews to concentration camps, including the 1942 Vélodrome d’Hiver Roundup, which was a mass arrest of over 13,000 Jews in Paris by French police, acting on behalf of German authorities. Victims were held in brutal conditions at the Vélodrome d’Hiver cycling stadium before being deported to Drancy, then Auschwitz.

 

Paris France: The Army Museum

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My last stop before flying back to the States was Paris France. I stayed in a small hotel at the Ecole Militaire metro stop. Returning the rental car was an adventure in itself since the parking garage was unmarked and I ended up driving backwards up some winding exit ramps to finally find the level I was supposed to be on.

My goal in Paris was to explore all the World War II museums and there are many. The hotel was situated walking distance to several of the war museums as well as the Eiffel Tower. My first stop was to the Army Museum at Les Invalides. There are actually several war museums in this complex.

Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated November 24, 1670 to create a home and hospital for aged and disabled soldiers, the veterans of his many military campaigns. Les Invalides is a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and an old soldiers’ retirement home. The buildings house The museum of the Army of France, the Museum of Plans-Reliefs, and the Museum of C0ntemporary History. The complex also includes the Cathedral of Saint-Louis-des-Invalides. It is adjacent to the Royal Chapel known as the Dome of the Invalides, the tallest church building in Paris at a height of 351 ft.

The Army Museum (Musée de l’Armée) was created in 1905. On display are all things related to weapons from the late Middle Ages through to World War II. They include weapons, armor, works of arts and technology. I of course spent most of my time on the floors devoted to World War II. The floors were dedicated for uniforms, weapons, and documents. I made my way through the chronological displays several times before settling on this spot to sketch.

One display caught my eye. It displayed all the things an American GI might carry into battle. There were 3 boxes of K Rations, an old can of what might be green beans, a Coke bottle, foot powder, shoe polish, a razor for shaving with Gem double edge blades, a large syringe, a tiny tin can camping stove, mess kit, canteen, several pockets full of shaving cream, tooth paste and a shaving brush, armed services editions of several books including Big Ben and Fireside Book of Verse, Pal Mall Cigarettes, a wrist watch, some Chiclets, dog tags, a lighter, whistle, a small satchel full of bobby pins, tweezers and a nail file, a knife fork and spoon, a small folding shovel, a flashlight and some V Letter envelopes, and a pin up girl photo. I can’t imagine any one soldier would carry all of these items. In the Netherlands I remember being told that the Americans were known for leaving plenty of Coke bottles behind. Some of them were still full. Another item often left behind was foot powder. Cases of this were left behind. So much so that the curator of the military museum offered me a tin of foot powder but I had to refuse. My backpack was already too heavy.

As I sketched there was a WWII video playing in the room to my left. There were the sounds of aircraft hurling towards the earth along with fires and ling lines of displaces persons searching for a place to call home. The video always zoomed on  a young girls face as she boarded a box car. I saw that image repeat over and over. I still haunts me.

Reims France: Cathedral Notre Dame

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While under German occupation, the cafes in Reims France were typically restricted, serving limited goods, and often frequented by German officers or, in secrecy, by members of the French Resistance.

Reims was liberated from German occupation by Allied ground forces on August 30, 1944, during the Northern France Campaign. Following its liberation, the city served as a key Allied logistics hub, and significantly, General Eisenhower’s Supreme Headquarters was located there, where Germany signed its unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken would have likely entered the city between June 1, 1945, and September 15, 1945, on leave from his duties helping run Camp Cleveland which was a short distance south east of the city. He would have explored the city as an American GI.

American soldiers on leave in WWII Rheims frequented the city center for relaxation, with key spots including the iconic Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, the Lycée Roosevelt (site where Germany signed the unconditional surrender in the war room), local cafes for coffee, and areas to enjoy Champagne, capitalizing on the city’s role as a major hub for the U.S. Army. There was an American officers’ club in Reims, France, known as Club du Chateau.

The Reims Notre Dame Cathedral was not destroyed during World War II; it remained largely untouched during that conflict, although it suffered severe damage and near-total destruction during World War I. The cathedral underwent a major restoration between 1919 and 1938, allowing it to survive the 1940s conflict relatively unscathed. This magnificent structure was the traditional coronation site of French kings, with more than 30 monarchs crowned here between the 11th and 19th centuries. It was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Reims is also known as the “city of cathedrals” and is home not only to the Notre-Dame de Reims but the Basilica of Saint-Remi, the Church of Saint-Jacques, and the Protestant Church of Reims.

