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Reaction to Gunskirchen

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What was the first thing you noticed when you entered Gunskirchen? Was there a distinct smell? What grabbed you?

The first thing that I noticed sticks in my mind—the tanks were buttoned down, we were ready for combat—I saw these people where they tried to get out of the building, some of them hanging out of the window over top of each other where they kicked the boards out, you know, where they could try to get some air, just strung out there, you know, just laying out, heads shaved, they had on these striped uniforms. We found out later that they were prisoners. And then the stench, that comes later when you got out of the tank and just wandered around, and then looking and very nausea. They have a good replica of it in Washington D.C. at the Holocaust Center. You see that, everything is there except the stench and the people laying out in the open area, you know, nude, no clothes on. They were getting them ready to bury.

Men and women?

Men and women, yeah. They had one for the women and one for the men.

Do you recall any sounds?

No. What happened—when they tried to say "Comrade," they were glad to see you, glad to see you. You tell them who you were, you know, they were so glad. What the Germans did, they left everything open there and when they ran, then they were left fighting over bread and water which they hadn't had. That's one of the sad things also, the ones that couldn't get around.

The Germans tried to get rid of any evidence of the Holocaust. Did you see lot of the barracks burned down?

Not at that particular time. We caught them by element of surprise. But afterwards, they've done that. Like Edris and I, we went to Gunkirchen. It's torn down, nothing there but trees, a bunch of trees in there. There's a little sign about a foot wide and a foot square to let you know that Gunkirchen was there, and it's way back off the highway there on a post where nobody would ever find it unless you looked for it and you knew it was there. Another evidence that they found, like a tree would blow over and they would see it would bring up some bodies and skulls where the roots of the tree had grown through the skull, and they'd bring it up, you know, just mingled up with the roots of the tree. That's how a lot of people found out that they were there.

We went over to see a German family. The little girl came to stay with us about two weeks, her name was Martina. She was thirteen then, and '95 we went over to visit them, and we were going over the places where I had fought, and Edris and I, when we got to Regensburg where they lived, her dad chose to drive us to Gunkirchen. They packed a lunch, which was nice, in a big basket—they have good lunch meats—so we had a nice time in the park. Then we went there and they were shocked. His brother was one of Hitler's little youth growing up with that Nazi stuff. And she cried and they started talking in German when they saw these pictures outside the wall and this chamber where they thought they were going to take showers and they'd be gassed. And they looked at that and she started crying. She told her dad, "Uncle 'so and so' said this didn't happen." She said, "You wait until I see him," she was going to give him the once over twice, I guess. There was one lady—they took all the pictures of the people who went through there, they took their heads off because one lady came through and recognized her grandfather and they didn't want that, so they took the faces off. They tried to deny it, that it didn't happen, but it did. That's why the Jewish people want the story told so they won't forget it and repeat it again.

What kind of knowledge did you have of any of these camps before walking in there?

None. None whatsoever. A lot of the officers didn't either. I don't think Eisenhower ever knew.

How were some of the other soldiers reacting to what they were seeing?

Just element of surprise. Just couldn't believe it. And you tried to help, but the more you tried to help, you'd be killing them. The only way you could help was to give them food, but they gave them cigarettes, that didn't seem to bother them.

What did you actually do that whole day you were in the camp?

Just looking. That was all, there was nothing to do but feel sorry for the people.

Did you touch them?

No. They told you not to, they might be diseased or get lice on you. They de-liced them they had people to come in to do it.

Did any of them approach you?

Yeah. They come up and you give them food and stuff.

Did you think that people in America would believe you when you came back and tell them about this?

No. I didn't even think about it. Sure I thought they were going to believe, I mean the Americans, that after we told them about it, yeah.

So, you knew relatively nothing about this so?

No.

You didn't know...

That they existed? No.

Once you were there how did you understand what was there?

I didn't understand it. I still don't.

Did you know who they were?

No.

They were Germans?

No.

When did you learn what was going on?

When they told us that they were, that this was a concentration camp, when they were, I guess about a week later.

Who told you?

Our company commander, about that's what they were doing what they were doing to the Jewish people. And that it had been happening all over, and that was just a series of camps, you know, they had them all over, and that just happens to be the one that we came by. It was one of the smaller ones.

So therefore it wasn't your responsibility?

Yeah. Right.

