WWII Holocaust liberator shares faith, memories with church crowd
Staff reporter
Most people his age are content to stay at home — visiting family or watching television.
Not for retired Rev. Forrest Robinson.
This 83-year-old World War II veteran is on a mission.
This mission is to make sure the Holocaust during World War II is not forgotten.
Nearly 50 people were in attendance Sunday afternoon at Eastmoor United Methodist Church, Marion, to hear the account of a young soldier.
Robinson, a soldier with the 104th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, was part of a specialized training program in the war effort that liberated concentration camps in Germany.
Here is one of the reasons he does not want the Holocaust forgotten.
It was April 12, 1945. Robinson accompanied his commanding officer to a concentration camp located in the village of Nordhausen, Germany.
"There were piles of decaying human bodies," Roberts said. "Three pits of humans were burning."
The soldier from Winfield could not believe his eyes.
"It was utterly overwhelming," he said.
The two entered a hospital ward where there was one side of the building lined with beds. The beds had those who had died and those who were dying.
"Some of the dead had been there as long as a month," Robinson recalled. "The smell
Robinson said occasionally he could see movements and lips that would mouth "help."
He also recalled bodies 12 deep under a stairwell.
"I can't describe the stench," he said.
Robinson said he bolted from the building, ran outside, and clung to the side of a jeep. Just then, he heard from another soldier's portable radio that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died.
"This was my commander in chief," said Robinson with a lump in his throat.
He also remembered that this was his favorite sister's birthday.
"I screamed curses against God," Robinson said. He then leaned over the side of the jeep and became ill.
"God is merciful," said Robinson. "I have no memory of what happened from that moment on for two weeks."
His next memory after that incident was of him walking down a road and seeing 12 German soldiers surrendering.
"They were anxious to surrender," said Robinson.
He took them to a stockade and assisted in processing them.
"I met a man who was the exact replica of Hitler's Aryan youth," Robinson recalled. The German soldier was wearing riding pants which seemed strange. Robinson asked the soldier to remove his pants and inside a second pant leg was a pistol, strapped to his leg.
It was a U.S. military-issued Smith & Wesson. The German soldier said his father had taken the pistol from an American soldier during World War I and now an American soldier was taking the gun from him.
"We don't solve problems of war, we just exchange weapons," said the German soldier. That comment stuck with Robinson and it is something he will never forget.
A concentration camp that Robinson and his platoon helped to liberate was a factory where bombs for B-1s and B-2s were made.
"People were chained to work stations," he recalled. "When they could no longer work, they were dragged to a pile."
The people literally were worked to death.
Not comprehending today's theory that the Holocaust never occurred, Robinson said townspeople had to know about the camps because of the odor of decaying bodies and some worked in the camps.
During the Battle of the Bulge, Robinson and his platoon were "pinned in the Bulge" for four months where he was injured and lost most of his hearing.
His story continued. Robinson and a fellow soldier were walking past a Lutheran church in the German town of Doltish and heard music.
When the two walked into the church, the German organist turned and asked, "You've come to save us?"
A sign
It was 9 a.m. that May day in 1945. Robinson was stationed at a desk to complete tasks put before him when the noise of war stopped. The bells at the church were clanging and banging. He just knew the war was over.
He knew if he left his post without permission, he would be in trouble, but after 30 minutes of the bell ringing, he had to go see what was going on outdoors.
Robinson grabbed his loaded rifle and went outdoors. Across the street, he saw a German soldier also holding a rifle, presumed loaded. They stared at each other and began walking toward the middle of the street.
"We met in the street, locked arms, and walked to God's church together," an emotional Robinson said.
Robinson said there were people of every denomination and race, walking together toward the church.
"It was a magnificent sight," he said. "I was overwhelmed."
The organist in that Lutheran church began to play a song and the congregation began to sing, each hearing it in their own languages.
"Deep in my soul, I heard the 46th Psalm — 'Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth'."
"This GI who cursed God, felt forgiveness," said Robinson. "This was the first stop to entering the ministry."
He returned to Winfield, reunited with his family and girlfriend Betty Jean, who later became his wife, and learned the horror that the atomic bomb had ended the war.
Robinson said he remembered as a boy, seeing trains loaded with scrap metal being hauled for the "war effort." The trains then returned with weapons.
He expressed concerns about recent events that mirror the evils of the Holocaust.
Ten thousand people participated in an anti-Jewish march in November in a German town. A neo-Nazi candidate recently received more votes than Hitler for a public office.
"Some Muslims and Europeans are going around saying the Holocaust is a lie," said Robinson.
An ordained United Methodist minister, Robinson doesn't want to keep the tragedy alive but wants to keep the cross alive so it won't happen again.
"There is great danger in repetition raising its ugly head," said Robinson.
Roberts resents the Iraq war.
"The U.S. used to support Saddam Hussein with war efforts against Iran," he said. "I never thought my country would start a war of aggression."
Robinson "hates war but recognizes there are times when you have to combat people like Hitler."
Robinson's presentation wasn't focused on his military career or historical accountability but the human and spiritual sides of war.
Considering this his second calling, becoming a minister his first, the aging and one of a few surviving witnesses to the Holocaust horrors of World War II has spent the past two years traveling to California, Colorado, Texas, and various communities in Kansas to share his experiences and ministry.
Robinson wants to be certain the next generation will not forget.
