Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 7, 2024

DUNWOODY, Ga. Victory over Germany was in sight for the Allies on April 29, 1945, as the 42nd Infantry Division stormed toward Munich.

Pfc. Hilbert Margol and his twin brother Howard, now deceased, were part of an artillery convoy heading for the city on a two-lane road through the woods. As Margol remembers it, the convoy was stopped and the Howard brothers were permitted by their sergeant to investigate the source of a stench wafting over the area. After a short walk through the woods they spotted boxcars.

A human leg dangled from one of them.

So we looked and inside the box car were all deceased bodies, just packed inside the box car, said Margol, a 100-year-old World War II veteran living in Dunwoody, Georgia.

World War II veteran Hilbert Margol speaks March 14 in Atlanta. Margol, 100, and his twin brother, Howard Margol, were a part of the 42nd Infantry that arrived in Marseille, France, in January 1945.

The 42nd Infantry is among those credited with liberating the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. The Margol brothers were among the first Americans to discover the lingering horrors at the camp, which was established in 1933 and became a symbol of Nazi atrocities. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held there and over 40,000 prisoners died there in horrendous conditions.

Hilbert Margol remembers seeing stacks of dead bodies like cordwood once they went in the gates. We couldnt understand what what was going on. It was almost like a Hollywood movie set.

World War II veterans Andy Negra, left, and Hilbert Margol, speak to each other during an an event honoring the two March 14 in Atlanta.

Born Feb. 22, 1924, Jacksonville, Florida,Hilbert entered military life with Howard in 1942, joining an ROTC program at the University of Florida figuring that after Pearl Harbor they would wind up in the military at some point. They joined an Army Reserve unit later, after being told that might enable them to finish college, but they were called to active duty in 1943, Margol said. He served with Battery B, 392nd Field Artillery Battalion, 42nd Infantry Division.

They were separated for a while, in training for different missions. But Howard eventually was able to transfer to where his brother was serving with an artillery unit in Oklahoma. Eventually, they deployed to Europe in the aftermath of D-Day.

After seeing combat, death and destruction, Margol came home to find success in business.

One of the promises I made to myself in combat, that if I was fortunate enough to make it back home, I was going to buy every creature comfort that I could afford, Margol said.

But success and comfort werent the only things driving him. He has spoken at programs about the Holocaust, noting what was found at Dachau.

I hope and pray that everyone who hears my voice, and their offspring, outlive the offspring of the deniers that say the Holocaust never happened.

American assault forces hurdle over the side of a Coast Guard LCI into a landing barge, which will bring them into the fight to liberate France, during the Allied invasion of the Normandy, in June 1944. (AP Photo)

In this image provided by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, General Dwight Eisenhower gives the order of the day, "Full Victory - Nothing Else," to paratroopers somewhere in England just before they board their planes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps Photo)

American paratroopers, heavily armed, sit inside a military plane as they soar over the English Channel en route to the Normandy French coast for the Allied D-Day invasion of the German stronghold during World War II, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)

Ducks (amphibious trucks) and a half-track follow foot troops ashore during the World War II opening invasion of France on a 100-mile front along the Normandy coast by Allied forces on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, left, reviews American troops at a base in England on the eve of D-Day, June 1944, during World War II. The initials AAAO on the steel helmets with a line across the As stands for "Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow, Bar Nothing." The identification shoulder patches of the G.I.s are blotted out by the censor. (AP Photo)

British Commandoes assemble at a coastal port in England, June 4, 1944, in readiness for sailing to France for the liberation of Europe. (AP Photo/British Official Photo)

In this photo provided by the British Navy, wounded British troops from the South Lancashire and Middlesex regiments are being helped ashore at Sword Beach, June 6, 1944, during the D-Day invasion of German occupied France during World War II. (AP Photo/British Navy)

After landing at the shore, these British troops wait for the signal to move forward, during the initial Allied landing operations in Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)

Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower gives the order of the day "Full victory - Nothing else" to paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division at the Royal Air Force base in Greenham Common, England, three hours before the men board their planes to participate in the first assault wave of the invasion of the continent of Europe, June 5, 1944. (AP Photo)

Under the cover of naval shell fire, American infantrymen wade ashore from their landing craft during the initial Normandy landing operations in France, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/Peter Carroll)

Sitting in the cover of their foxholes, American soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force secure a beachhead during initial landing operations at Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. In the background amphibious tanks and other equipment crowd the beach, while landing craft bring more troops and material ashore. (AP Photo/Weston Haynes)

U.S. Army medical personnel administer a plasma transfusion to a wounded comrade, who survived when his landing craft went down off the coast of Normandy, France, in the early days of the Allied landing operations in June 1944. (AP Photo)

A tribute to an unknown American soldier, who lost his life fighting in the landing operations of the Allied Forces, marks the sand of Normandy's shore, in June 1944. (AP Photo)

German prisoners of war, captured during the Allied Normandy invasion, are marched to the ships that bring them into captivity in England, in June 1944, at Bernieres-sur-mer, France. (AP Photo)

U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies' June 1944, D-Day invasion of occupied France. (AP Photo)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a U.S. Coast Guard landing barge, tightly packed with helmeted soldiers, approaches the shore at Normandy, France, during initial Allied landing operations, June 6, 1944. These barges ride back and forth across the English Channel, bringing wave after wave of reinforcement troops to the Allied beachheads. (AP Photo)

A barrage balloon cruises overhead as a heavily loaded Rhino-Ferry undergoes a test trip before it is used in the landing operations at the Normandy coast of France, in June 1944. (AP Photo)

U.S. troops prepare to embark a landing craft, which will take them out to a larger ship lying off the coast, June 5, 1944, at a port in England. These soldiers are due to take part in the D-Day landings. (AP Photo/Peter J. Carroll)

Ducks (amphibious trucks) and a half-track follow foot troops ashore during the invasion of Normandy on a 100-mile front along the French coast by allied forces on June 6, 1944. This was a turning point for the Allies in World War II, known as D-Day. (AP Photo)

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He saw the horrors of Dachau. Now, this WWII veteran warns against Holocaust denial - Opelika Auburn News

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