Where does your experience of the camp fall in your mind in terms of the impact of the whole experience on you?

Sometimes when I sleep I would think about it, the way those people were looking and the condition that they were in. I don't see how another human being could do that to another human. That was very touching and upsetting to me.

Did it take you a long time to talk about it?

About fifty years.

Why?

I don't know! Just well when I did try to talk about it, I couldn't. My mouth, my body just shut down. The man's wife I was telling you about, what was his name, I forget his name, telling you about the one, his wife came up in one of the reunions and they said "Floyd, come up and tell us about some of your experiences." And I got up there, go to say something and my mouth didn't open. And she patted me on the back and said "Oh you'll learn how to talk". She said "Just stick with it." And so it's just little bit at a time. I don't know why, it's just everything just shut up. I hadn't tried to do that before, you know. I always just put it on the back burner.

That was specific to the experience of the camp or just the whole thing in general?

The whole thing, period. It's all in one nutshell.

End of the War

Describe what you were feeling the day the war ended?

We started dancing and shouting and drinking and celebrating, that the war was over. That was one very happy day.

Did you ever think that that day would come?

Yeah, but we didn't know when. We know it was getting close to come when we met the Russians and things began to get easy. We would have still been fighting if the Germans hadn't quit. So I'm glad they quit, so the war was over and that was that.

What did you do after the war was over?

In Germany, when I stayed in Germany? What we did when the war was over was, they kept us there for—the European theater war was over, but the Pacific war in the Pacific was still going on, that was Japan that we were fighting and they were still fighting Americans. We had to send the task force over to check out and see where we were going to land, just in case we had to go over to the Pacific. But when they dropped the bomb, then that ended the war in the Pacific so they didn't need us anymore. So they just dismounted the 761st Tank Battalion. By doing that, what they did was, I had to stay there and get rid of the tanks because I reenlisted for three years. The way the enlistment—why I reenlisted—I didn't have much time in the service. Some of the guys had four and five years in the service, and they had what they call points, maybe 300 or 400 points, they had a point system for the soldiers to come home. I only had twenty points and that was in the campaigns that we fought in. We had five points for each campaign. So we fought in four. That's how I got mine. When I reenlisted I did constabulary work there in Germany. We were patrolling Germany for a while, and then I got a chance to come home on a thirty day pass—a furlough, rather—that's why I reenlisted. We occupied Germany, so I was on occupation duty, and over there for three years.

How did you come home?

I came home on the U.S. battleship Missouri.

What was it like coming home?

It was very good. When we got home, we got home in five days. It was better than the thirteen that we went over on.

Did you come into Fort Bliss or was it Camp Stoneman?

No, we came to New York. We came back to Camp Shanks. That was the port of debarkation and embarkation. That's were you go out from and that's where you come back from, on the east coast, on the Atlantic Ocean.

When you were on your way back, were you thinking about the segregation problem in America? Did you think that things had become better?

Yes, I thought it became better. When some people recognized you for what you had done, they appreciated it. And it was better, you know, but it was still the same. So I still did the things that I always did, you know. We had entertainment for blacks, and so that's what I would do. We would go to black clubs and dances, whatever we had to do. We had our thing going on. They still had segregation, but we didn't do too bad, lest you get some prejudiced officers, police officers, come in there and want to lynch somebody or arrest somebody unlawfully, which a lot of that was going on. The good old boys didn't have anything else to do but have a little fun and go out and catch a black guy or something. What do you call it when they electrocute him or drag him or something? A lot of Jim Crow.

Did someone have that experience close to you?

When I was going into the army, I had that experience to see it, saw the results of it. When I was going into the army, the day that I went in—I was drafted—there was a black man—there were two ordinance companies, Red River and Lone Star. So that's where a lot of people started coming in, working at the defense plants and the ammunition plants. This one black cook, I think he had a white girlfriend and they caught them together. Down in this little town called Hooks, Texas, they dragged him all the way to Texarkana, and then they hung him out down by the railroad station in one of the warehouses, out on the platform for all the troop trains that came through could see him. And during my tour of the army, when a lot of the guys, white troops or black troops, they all wanted to know where you were from. And I told them, and several of them say, "Oh yes, that's were we saw this man hung, you know, hanging, out on this place." I told them "Yep, that's the town where I was from." So that's the closest I have been to it.

