The Liberator

by Kevin Fritz

A Jewish World War II veteran remembers the horror – and heroics – that changed the world.

When Army Corporal Technician Gilbert Waganheim entered the Mauthausen Concentration Camp on May 5, 1945, he had no way of knowing the horrific events that had unfolded on that soil over the past seven years. Opened in 1938 in Austria on the Danube River, and known as one of the worst death camps created by Nazi Germany, it was the last to be liberated.

“There were so many survivors,” says Gilbert, now 98 years old and living in the Dr. Phillips area. “It was a surprise to see them. Entering the camp, I saw piles of shoes and bodies. I saw the ovens. I learned quickly what it was all about. People were ragged, many too weak to get out of their beds.”

Those memories may now be 75 years in the past, but the clarity with which Gilbert conveys his years of serving in World War II as a Jewish soldier and liberating Mauthausen is still vivid. And to this day, he believes in the importance of sharing his story. Indeed, in January, Gilbert spoke at the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida at the JCC campus in Maitland about his experiences as part of the 75th Anniversary of Remembrance Day.

The Life and Times of a World War II Vet

Born November 22, 1921, in Baltimore, Maryland, Gilbert was 21 years old when Uncle Sam came calling at the tail end of 1942. His basic training was spent mostly in tanks at Camp Polk, Louisiana, as part of the newly formed 42nd Armored Regiment in the 11th Armored Division.

Following almost two years of stateside maneuvers and training, Gilbert was shipped overseas to England in September of 1944. By December, his division had reached a liberated France at the same time Nazi Germany began a last-ditch offensive in Belgium. While on assignment guarding the Meuse River at the French border, Gilbert’s 42nd Armored Regiment was summoned to join Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.’s 3rd Army in the legendary Battle of the Bulge.

“I personally saw Patton directing traffic,” Gilbert recalls.

Heavy fighting ensued. More than 20,000 Allied troops were killed. With no rest for the weary, Gilbert’s outfit marched into Luxembourg, then Germany, followed by Russian-occupied Austria. Along the way, there was more fighting, more German prisoners taken.

During his division’s travels, Gilbert remembers stumbling upon 100 American soldiers, all killed and left by the roadside. The division captured a German officer, and Gilbert was asked to interrogate him about the carnage using his Yiddish.

“I was the only Jew at the time,” Gilbert remembers. “But Yiddish didn’t work.”

Soon thereafter, Gilbert witnessed an approaching Jeep with soldiers waving a white flag. It was the commander of the Mauthausen Camp. That encounter led the division to Camp Mauthausen and the realization of the terror endured by so many innocent men, women, and children. Gilbert was at the camp for a couple of days and talked to some survivors.

“A woman with family in Chicago asked me to write a letter to let them know she was alive,” Gilbert sighs. “I came back to my camp and wrote that letter as promised, but I never got a response. I have no idea if the family ever received    the letter.”

Gilbert witnessed and took part in the unimaginable for three years, but by 1945 the war was over and civilian life took center stage. Gilbert met a woman named Edythe at a gathering in Washington, D.C., and they were married in 1947. A trained accountant, he took a job with Giant Foods, where he remained for 40 years until retiring in 1990. The couple had two children – Arthur who resides in Davie, Florida, and Philip who lives near Gilbert with his wife, Marlene.

Yes, at 98, Gilbert is still on his own, and he still drives. He lost Edythe in 2012 after 65 years of marriage. Gilbert attributes his longevity to being active and his good genes. His parents lived into their 80s, and he still has a brother living in Maryland. He walks a mile every day and used to play golf, although now he enjoys the miniature kind with his grandkids. The patriarch has four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. And he has taken up painting.

“It’s my new calling,” Gilbert boasts. “I like to work with acrylics, painting landscapes.”

Gilbert says he has been back to Europe several times since the end of the war, including locations where he fought for freedom. He also returned to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp that claimed an estimated 90,000 lives.

“I think back on all of the fighting we did, capturing all those Germans, and the liberation,” Gilbert says. “You often hear of Auschwitz, but there were camps everywhere. I represent all the heroes not here today.”