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U.S. Army Officer Who Rescued Jews During Holocaust Dies at 99
jspace news ^ | 7/22/2016 | Jewish News Service

Posted on 07/23/2016 10:56:02 PM PDT by Scutter

A U.S. officer who helped liberate 2,500 Jews during the Holocaust has died at the age of 99.

On April 7, 1945, Lt. Frank Winchester Towers, who was the division liaison officer of Regiment 743 of the 30th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during World War II, approached (with his regiment’s tanks) a stopped train in which there were 2,500 Jewish prisoners bound for the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The Nazis stopped the train because they were ordered to destroy it and drown the passengers in the Elbe river.

When the U.S. regiment approached, the passengers shouted, “We’re Jews!” Towers helped his regiment rescue the prisoners by mobilizing ambulances and other vehicles, and helped the freed prisoners get to an American-run field hospital.

“I feel pride and joy to know I had a small part in their release,” Towers told Yedioth Ahronoth in 2010. “They rose from the ashes like the phoenix.…It warms my heart,” said Towers, who also took part in the invasion of Normandy and helped liberate Jews from a labor camp near Magdeburg.

In 2011, Towers visited Israel, where he met 55 of the 700 children who were rescued from the train to Theresienstadt. Later, he was able to contact 226 survivors from that train. He has spent his later years speaking at Holocaust events throughout the U.S.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: holocaust; military; obituary; veteran; veteren; ww2
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Saw this announcement on a site behind a paywall. Took me awhile to find another site with the article. Not many of these men left.
1 posted on 07/23/2016 10:56:03 PM PDT by Scutter
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To: Scutter

Thanks for posting. Can’t recall ever hearing about him before. Hero, patriot. RIP


2 posted on 07/23/2016 11:03:25 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

Me neither. Never heard of him. Of course some people decided to maintain a low profile a long time ago. There are still some of these heroes among us.
I hope he left a diary in his estate. Maybe some ambitious director can produce a film and help us to relearn these important lessons.


3 posted on 07/23/2016 11:09:45 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Scutter

I know Winchester was his middle name
but maybe he was related to the other Winchester who made rifles.


4 posted on 07/23/2016 11:12:07 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Scutter

99, same age as my Dad would be if he hadn’t died in 1988. A WW II vet, he was a bombardier in a B-24 Liberator in the Pacific Theater.


5 posted on 07/23/2016 11:23:00 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: Scutter

The Nazis stopped the train because they were ordered to destroy it and drown the passengers in the Elbe river.


Evil

Meanwhile George Soros who admitted in a 60 minutes tv interview to turning in over 100 Jewish people to the nazi’s to be killed just so he could sell their belongings owns the democrat party. The reporter Steve Kroft just smugly smiled. Soros home is where Chelsea Clinton was married.

People who rescued others back then are stopped today by the Clintons and obama and the democrat party. See Benghazi and all the military commanders who were fired from their posts who tried to rescue those under fire.

Just as evil


6 posted on 07/23/2016 11:24:14 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: Scutter

This soldier should be remembered by all who read about him and his memory be honored in perpetuity for his service to humanity. He was a first hand witness to the German atrocities. He was a savior. He was a proud American.


7 posted on 07/23/2016 11:27:04 PM PDT by Seeing More Clearly Now
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To: Seeing More Clearly Now
As this memory fades and as countries like Iran hold Holocaust denial conferences, the US, under the Obama regime, has only empowered the new Nazis, the Ayatollahs of Iran.
8 posted on 07/23/2016 11:48:21 PM PDT by Netz
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To: Scutter

9 posted on 07/24/2016 12:21:00 AM PDT by InMemoriam (My hope is not in politics.)
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To: Netz

I agree with the poster who said that this man’s experiences should be made into a movie. The experiences of those who came upon the atrocities need to be remembered. Remembrance AND the will and intelligence to make “never again” a truth that inspires people to action in preventing a recurrence of events.

Yes, Obama works for the blood-lust-driven enemies of the West. Self-defined “progressives” were taken in by the propaganda machine that sped the enemy’s Trojan Horse, Barack Obama, into public view. Yes, his fawning and favors include the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, C.A.I.R., Iran, George Soros, William Ayers, etc.


10 posted on 07/24/2016 12:22:52 AM PDT by Seeing More Clearly Now
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To: Seeing More Clearly Now

Out of office...bum!


11 posted on 07/24/2016 1:06:01 AM PDT by Netz
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To: Scutter
Wow, what a remarkable and very moving story. Found another article about it here:

Soldiers, survivors converge in Louisville
12 posted on 07/24/2016 1:38:04 AM PDT by Enchante (Hillary's new campaign slogan: "Guilty as hell, free as a bird!! Laws are for peasants!")
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...BTTT...


13 posted on 07/24/2016 4:16:16 AM PDT by mcmuffin (Freedom's On The March - Wave Goodbye!)
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To: Mr. Mojo

In today’s insane world where the scumedia ABC’s GMA touts a gay basketball player who comes out of the closet as a hero, this my friends is a true hero who will be rewarded and then some


14 posted on 07/24/2016 4:42:10 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: InMemoriam

O my God....you can feel the joy on that woman’s face!


15 posted on 07/24/2016 5:44:50 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam. Buy ammo.")
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To: minnesota_bound

If Obama had been CIC then, he would’ve ordered the train burned. He brags about ‘being pretty good at killing people’. Huffington Post, November 3, 2013.


16 posted on 07/24/2016 6:00:13 AM PDT by Spok ("What're you going to believe-me or your own eyes?" -Marx (Groucho))
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To: Mr. Mojo
I knew an Army officer who led a force that liberated camps. He had actual negatives and prints of German photos taken at the camps. I was a young Navy photographer at the time. Seeing the "negs" firmly sealed the proof of the concentration camps. It's hard to Photoshop a 35mm negative film strip, especially using 1940s technology.
17 posted on 07/24/2016 6:04:10 AM PDT by Ace's Dad (Happiness is command of a battery of ballistic missile interceptors! DTOM)
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To: Scutter

Rest in peace, Lt. Towers. Condolences to his family...but they HAVE to know that he will have a great reward for what he did. I hope that will comfort them.


18 posted on 07/24/2016 6:10:40 AM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
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To: Mr. Mojo; lee martell; Inyo-Mono; minnesota_bound; Seeing More Clearly Now; Netz; InMemoriam; ...
I thought you all might find this interesting as well. II haven't finished reading it yet, but it appears to be an account of Captain Towers entire WW2 experience.

Frank Winchester Towers
120th Infantry Regiment
30th Infantry Division

19 posted on 07/24/2016 6:47:48 AM PDT by Scutter
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To: elcid1970

Yes, it’s a wonderful photo. BTW, if you like historical photos, there is this guy that posts several of them a day on Twitter. That’s all he posts, no politics or other stuff. Link:

https://twitter.com/HistoryInPix


20 posted on 07/24/2016 6:51:25 AM PDT by Scutter
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