Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by Leni Ashmore Sorensen
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`LIBERATORS' LOOKS AT WORLD OF THE BLACK
"Liberator: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II"By Lou Potter with William Miles and Nina Rosenblum. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. $29.95.
America is in the midst of 50th anniversary commemorations of the events of World War II.
Stamps depicting the various theaters of war are being issued, ceremonies have been held at Pearl Harbor, and war heroes from those years are being re-examined. "Liberators" is a wonderful addition to the library of anyone interested in that period.
It is about the world of the black GI. This soldier had a dramatic role in the liberation of the Nazi death camps, while at the same time fighting the old battles of segregation in the armed services and racial prejudice at home. Though some historical details of this story have been questioned - the film version of "Liberators" has been temporarily withdrawn - the larger truths are unchallenged.
The history of black soldiers' participation in America's military begins 200 years ago. In the opening salvo of the Revolutionary War in 1775, the black patriots Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem and Salem Poor fell at Bunker Hill. More than 5,000 black Americans fought in our war for independence. During the Civil War, 180,000 black combat troops fought in all-black regiments.
Given that background, it becomes easier to understand the tremendous frustrations suffered by the soldiers in World War II. That hundreds of thousands of black men endured and overcame these social ills is testimony to their determination and patriotism.
While black men were volunteering for the war in Europe, here at home 70 percent of the nation's defense contractors hired no black workers in any capacity, and 15 percent hired them only in menial jobs. As of March 1, 1941, the National Defense Training Act, enacted to prepare workers for war-material production, had only 4,600 blacks, compared to 175,000 whites. This at a time when there were 10 million black people in the South and several million more in the North. Six black Americans were lynched during 1946, hardly a fact to make a man feel his country respects his efforts.
The story of the "Liberators" is interwoven with the stories of several Jewish concentration camp prisoners. For many survivors, the American soldiers were the first blacks they had ever seen, but the deep feelings of gratitude are still alive 50 years later.
It is vital that contemporary Americans understand what many blacks knew to be truth at the time. During the war, the exploits of black service battalions were ignored and undocumented by the white press. We did not see black fighting men in the newsreels or the newspapers or war films.
It is unknown to most Americans that it was black soldiers of the 761st who drove their tanks through the gates of Buchenwald in 1945, and thus were some of the first American troops to see the horrors of the Nazi death camps. In one case, combat achievements by blacks were still being denied 25 years later.
In the Hollywood film "Patton," neither the black tank troops of the 761st that spearheaded the general's advance through France and Germany, nor his black driver, John L. Mims, who safely drove Patton through Africa and Europe, were shown.
These are the kind of omissions that skew our history and give ammunition to the bigots and haters who would tell us, even today, that people of color have not carried their weight in our society, or that the Holocaust never happened.
The men chronicled in "The Liberators" are true American heroes. Their story is our story.
Leni Ashmore Sorensen is a graduate of the Mary Baldwin Adult Degree program.