After World War I, much of Reims was rebuilt in the Art Deco style, giving the city a distinctive architectural identity. Walking through the city center, visitors will notice elegant facades, geometric designs, and decorative details that reflect the optimism of the 1920s. This blend of medieval landmarks and early 20th-century architecture makes Reims visually unique among French cities.

After the sketch was complete, I wandered the streets of the historic city searching for a nice restaurant to have my meal for the day. I found a nice little café on my walk back to the rental car. I ordered a chicken dinner which was delicious. The proprietor let me know that all the food was purchased fresh from local farmers markets. An older couple in the corner was celebrating a birthday. From behind the bar, the proprietor pulled out a bouquet of flowers and he offered it to the woman celebrating her birthday. I considered doing a sketch, but decided to just enjoy my meal and soak in the ambiance.
Walking back to the rental car I enjoyed the magnificent historic homes and there was yet another World War statue in a public park I passed through. History felt alive on every street I walked down.

Reims France: Museum of the Surrender

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My second stop on the drive back to Paris was Reims France. Rheims was the city where Germany unconditionally surrendered on May 7, 1945, at 2:41am. However, the Soviets had not yet officially approved the text of the Instrument of Surrender signed in Reims. The Soviets insisted that the proper signing ceremony must not take place in France, but right in the fallen Reich’s heart, in Berlin. They also insisted on certain changes in the text of the Instrument of Surrender, insisting it state unambiguously that all German troops were required to give up their arms and hand themselves over to the Allies. Therefor on May 8, 1945, there was another, grander, more formal ceremony in Berlin Germany.

There were no immediate celebrations. The ceasefire was set for 11.01pm on 8 May, and the news correspondents present at the Rheims signing were sworn not to report the surrender until further notice. A few hours later, however, German radio did – and the news was out.

My Father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was serving occupation duty in the area of Hemer where Stalag VI-A was located as well as Iserlohn and Plettenburg Germany when Germany surrendered. He held on to the Stars and Strips newspaper announcing the surrender for the rest of his life. I now have that very yellow and fragile newspaper with the full-page headline NAZIS QUIT! Arthur must have been ecstatic that the European war was over. The 75th Infantry marching band celebrated by marching through the streets of Plettenberg Germany playing patriotic music.

Although Arthur Thorspecken wasn’t at the signing on May 8, 1945, he was reassigned to Camp Cleveland just 11 miles south east of Reims on June 1, 1945. Leaves to Rheims and Paris were common for the 75th Infantry soldiers who ran Camp Cleveland. I have no doubt that Arthur would have taken a leave to Rheims and come to the this site where the war in Germany had ended.

The newspaper announced that, German officers formally surrendered the German forces at a meeting in the big red schoolhouse which was General Eisenhauer’s headquarters. Grand Admiral Doenitz, successor to Adolph Hitler, ordered the surrender and the German High Command declared it effective. The signing of the surrender declaration took place in secret in the “map room” located in the technical college (now called Lycée Roosevelt)

The red schoolhouse in Rheims is now a museum memorializing the end of World War II. The museum has archives, uniforms, and artifacts which bring the period of May 1945 to life. Unfortunately, when I was there, the museum was under renovation. It is slated to re-open in March of 2026.

The text serving as the “Instrument of Surrender” had already been written by the Allies in mid-1944, after the D-Day Landings in Normandy France. Reworked sections of the text were also the subject of the Yalta Conference in early 1945. The main points were that the surrender had to be unconditional and must be signed by the German Military High Command. When Germany’s surrendered in WW1, only the civilian government signed. This later paved the way for the “Dolchstoß”, or ‘stab-in-the-back’, legend that militarily Germany had not actually been defeated on the battlefields, but that it was “betrayed” – by republicans, social democrats, and Jews. This propaganda fueled the hatred that allowed Hitler to be voted into office and begin a massive build up of armed forces.

Adolph Hitler’s suicide, in the Fuhrer bunker in Berlin on 30 April 1945, opened a real chance for surrender to come quickly. Yet it came in stages, drawn out over the course of more than a week, partly because of the chaos the German military was experiencing.

Today the museum looks quite nondescript, a simple red-brick complex. Only the four flagpoles flying the British, United States, French and Soviet flags hint at its significance.

March 1, 1945: Trier Germany

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After visiting my Thorspecken cousins in Wiesbaden Germany, I had hundreds of miles to drive to get to back to Paris France before my flight to the States. My three months in Europe were quickly drawing to a close. I divided the drive in half and decided to stop on the first night in Trier Germany. The drive to Trier was 100 miles. Trier is a historic old Roman city on the border of Germany and Luxembourg. It was a long day of driving on winding mountain roads and quick sprints on the autobahn where there is no speed limit.

