Bernard Mellman interview for the Faces of the Holocaust Series
Creation Date
1-31-1995
Collection
MS-215: Emmanuel Ringelblum Collection
Description
Bernie Mellman served with the U.S. Army in Europe in 1945 and 1946. In April 1945 his battalion, the 542nd Field Artillery, assisted in the liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau. He was twenty years old and Jewish, and yet like most American soldiers he had no idea that the death camps existed. It was, he remembers, "a soul-wrenching experience for me. . . . I can still see ... starved, emaciated inmates. . . . I remember seeing those ovens and smelling the stench of dead bodies." A few days later Bernie took part in the capture of nearby Munich. He and his wife Beverly lived in Dayton until recently moving to Florida. This interview is from the Faces of the Holocaust, a series created as a classroom resource and curriculum supplement.
Interviewee
Bernard Mellman
Interviewer
Renate Frydman
Document Type
Oral History
Permissions
Special Collections and Archives provides reprints or digital copies of our materials for a fee. For further information please visit their website or call (937) 775-2092.
