PFC Hilbert Margol, U.S. Army, World War II, Dachau Liberation

Hilbert Margol was the first of twin boys born to his parents in February 1924. He was nearly finished with high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Soon, Margol and his brother, Howard, were in the Army, training on 105 mm howitzers with the 42nd Infantry Division. They saw their first combat in southern France in January 1945. After that, they fought into Germany, crossed the Rhine River, and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp near Munich.

In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Margol explains how his Jewish family was very concerned about the advancement of Nazi forces and ideas long before the U.S. was at war with Germany. He shares the concerns his family had for loved ones in Lithuania and how he learned decades later about the horrible fate they suffered.

He also tells us how his mother’s letter to President Roosevelt kept him and his brother in the same unit. He also describes his training on the howitzers and what his first combat experience was like.

Finally, Margol goes into great detail about how he and others discovered the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945, what he saw there, his tireless efforts to share the truth about the Holocaust, and how it deeply impacts him 80 years later.

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Veterans Chronicles