In Trier I stayed at a quaint historic hotel on a hill overlooking the city. There was a walking trail down into the city which would have been lovely but it started to rain. In the morning I decided to sketch the glorious panoramic view from my hotel window.

Prior to the Allied advance, the Jewish community in Trier was harassed, with roughly 600 people deported between 1941 and 1943. In September 1944 Trier was subjected to almost daily bombardment by American artillery. Allied forces carried out three large-scale aerial attacks on the city later in the same year. On December 19 at 3:30 pm, 30 British Lancaster Bombers dropped 136 tonnes of high-explosive bombs over Trier. Two days later, on December 21 at 2:35 pm, 94 Lancasters and 47 American fighter-bombers dropped 427 tonnes of ordnance (high-explosive, and incendiary bombs). Another two days after that, 700 tonnes of bombs were released over the city. At least 420 people were killed in the December 1944 attacks on Trier. Numerous buildings were damaged. During the entire war, 1,600 houses in the city were completely destroyed.

Trier Germany was captured and liberated by American forces, specifically Task Force Richardson of the 10th Armored Division (Combat Command B) of the U.S. Third Army on March 1-2, 1945. The troops secured the city and it’s historic Roman Bridge during the Allied offensive to clear the Rhineland before crossing the Rhine River. The capture was highly significant with General George S. Patton and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force Dwight D. Eisenhower visiting to honor the success. The quick capture of the historic bridge lead to the quick fall of the city. Around 3000 Wehrmacht soldiers surrendered when Trier was captured.

The 75th Infantry Division was not involved in the capture of Trier. On March 1, 1945 they were liberating Venlo Netherlands from the Nazis as part of Operation Grenade which pushed the Nazi troops back across the Rhine River into Germany.

Memorial across from Camp Cleveland near Reims France

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I parked in a muddy ditch on the side of the country road near the intersection which was right next to the field where Camp Cleveland used to be 80 years ago. I had a WWII war map that pinpointed this exact location. Some sensors on the car beeped loudly which made it clear the car didn’t like the spot I was parked. I hoped the tires would not spin in the mud when I started the car back up. At this intersection was a granite memorial for World War I. Wind whipped across the empty fields. On occasion a large farming truck would roar by. Strangely the spot reminded me of a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock film North by Northwest where Carry Grand was dropped off by a bus in the middle of nowhere.

The City Camps were an area north and south of Reims France where troops assembled before being sent back to the states. Since Japan was still fighting in the pacific, there was a possibility that any soldiers who did not have enough points to go back to the states might end up going to the pacific.

The War Memorial of Val de Vesle was erected in 1957 which was long after my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken left Europe. This memorial commemorates the French offensives of April 1917. The involved units were: VIIIe Armée: 85 RI, 95 RI, 27 RI, 1 RAC, 37 RAC. The memorial is at the intersection of D34 and See Liberty. I doubt anyone ever stops here. This was one of the first sketches I did upon entering Europe since it was on the road leading to the American Reenactment camp I first sketched when I left Paris France. Since I don’t read French, I at first though the WWI monument might have been on this spot when Camp Cleveland was a cross the street 80 years ago.

All the city camps on the map of Reims are, Detroit, Washington, Chicago, and Philadelphia north of Reims and then Cleveland, Boston Pittsburgh, Philadelphia Saint Louis, Baltimore and Brooklyn. There isn’t much academic research on these camps since they became less important when Japan surrendered. There were traffic control points at some intersections for security purposes.

I read an article about how one veteran’s son purchased a property in France which was close to the City Camp his father had been stationed at. The son could not find the camp, so his father helped by using Google Street View to navigate to the exact spot. The son then sent photos of the location, and the father was able to navigate the son to a tree where the soldiers used to carve their initials. The initials had been carved into the bark at about waste height. Over the 80 years the tree grew much taller and the bark healed. There were no initials to find.

Camp Cleveland today is a wide open field. There were no trees to carve names into. Even if there were, time heals such wounds. I have to wonder if the farmer, tilling the soil each year might find WWII trinkets lost by the many soldiers who passed through Camp Cleveland. There were between 2000 and 35,000 soldiers stationed in each camp. There is plenty of room for a huge camp in the empty fields near Reims France buy I have not yet determined just how big Camp Cleveland was. Camp Lucky Strike which is much closer to the port city of Le Havre France had the largest number of solders at 35,000.

