Profile In Courage

This story is confirmed in Elmer Bendiner's book, The Fall of Fortresses: A Personal Account of One of the Most Daring - and Deadly - Air Battles of the Second World War (Putnam, 1980: ISBN 0-399-12372-5), p. 30. [After the war, he became a journalist and writer.]

Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells  this story of a World War II bombing run over Kassel , Germany , and the unexpected result of a direct hit on their  gas tanks.

"Our  B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit. Later, as I  reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple.

"On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck. The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but 11 had been found in the gas tanks. 11 unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. A near-miracle, I thought. Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.

"He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer.

"Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless. Empty? Not all of them! One contained a
 carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read:  "This is all we can do for you now........."

"Using Jewish slave labor is never a good idea." 

The Shame and The Horror

The shame of the Holocaust and its consequences continue to reverberate, more than a half century later. The L.A. Times reports that the French state railroad company, SNCF, which wants to bid on a high speed rail contract in Florida, has finally conceded its complicity in the transportation and “deportation” of more than 70,000 French Jews to their doom.

Collaboration has always been a sore subject with the French people who have a hard time swallowing the truth of their behavior during the Nazi occupation after June, 1940.

But you don’t need to visit Paris to find shameful actions and inactions regarding Nazis. The New York Times exposes a US Justice Department report of American use of Nazi scientists after the war.

Fifty years after the events, the government continues to conceal embarrassing details about this episode. In response to the Cold War, some Nazis were given safe haven here, used by U.S. intelligence agencies including the C.I.A., to follow East German Nazis who were aiding the Soviets. One was Otto Von Bolschwing, an assistant to Adolf Eichman. He died peacefully in the U.S. in 1981 before the O.S.I. could deport him.

Another Nazi that the U.S. government valued was Arthur Rudolph, whose story has been well documented and dramatized in other sources. The scientist was credited by NASA and the military with work on the Saturn 5 rocket. He had a leading role during the war in managing the slave labor used to build and maintain the German V1 and V2 rocket program. More slave laborers, mostly Jews, died in the launching of the rockets than were killed in England by the explosions caused by the rockets.

"Operation Paperclip", the program to bring these scientists, including the famous Werner Von Braun, to the U.S. is well known. The recently disclosed documents show details of how the C.I.A. conducted the cover-up to conceal the extent of their complicity in war crimes.

Two Lives

Two men died recently. Their pictures depict similar looking men, both appear to be gentle elderly men. Both were born in Europe and left after surviving World War II. But the circumstances of their survival couldn't have been more different, the lives they subsequently led were opposites, and the vast differences in their lives are notable and deserving of memory.

Harry Drexler, the father of dear friends, passed away recently. His life was an admirable one, overcoming enormous obstacles to thrive in America. He should be remembered as a much loved and admired family man.

The death of a man named Paul Shaefer was reported today in the Los Angeles Times. His life was a despicable one, taking opportunities to victimize and damage human beings. He should be remembered, if at all, as a monster.

These are their obituaries as each appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

Harry B. Drexler, June 8th, 1919 - April 23, 2010of North Hollywood California, passed away Friday April 23, 2010.
Harry Drexler was born in Poland, on June 8th 1919. Harry miraculously survived the Holocaust while almost all of his family perished. Harry was the devoted husband of Rena Drexler for 63 years, the father of David Drexler and Nina Guttman, grandfather of Jonathan and Justin Drexler, Leora Lang and Elana Guttman, and great-grandfather of Shai and Gabriel Lang.

After the War, he met Rena, a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp, in Germany. They married and immigrated to the United States in 1951.

In 1957, Harry and Rena opened Drexler's Delicatessen, the first kosher deli in the San Fernando Valley. Drexler's Deli became a famous landmark in North Hollywood, with Harry and Rena serving as pillars in the growing Jewish Community.

Harry worked tirelessly, every day, except the Sabbath, as a butcher, providing for his family and serving the needs of his customers and community. With a strong work ethic, and unwavering family values, Harry successfully achieved the American Dream and built a strong foundation for his family. Harry always cherished his family and the traditions of the Jewish faith.

He was grateful for the freedom, liberty and opportunities in America. He deeply loved his Dodgers, Lakers and America.Harry will be fondly remembered as a man of few words, with a big heart. He was the rock-solid anchor of his family and community.

And this is the obituary of the other man:

Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi Luftwaffe medic who founded a secretive, commune-like colony of German immigrants in Chile, died of heart failure Saturday in a Chilean prison where he was serving time for child molestation and human rights abuses dating to the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. He was 89.

Schaefer immigrated to Chile from his native Germany in 1961 and started Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony, a strictly regimented enclave 210 miles south of Santiago that was home to several hundred Germans and Chileans.

According to witnesses' testimony in court documents, Schaefer allowed Pinochet's security forces to operate a clandestine prison on the grounds where they detained, tortured and executed dissidents during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship.

Colony members say he ruled them cruelly as well. Married couples were forced to live apart, and children were separated from parents. Residents were prevented from leaving. Those who angered Schaefer were subject to electric shocks, high doses of tranquilizers and long periods of isolation.

Many "became real slaves of Schaefer, like robots dedicated only to obey his orders and not displease him," members said in a newspaper ad they took out in 2006 acknowledging human rights abuses at the colony and asking for forgiveness. The colony is now called Villa Baviera.There were also dozens of allegations of child molestation, leading Schaefer to flee the country in 1997. He was arrested in neighboring Argentina in 2005 and extradited back to Chile the same year.

Schaefer was convicted in 2006 of sexually abusing 20 children who attended the colony's school and clinic. He was sentenced to 20 years, plus three additional years for an illegal weapons conviction.

In two separate cases in 2008, Schaefer received more prison time for the torture of seven colony residents and for the fatal poisoning of a renegade security agent during the dictatorship.

After his World War II service, Schaefer became an evangelical preacher. He fled Germany after being accused of molesting boys at the orphanage he ran.