Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976
5th Auxiliary Surgical Group
APO 339
c/o Post Master
New York New York
5 (7 pictures enclosed)
Germany
April 20, 1945
Dearest Mother:
Well after a long silence since my
last letter. I will again endeavor to write a few lines. A lot has happened since then and I have seen
a lot of country. I have moved twice since
then and one trip was over three hundred miles. The latter one of smaller dimensions.
We were quite happy at our station in
the pocket but one night we started to pack about twelve and were gone the next
afternoon on our way on a convoy of
over 300 miles length, and believe me I hope I never again have another such
trip. We saw more backwoods country
which included dusty dirty roads with all the bums and ruts possible.
At our destination we were greeted by
a nice big job. The job of rehabilitation of displaced persons[1],
which included Russians, Poles, French, Belgians and Dutch. They had been starved practically to nothing but skin and bones. It was a sight never to be forgotten. Anyway they decided they had no use for
surgical teams, so we were transferred to an Evacuation hospital, which is our
present station. With the field hospitals
going out of business such as the last one we perhaps shall be at them less
often.
The other day they sent us our theater ribbons with two bronze stars for the campaigns of Northern France and Germany. I am enclosing the
certificates on them in this letter for safe keeping. The way my baggage is mauled I sometimes
wonder how I happen to have anything left.
I picked up some very nice lined
jackets at my last station and I will send a couple home some day. Dad would
like one for warmth while on his way to the desert. I have a white and a black one here which are
really nice.
This evening while out in the street
I saw a head of sheep being led home and soon after a flock of young
geese. And I am in a town where I never
expected to be such. The surrounding country is very beautiful. I am quite
impressed with the plains before Berlin. They are very fertile and they grow
everything here from A-Z.
I have here all your letters up to
and inclusive of ten (10) and I am in hopes of getting more soon as it has been
some time since my last mail. Since we
are so far ahead of our headquarters it makes it difficult for delivery.
At our last station which was near Recklinghausen[2]
which was right near a huge industrial center and I got some good pictures
taken in a garden with some smoke stacks in the distance. It made a very interesting picture. Enclosed you will find some pictures which
you may like. Some of them were taken in a monastery garden which you have
heard me mention previously.
Sgt Ryan is
now on an X-Ray team and is here for the time being. He was transferred from his shock team last
month. He is about like myself on the
topic of teams.
I hope you will like the Buick. Are they easy to drive? I can find out when I get home. That subject was
one of my peeves recently.
Your mention of the recent picture
regarding horses reminds me of the many head which recently I saw at one place
which they had evacuated in a hurry and had killed what they could not take
with them.
In regards to the war pictures, we
are not supposed to take a good many and we cannot send any of such pictures
home. But I could take them and keep
them. The time I had the difficulty with
the film was the day our truck brought us across the Rhine. The engineers had a
beautiful pontoon bridge across which was a master piece. The river appeared just after we had (gone)
up an incline and started on the gradual slant incline down. The current was really rapid and the entire
river impressed me. Up to this time the
Mississippi had impressed me more.
I want you to take money from my
account to buy yourself a hat, dress, purse or whatever you wish for a Mother’s
Day present. And I want you to tell me
what you get. I wish I could do more but
conditions prevent it. I really want you
to do this.
Well about all for now and you all
take care of yourselves (7 pictures enclosed)
All my love, Stanley
NOTE from the transcriber:
I found these two letters on Ebay while doing some background
research and was disappointed that they were no longer available. They give a very important explanation to
Stanley;s previous remarks that some liberated Russian prisoners were playing music and singing and how
he thought they sounded so good. How he
could have written so little about what he saw that day is difficult for me to
fully grasp but maybe he could not tell his mother of the horrors he was
witnessing or maybe to keep his own sanity he had managed to detach himself
from his gruesome surroundings. This is
one of those times when I wish I could have a letter he wrote to someone else
besides his mother.
Captain Claugus' two letters have certainly been key to further my understanding of this incident. The letters were sold by someone
in Waterloo, Canada and went, the first one for $62 and the second for $83.99.
Letter Descriptions as found on Ebay
This first letter was written by Captain Claugus to his wife on the 21st
of April, 1945. Captain Claugus was shocked by the condition of his patients,
and he felt that the Germans should be severely punished for what they had
done, that no matter how many Germans were killed, it wouldn't be too many:
"I have been pretty busy the past few days. Words can't describe my
patients - the words skin and bones have taken on a new meaning for me. All I
can say, we can't kill too many Germans."
One of the men had found a German
violin, and he was playing it while Claugus wrote this letter. The man was
playing waltzes, and Claugus explains that the music was reviving pleasant
memories of time that he and his wife had spent together:
"One of the boys in this outfit liberated a German violin and he is
playing waltzes for me while I write this letter. It certainly brings back
sweet memories of our loving together. The only happy thing about our
anniversary this year is that it could be worse, but I am thinking of you all
the time."
“The second letter was written by Captain Claugus to his wife on the 22nd
of April, 1945. Captain Claugus had established a ward with 107 patients, whom
he explains were suffering from starvation and other ailments. He was short
staffed, and was employing some of his patients as room orderlies. He states
that he wished he had a camera and sound equipment so that he could record the
things that were taking place in his ward. He states that it was all very
tragic, although some of the minor incidents were not without humor. He adds
that: "I will have quite a story when I return."
(*** When he wrote this letter
Captain Claugus had been treating patients from the Bergen-Belsen train for
several days.)
"Another day is finished and I don't have much to show for my work, but
in reality a lot has been accomplished. I have a little concentration camp on
my ward, which consists of 107 patients (all with diarrhea in addition to
starvation), 1 doctor, 1 nurse, 4 enlisted men, and 2 dumb non English speaking
(nor German either). You can see what a job 5 feedings a day would make.
For a ward boss I have a patient who speaks a little English and under him
I have a room and bedpan boss and server for each room."
Claugus goes on to state that he
wished he had a camera and sound equipment, with which he could record the
tragic, and humorous, occurrences in his ward.
An extraordinary original letter,
written by a frontline U.S. army surgeon who was in the process of treating
survivors of the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.
[1] In
mid-April 1945 a detachment from the 5th Auxiliary Surgical Group was assigned
to assist in the treatment of survivors of the Nazi concentration camp at
Bergen-Belsen. The Germans had been attempting to transport inmates of the camp
by rail from Bergen-Belsen to Theresienstadt. On April 13th one of three trains
carrying inmates of the camp was captured by American troops at Farsleben. The
captured train was carrying an estimated 2,500 inmates, all of whom were in
need of medical treatment. Medical personnel of the 5th Auxiliary Surgical
Group, including Captain Claugus
(see additional material following the transcription), participated in the
treatment of the liberated prisoners.
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