Russian Memorial Hocklingerweg Hemer, Germany

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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.

Witten Germany: Zeche Nachtigal

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After my failed attempt to sketch remnants of a Forced Labor Camp in Witten-Annen Germany, I decided to sketch the Zeche Nachtigal which is now a museum. I figured that the forced laborers who were not working in the Annen Steelworks Factory building weapons, would be at Nachtigal. Nachtigal means nightingale which is a bird known for or its powerful, complex, and beautiful song, which is often heard at night.

I sketched the historic twin engine winding machine. It is roughly the same size as the steam engine used previously in operation starting in 1871. It was used to hoist coal from the Hercules shaft. As the shaft was deepened a stronger winding machine was needed. In 1892 the coal mine shut down due to flooding. The machinery was sold off and soon the site became a brick works. By 1897 the brickwork’s produced up to eleven million bricks annually for the construction of industrial facilities and houses. The history of the brickwork’s jumped from 1897 to 1983. There is no mention of what happened at the brickwork’s during WWII, but it is safe to say the business would have been booming in war time.

Forced laborers were extensively used in German brick factories during WWII, particularly to produce building materials for Nazi construction projects. Concentration camp prisoners and millions of civilians from occupied territories were exploited by German industry to support the war effort, including the production of bricks. With over 200 forced labor camps in Witten it seems very likely that the forced labor would have been used in the Nachtigal brick factory. With the Ruhr area being constantly bombed by the allies there would have been a need of bricks to repair damaged buildings. Young eastern European men were obliged to join the German workforce, but both men and women were forcefully abducted from the streets.

Camp barracks in industrial centers varied in size, but most have been described by former forced laborers as poorly constructed, surrounded with barbed wire, and heavily guarded. The barracks were typically equipped with one small stove, a limited number of washrooms and toilets, mattresses filled with sawdust to make crude beds, and few blankets. Eastern Europeans working in factories, like the brickwork’s, received one cup of coffee or tea, 200-300 grams of bread, and one or two cups of watery cabbage soup per day. These rations, however, largely depended on what food was available, and as the war continued, food rations often decreased.

A sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp was established in Witten on September 16, 1944, utilizing an existing barrack complex built in 1942 near the Dortmund-Witten railway line. The initial transport from Buchenwald Concentration Camp brought 700 male prisoners, primarily political detainees aged 16 to 63 from the Soviet Union, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Belgium, and Germany, with about one-third of a subsequent group of 50 arrivals in February 1945 being Polish Jews. These prisoners, housed in wooden barracks with double bunks and minimal facilities, performed grueling 12-hour shifts in Hall 7 of the Steelworks foundry, operating furnaces and machines to produce steel components for naval armor and aircraft, under constant threat of violence from SS guards and kapos.

A Kapo was a Nazi concentration camp prisoner—often a criminal or political prisoner—assigned by the SS to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks, acting as a collaborator in exchange for privileges. They were hated by fellow inmates for their brutality and held authority over them, often enjoying better food and conditions.

The camp, secured by barbed wire and watchtowers, operated until late March 1945, with prisoner numbers fluctuating to around 600 by evacuation due to deaths, escapes, and returns to the main camp; the SS received four Reichsmarks daily per prisoner from the factory.

Conditions in the sub-camp were dire, marked by undernourishment, exposure to cold, disease, and brutal oversight by SS, leading to frequent accidents and illnesses like pulmonary infections. By late March 1945, at least 16 prisoners had died from exhaustion and related causes, with nine Soviet inmates secretly executed by transfer to Buchenwald’s crematorium and over 60 sick individuals returned to the main camp, of whom at least 14 perished shortly after.

On the night of March 29, 1945, the SS evacuated the remaining approximately 600 prisoners on a death march northeast toward Lippstadt Germany, to the west of Dortmund-Witten, during which an unknown number were killed; the survivors were abandoned on April 1 and liberated by advancing U.S. forces, with some succumbing to their ordeals in the following days. Post-liberation investigations in the 1960s and 1970s examined SS crimes at the site but resulted in no convictions. Most Germans kept silent about the crime of forced labor or completely denied it.

Holocaust survivor Irene Weiss put it this way, “The most dangerous animal on earth is man. A man can turn into animal in no time. All he needs is permission. As soon as permission is given from government, it accelerates. Even a hint of permission that it is OK to attack this group or exclude this group, or shame that group. It’s happening, it never stopped.”

April 9-10, 1945: Dortmund-Oespel Germany

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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.