When I was a kid, there was another kid—I don't think he had a mother, he lived with his grandfather—he was always into trouble. He was about fifteen I believe. His name was Tony. I remember all of us kids, nine and eight and so forth, we were all barefoot one day when it was raining, and they said, "Hey, the cops are over there looking for Tony." So we all ran around the corner to take a peek, and he was in the house sleeping, when he ran out of the back door they shot him and killed him. We were just kids then, and he was a kid, and nothing was ever done about it, and that was it. So I think he just stole some candy or something from somebody and that's what he lost a life about. That's why my mother always tried to feed people, or give them whatever they wanted, always tried to help. I heard the old people tell what a shame it was, you know, but nobody could do anything about it.

What was it like seeing your mother and your family when you came back?

Oh, it was great. I could get some good home cooking, the kind of food they don't cook in the Army, like turnip greens, and ham hocks, potato pies, roast turkey, and gumbo. All the good old southern style cooking.

Telling His Story

Who understands your story the best?

Everybody.

Can you talk about your war experience?

They all are interested in it, you know, blacks and whites, and the Jewish people, everybody I've talked to about it. It's amazing. What shocks them when they haven't heard about it before now, that they kept it hid so long.

Who hid it?

The government, they haven't put it in—that's one secret they have kept for a long time, they just now let it out in bits and pieces. Now in the 761st, they will tell you where you can find something, but in bits and pieces you'll find it. You check here and you'll find a little bit. You get disgusted and you'll stop, getting tired of checking, so you just give up on it.

Does it make you angry?

No. It will eventually come out. That's just the way it is.

Can you tell us about your hat?

This is a Veteran of Foreign Wars hats. I belonged to the Post 761st Tank Battalion, Post 8399, that's on this side, that's in Richmond, California. When the war was over, there were six guys that came to San Francisco, and they got a charter to open a post of the 761st Tank Battalion. They got it, and they started out with about 1100 members. Any other soldier could join—those who were in a foreign war, fought overseas, could join and still can join—the 761st Tank Battalion. We have about six whites in it, and I guess about ninety of us now, the rest of us are black. But anybody is welcome to join it.

This "A" here is the 3rd Army souvenier, and this is the 9th Army souvenier. And this is the 7th Army souvenir. All of them have A's. This one here is the Disabled Veteran button, and those are the different armies that we fought with. The 7th, the 9th and the 8th—I mean the 3rd, 7th and 9th—that was the three armies. We fought in six different divisions: 26th, 87th, 103rd, 7th, and one Airborne, which was the 17th Airborne.

Why it is important for you to be wearing that hat during the interview?

Yeah, because so people can see it, and then they'll know what you are about, they give you the recognition that, "Oh, he is a veteran of foreign wars." So then they see that, and especially this patch, I mean that's a Tanker patch. Somebody mentioned about the black panther? The panther, as I told you before, was a symbol of the characteristics of a panther—how he strikes, how he carries himself, and real fast in and out, and kind of cagey. So that's what we had to do when we were fighting. So we had him as our motto. That's why we had to come out fighting, and we had the black panther on there. He didn't have anything to do with the organization the Black Panthers, which was in the '70's I guess.

Is there anything you would like our audience to know that we have not talked about?

I am glad that you young people are interested in it, in this history, which is a good history, and I am proud that you young people interviewed me. I hope you can spread the word, when you get to college if you have to write anything on it, that you know about the 761st Tank Battalion. And there will be a lot of people that don't know about it, and a lot of news that you will know that they don't know. So you can pat yourself on the back that, "I met Mr. Floyd. You know maybe you're dead and gone then, but I met one of the old Tankers," which is a privilege. I sure appreciate each and everyone to come.

I love all of you. That's what it's all about, that's what I was fighting for. That's why I love to see you youngsters doing well and in school. It hurts deeply to see these others kids on dope and out of school and doing what they are doing, shooting each other. That's not what it's about, I don't know why they went wrong. But anyway, you guys keep walking the straight and narrow, and listen to your parents. You know right from wrong. Although some time your golf game don't go the way you want it, don't sweat. Don't swear and sling the golf club out in the lake.

In what ways has the war affected how you live your life today?

I met Edris, and that's how it affected it. I got married, and all these grand-kids and kids, which was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Still proud of it. Proud that she married me and glad to be her charming husband. And that's what life's all about you guys. So that's just about it.

Thank you very much.

You are welcome.