From Omaha Beach to Nuremberg: A Memoir of World War II Combat and the International Military Tribunal

by Daniel Altman, Fawn Zwickel

Overview

A tough Jewish kid from the Bronx, Dan Altman enlisted in the Army when the U.S. entered World War II. Adapting street smarts to soldiering, he became a skilled sharpshooter and attained the rank of sergeant in the 1st Infantry Division.

On D-Day, Altman's unit was among the second wave to assault the German defenses at Normandy. Surviving the invasion, the fighting in the lethal hedgerow country, the Hurtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge, he was later assigned to gather information on the Nazi atrocities performed at the concentration camps for the trials at Nuremburg.

Beginning with his plunge into the blood-tinged surf at Omaha Beach, his candid, often graphic memoir is presented here as told to his granddaughter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476679235
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	03/10/2020
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.42(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Sgt. Daniel Altman grew up in the Bronx, New York. He enlisted in the Army at 21 and served in the ETO. When he came state-side he integrated back into civilian life and repressed his memories of the war. He lived in Verona, New Jersey. Fawn Zwickel is enrolled in a combined MA/PsyD program in psychology at the College of Saint Elizabeth. She lives in Rockaway, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Fawn Zwickel vii

Preface Fawn Zwickel 1

1 Hell 5

2 Lucky Foot 15

3 Starving and Battered 28

4 Surviving Normandy 42

5 Face to Face with the Siegfried Line 52

6 Woodland Splinters 59

7 Snow, Blood, Bodies and Shit 70

8 My Private Battle of the Bulge 81

9 War's Over-Off to the Next Assignment 92

10 Camp Ashcan 102

11 Transporting Guilty Cargo 108

12 Haunted Forever 117

13 Camp #219, Dachau 123

14 Buchenwald 131

15 Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz 134

16 Standing Guard at Nuremberg 139

17 Homesick 151

18 The Final Ride Home 154

19 Trouble Over the Atlantic Basin 161

20 Killing Time to Stay Alive 165

21 Fixing the Propeller 172

22 An Empty Welcome Home 175

23 A Changed Man at the VA 181

24 Compartmentalizing 186

A Last Word 191

Author's Military Service 193

References 195

Index 197

Editorial Reviews

A simply riveting read form first page to last...invaluable...recommended”—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher