The hospital at Hillersleben Germany, April 1945
Weisskopf, V.
Harefuah 153(3-4): 215-8 236 235
2014
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-7768 PMID: 24791569 Document Number: 675021
On 6th April 1945, nine days before the liberation of the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp, about 2,500 Jewish prisoners were ordered to prepare to leave the camp on the next day. On 7th April, the prisoners left through the gates of the camp and began to walk about 10 kilometers to the train station near the city of Celle. There they were ordered to board a train that would take them to the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. After six days of travel, the train stopped near the village of Farsleben, Germany, where it was liberated by the 743rd Tank Battalion of the 30th Infantry Division, of the U.S. 9th Army, on 13th April 1945. The 105th Medical Battalion of the same Division was the primary care provider for the survivors, who were then taken in vehicles available from the 30th Infantry Division, and organized into a convoy by the Division's Liaison Officer, Lt. Frank W. Towers, to the town of Hillersleben. A former German Air Force Base was located at Hillersleben with a small hospital that could not provide medical attention to all the survivors. On 21st April, Company C of the 95th Medical Battalion, received an order to go to Hillersleben. Colonel Dr. William W. Hurteau, the Commanding Officer of this Battalion, determined that the biggest task given to the Battalion during World War II, was establishing another hospital in the town of Hillersleben and providing additional beds in the existing hospital, which was a structure that had served as a boarding school. Furthermore, they needed to acquire hospital equipment which was obtained from German equipment and supplies that had been captured by the U.S. MiLitary. Also, they took care of obtaining food supplies from German warehouses, and meat and milk from local dairy farms. The lives of the prisoners on this train were saved by the heroism and dedicated work of those brave soldiers of the 30th Infantry Division and the 95th Medical Battalion.