From Alan W. Lukens The Liberation of Dachau, 70 Years Later
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WHY e Fought
From Alan W. Lukens The Liberation of Dachau, 70 Years Later
Jewish Virtual Library
Alan Lukens completed his first year of studies at Princeton before volunteering for the 10th Mountain Ski Division in Colorado as WWII intensified.
Assigned to the 20th Armored Division, Lukens and his unit saw action in France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany, crossing the Rhine River and experiencing heavy combat on German soil in April, 1945.
Joining the 7th Army en route to Munich, Lukens was part of several units responsible for liberating the Dachau concentration camp, where an estimated 35,000 documented deaths were ruthlessly carried out by the Nazi regime.
Lukens enjoyed a 36-year diplomatic career after the war, first returning to Princeton before joining the Foreign Service. His notable posts included three years as the Ambassador to the Congo, from 1984-1987.
Since retiring, Lukens has returned to Dachau on four separate occasions and served as a president of the 20th Armored Division.
My World War II story begins in Philly where I grew up. My father was a lawyer and my mother was an architect. I went to The Episcopal Academy and in 1942 I graduated with honors before heading to Princeton.
Due to the war, we had an accelerated course of studies. The first half of the academic year began shortly after my high school graduation in the summer of 1942 and the second half was
AN UNAUTHENTICATED PHOTO, BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY AN AMERICAN LIBERATOR, OF PRISONERS AT DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP. DACHAU WAS THE FIRST NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMP OPENED IN GERMANY. OPENED BY HEINRICH HIMMLER IN 1933, IT WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED TO HOUSE POLITICAL PRISONERS BEFORE EVENTUALLY BEING EXPANDED TO IMPRISON JEWS AND FOREIGN NATIONALS OF NAZI OCCUPIED COUNTRIES.
completed in the fall. It was after that first year of studies that I volunteered for the Army.
Since I was president of the ski club and was pretty confident in my skills as a skier, and enjoyed the outdoors, I joined the 10th Mountain Ski Division in Colorado. I was joined there by a lot of other Ivy League skiers that thought they were pretty fancy stuff.
Our feeling of superiority dissipated when as soon we arrived, the officer said,“ We’ re going to whip these smart alecks into shape.”
Instead of practicing and learning more about skiing in the mountains, it became clear that we first had to learn how to drill and all that. Lucky for us, we were still able to ski on the weekends and later we had the opportunity to do a lot more rock
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