Holocaust? He Saw The Bodies
Whatever the history revisionists say, the Holocaust happened.
Capt. Bill McFadden didn’t imagine thousands of emaciated bodies stacked inside Hurlach in southern Germany in April 1945. Sure, he was war-weary after nearly two years of trudging through Africa and Europe with the 36th Division of the Texas National Guard.
But he wasn’t blind. His nose worked.
“Oh, we could smell it,” says Bill, a soft-spoken, 77-year-old Coeur d’Alene retiree.
The concentration camp appeared almost nonchalantly as Bill’s regiment pressed through Germany in the last moments of World War II.
His regiment had liberated Rome and much of southern France. Thousands of its men had died. Bill had taken a bullet in the arm and a rebounding piece of tank shell in the shoulder.
He and his men were pushing the enemy back into Germany and Austria until the Nazis had to surrender or die. A week before the surrender, Bill’s regiment stumbled upon Hurlach.
It loomed silently just off the autobahn, a mostly deserted barbed-wire enclosure that left no question about its purpose. Death had surrounded Bill for two years, but the scene at Hurlach was chillingly different.
“Bodies were stacked like cordwood,” Bill says, laying out a series of sickening black and white photos to prove it. “You never forget it.”
Another soldier in the regiment took the pictures and distributed them to buddies so they’d remember. Bill doesn’t need the pictures to see the ragged striped pajamas, the jumble of skin-covered bones, the open mouths frozen.
His regiment stayed just long enough to drag in the mayor of a nearby town and some able-bodied townspeople to bury the bodies. Bill didn’t realize until much later that the corpses were awaiting cremation.
He returned to Europe in the 1980s with his wife and hunted for Hurlach. It had vanished, replaced by a farmer’s benign field.
The pictures sat untouched in Bill’s drawer for years, until the Aryan Nations planned a hate parade in downtown Coeur d’Alene to commemorate Hitler’s birthday.
The white supremacists rescheduled the parade for July, but their adoration for Hitler remains. It sickens Bill.
“If it wasn’t for Hitler, these people would’ve survived,” he says, stabbing his finger at one of the pictures. “People need to know this kind of thing happens from the kind of people who want to march in Coeur d’Alene.”
Whiz kid
Coeur d’Alene’s Immaculate Heart of Mary Class of 1968, pay attention. Remember Ed Mihelich, aka Mr. Smarty? It’s probably no surprise to his classmates that Ed is a research scientist at Lilly Pharmaceuticals in Indiana.
But here’s the real news: Ed’s 16-year-old son, Chris, one-upped his dad’s high school achievements. Chris, a math whiz, is a finalist in the prestigious Westinghouse Science Talent Search.
Winners of the talent search have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, the National Medal of Science and other honors. Because of dad, Chris can almost be considered a North Idahoan - and a credit to us all.
Sing a song of sixpence
The Coeur d’Alene School District was kind enough to allow the Coeur d’Alene High choir to leave for Salt Lake City $4,000 in the hole. The choir was invited to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle - a major honor.
But singers had to pay their own way; the district didn’t offer a dime. Without donations, the choir’s facing a lot of bake sales. Send help to Coeur d’Alene High, 5530 N. Fourth St., Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814.
What was your unforgettable high school trip? Dig out the travel journals for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814; send a fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)