A 93-year-old Holocaust survivor from Germany who later became an American soldier recalls the moment he heard that U.S. and Allied forces had stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
On the 81st anniversary of D-Day, Jochen “Jack” Wurfl, who hid his Jewish roots to escape being sent to a concentration camp during World War II, shares his memories of the historic event that laid the foundation for the liberation of Europe and the defeat of the Nazis in his autobiography, “My Two Lives.”
“I was 12 when I heard on the BBC that the Allied troops had landed in Normandy,” Wurfl said. “Finally, the Americans, the British and the Allies were coming to put an end to Hitler and this terrible genocide.”
D-Day is the military operation that marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler’s regime — and the murders of millions of Jews in Nazi concentration camps. Wurfl lost his mother and other family members in the Holocaust,.
Six million Jews were murdered during World War II as part of Hitler’s “Final Solution," but, according to Pew Research, fewer than half of Americans can correctly answer multiple-choice questions about the Holocaust. One in five young Americans believes the Holocaust is a myth, according to another survey. And a similar number do not know what D-Day is.
Following the war, Wurfl emigrated to America at 17 and was drafted into the Army at 20. One day, his company commander called Wurfl into his office and asked him to be in the division's Color Guard because of his “straight walk.”
“To carry the American flag for the 1st Infantry Division, you know, 20,000 men,” he said. “It’s an honor.”
On the 10th anniversary of D-Day in 1954 and now a corporal in the Army, Wurfl returned to the beaches of France to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the D-Day landings.
“I went to Omaha Beach and all these places where thousands of our boys had died,” he recalled.
Wurfl recalled looking out over the English Channel and becoming emotional as he recalled the thousands of troops who landed in France to free Europe from Nazi domination.
“I get teary-eyed thinking of how this little boy from Germany was able to pay tribute, looking out over the Channel and watching the sunrise where thousands of our boys were killed trying to free us,” he said.
Wurfl is now an outspoken advocate for Holocaust education in America’s schools and colleges, warning against growing antisemitism, so that “the Nazi horrors will never be repeated.”
Click here to watch a clip of Wurfl’s D-Day memories.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.