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23. Good News and Bad News
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23 GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS At our regular Team meeting, Rosenbloom tells us the news that reached HQ only today, although it happened four or five days ago. The special prisoners everyone has been interested in were rescued on May 4 by a unit of the 42d Division, perhaps some of the same men who fought here and then headed south. The hostages were surrendered without a fight at an Alpine hotel situated on a picturesque lake on the Italian side of the Brenner Pass. It was confirmed that the I 37 prisoners had been forced to leave the bunker on April 27. Among them were the people we had heard of, Leon Blum, Kurt von Schuschnigg, Prince Xavier de Bourbon de Parme, and Martin Niemoller, the anti-Nazi Protestant pastor who had once been a U-boat commander. There were others we had not heard of, men, women, and children from twenty different countries, the "honorary" and "kin" prisoners of Dachau. They were political, military, and religious leaders, and members of their families; German generals and industrialists out of favor with Hitler; relatives of officers captured by the Russians during the battle for Stalingrad; and relatives of people of importance in the Allied nations. Among the kin prisoners were Nicholas Horthy, Jr., a son of the former Hungarian Regent, Captain Peter Churchill, a distant relative of the Prime Minister, Prince Leopold of Prussia, a nephew of the Kaiser, Alexei Kokosen, a nephew of Molotov, the Russian foreign minister, and a son of Marshal Pietro Badoglio of Italy. Leon Blum's wife was in the group, as well as the wife and daughter of Kurt von Schuschnigg. Stalin's son was not among the survivors. It was said that he had never been at Dachau. Former Allied leaders included General Sante Garibaldi, an I 171 Italian Partisan leader, Imrich Karvas, a member of the Czech cabinet, General Alexander Papagos, head of the Greek general staff, Nicholas von Kallay, former Premier of Hungary, Dr. J. c. van Dyck, the Netherlands minister of war, and Dr. Richard Schmitz, the former mayor of Vienna. The German notables were Fritz Thyssen, an industrialist, General Georg Thomas, former head of the Office of War Economy, General Franz Halder, former chief of staff, and General Alexander von Faikenhausen, former military commander of Belgium. What stories they must have to tell~ My own mental state improves with the receipt of four letters dated March 8, 9, 10, and 12. I am annoyed that it has taken them two months to get here, but I consider it a miracle that they arrived at all. Once a soldier is transferred on temporary or detached duty, especially overseas, the Army postal clerks seem to have immense difficulty forwarding his mail to the new location . Because of the poor mail service, I do not know if my wife has received her allotments for March and April, $81 and $85 respectively. Most likely Carol does not need the money because room and board are provided for her. But she might disagree with me: her monthly salary as a resident physician is a generous $3o. My own economic situation is poor; I have not yet been paid for April, but this is not a hardship because there are at present no canteens, PXs, or restaurants in which to spend the money. I hope my outgoing letters have been received. Lately I have been typing them on SS stationery, using a German typewriter that has one key with the harsh, angular, runic double-S symbol of the SS, and another with an umlaut. In my daily letter I mention that three more SS men have been captured. They have been hiding for almost a week and a half; their clothes are torn and muddy; they no longer look like supermen. There are now 130 of them locked up in the bunker. Today, May 10, is an important day for the people of Belgium , Luxembourg, and Holland. Exactly five years ago, their countries were occupied by the Germans. At 2 :45 P.M., in front of Blocks 26 and 28, they will hold a ceremony in memory of their dead. Everyone is invited. 172 I The Turning Point Good news. There is more food available for the inmates, and now we can distribute more milk, eggs, fruit preserves, and meat. Also, the typhus epidemic is waning even though new cases continue to appear. But no day is complete without bad news. One report concerns...