American Valor Quarterly Issue 1 - Winter 2007 | Page 14

After reorganizing our howitzers, the sergeant approached
me and said, “Zaslow, you’re going on a mission. You are
one of four men.” I was curious as to what the mission
would be, but could not ask questions. Just follow orders.

stand at attention for many hours. One guard flicked his
eyes and was pulled out of rank by an inmate who whipped
him severely on his backside with a bull whip which had
formerly been used on the inmates.

All four of us mounted a small open-end truck and began
the drive. We had spent a severe winter in combat, but we
now saw that flowers were growing alongside the dirt road.
Our destination, 12 miles away, was the town of Dachau
in Bavaria. When we arrived, we came upon a long line of
cattle cars, with the doors wide open. Each of the box cars
were filled with a tangled mass of dead bodies, jammed
from the bottom to