My Father and Uncle were liberated from their concentration camp at Ebenze
by GI's. It was toward the very end of the war and his job at the camp was
to build / dig out tunnels in the local hills for the Germans, Nazi's and
themselves. They were told that this tunnel would be a shelter for them
when the US airforce dropped bombs.
Sometime before the acutal liberation he was told to drill holes in the
sides of the tunnels to start another tunnel along side the first. It
didn't make sense to him or the others. They felt that thsese holes would
be filled with explosives to seal the tunnel once the prisoners were inside.
A few days before the actual liberation the commandant ordered everyone to
the tunnels as the Americans will be bombing soon. The entire camp rebelled
and did not go. They were certain that they would be killed if they went or
stayed. The commandant backed off.
The day that the US contingent arrived at the camp my father found his
brother in a pile of dead bodies beside an oven. He was certain he was
dead - just about everyone was. He grabbed his hand and found a pulse. He
did what he could but, did not have the streignth to pull him from the other
corpses. The G.I.'s helped him. They were fed and cared for. They
eventually, walked to southern Italy. It was during this trek that my dad
met his wife. They finally got onto a boat bound for Israel on the
exodous. When they landed my father was captured by the British and was
sent to Cyprus. My mom (they weren't married yet) hid in a chicken coup
and was not found. He eventually, got back to Israel in 1947 and served in
the Israeli "navy". His job... was to take some old rusted hulk and sink it
somewhere near Haifa bay as he had explosives experience thanks to the
Nazis.
M. Dunst
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