Easy Company Medic Eugene Roe

Easy Company Medic Eugene Roe: The Mini Series: Episode Nine - "Why We Fight"

Written by John Orloff and directed by David Frankel
About the concentration camps...

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By Patric Miller (Pmiller) (207.189.147.136 - 207.189.147.136) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 02:06 pm:

I have read much about the liberation of the concentration camps, but until this episode, have never seen the impact their discovery had on the liberating troops portrayed so clearly.

As in the entire series, this episode and its honest portrayal of all involved, sets the bar for any video or movie that will come after it. From the horror and indignation of everyone from the Ivy League educated to those who got their literature from the comic and serial books of the era, "Why We Fight" crossed all boundaries to bring home the gut-wrenching reality of mans inhumanity to man.

This series has changed my perspective on life as an American citizen. It makes me feel not only thankful to those who fought and died for our freedom, but unworthy of earning that right in my own life.

Incredible script, direction and acting. My sincere thanks to all who served, and all who are telling their story

By T.G. (Turtlegirl) (152.163.207.54 - 152.163.207.54) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 05:29 pm:

I taped this episode because I thought that I might want to see it again and I'm sure I will. It was amazing, especially the one scene when they arrive at the camp, with the guys' reactions and the prisoners' reactions. That was just unbelievable.
I can't wait until next week's episode, and the documentary. Looks good.

By TSanders (Theo51) (66.68.180.15 - 66.68.180.15) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 08:11 pm:

Does anyone know if the guy in the sack with the girl was really one of the Easy Co. men, or just filler to lead into Spier's looting problem? I couldn't make out the name Spier's calls the man before entering the room.

By T.G. (Turtlegirl) (205.188.195.175 - 205.188.195.175) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 08:31 pm:

I think, but I'm not sure, I saw that guy later in the episode, so I guess he's one of the Easy Co. guys, but I'm not exactly sure.

By Katie (Katie) (141.155.7.218 - 141.155.7.218) on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 02:13 pm:

The guy in the sack is Janovec who was indeed a member of Easy Company. You see him later telling Nix and Vest that 300,000 German soldiers have surrendered and then reading the newspaper and telling Luz that "it seems the Germans are bad."

By Lana Luz Miller (Lana) (152.163.194.191 - 152.163.194.191) on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 04:18 pm:

I had no idea who that naked man was either until I picked up the book and looked for him. I was just glad that my father (Luz) wasn't the one who was caught in the sack! How embarrassing that would have been since I watched it with my mother! Anyway, poor Janovec is killed in an accident in Austria. One of many accidents that happened while they were there.

By Ashleigh (Ashleigh) (152.163.204.201 - 152.163.204.201) on Monday, November 26, 2001 - 05:20 pm:

Hey everyone!! This is one of my favorite episodes. It was definitely emotional when they found the concentration camps. It looked awful. The acting done in this episode was also superb. The reaction and emotion was so real. It is ashame how a human being could do that to another human being. But on a happier note the men of Easy Company were definitely brave and heroic. At least in my eyes they were. I like the song they were singing to, "We ain't gonna jump no more!". My dad knew some of the words but not all of them. If anyone has all of the words please email me at Brattygurl5588@aol.com. Have a nice day everyone!!

By emma scott (Hope_N_Glory) (195.92.168.171 - 195.92.168.171) on Monday, December 10, 2001 - 07:47 am:

/image ross mcall (liebgott)
Joe Liebgott (ross mcall0 When he discovers while translating for Maj Winters (damian lewis) that the people in the concentration camp are jewish.

By emma scott (Hope_N_Glory) (195.92.168.171 - 195.92.168.171) on Monday, December 10, 2001 - 07:55 am:

ok the post above this was meant 2 have a pic on it never mind ill get it up eventually

By emma scott (Hope_N_Glory) (195.92.168.165 - 195.92.168.165) on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 05:00 am:

\image joesph liebgott (ross mcall) in episode 9 when he is translating for maj winters and he learns that the people in the concentration camp are jewish

By robyn (Robyn) (64.231.9.172 - 64.231.9.172) on Saturday, December 22, 2001 - 02:15 pm:

Just wanted to add that I also really enjoyed Ross McCall as Joseph Leibgott. His character really evolved through the series. I hope Ross is also acknowledged for this role.

By Chris Langlois (Chrisdfw) (12.239.86.117) on Friday, April 26, 2002 - 08:24 pm:

Dachau

Crematorium ovens at Dachau concentration camp

By Chase Prescott (Chasey666) (205.188.200.23) on Thursday, May 02, 2002 - 07:53 pm:

<i>The guy in the sack is Janovec who was indeed a member of Easy Company. You see him later telling Nix and Vest that 300,000 German soldiers have surrendered and then reading the newspaper and telling Luz that "it seems the Germans are bad."</i>

are you sure it was Janovec? I've read that it was Luz but i'm not positive

By Amy K Clark (Akclark) (170.160.9.3) on Thursday, June 06, 2002 - 02:27 pm:

Has anyone noticed the inconsistency in dates for this episode? Don't get me wrong...one of my favorite, though most difficult to watch, episodes of the series. But did you notice in the beginning, when Luz, Webster, et al are joined by Nixon (who informs them that the men are playing Beethoven, not Mozart) they show the date as April 11, 1945? Then it backtracks to one month earlier, when they found the camp at Landsberg, and finally jumps back to the original scene of the guys listening to music. Nixon announces that Hitler's dead. But Hitler married his mistress and then killed himself on April 30, 1945. Did time pass during the episode (after April 11) that I missed? Or did they get it wrong? If that's the case, I would hope that it be corrected...a series as brilliantly done as this can't afford such a noticeable error.

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (62.251.0.22) on Friday, June 07, 2002 - 01:36 pm:

i agree with you and already noticed this mistake myself. is it something we don't get or is it REALLY an error? with such an accuracy seen in all the epi's, it is very strange they get something this fundamental wrong...?!
could hardly believe it myself when i saw it...

irene

By Amy K Clark (Akclark) (170.160.9.3) on Friday, June 07, 2002 - 01:45 pm:

Irene,
First off, thanks for responding! I thought I was going nuts. I've seen all the episodes at least 4 times, and when I watched 9 last, my jaw dropped when I actually looked at the date. I couldn't believe it!
It's been awhile since I've read the book, and I don't have a copy with me. Do you happen to remember when Easy set out for Thalem? They went to The Eagle's Nest right before V-E Day (which if I recall correctly is May 7, 1945). So we're essentially missing a few weeks in the miniseries.
Confusing...to say the least...
Amy

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (62.251.0.22) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 12:51 pm:

wow did you really see every epi 4 times? i only taped 8,9 and 10 (STUPID me) and i don't think we are gonna get a rerun before the release. which, by the way, i think is november 19 not november 5 but i could be wrong.
i've got a copy of the book right here and am looking it up.......
okay then it says on page 262 that easy saw its first concentrationcamp (Landsberg) on April 29. also it reached Berchtedgaden on May 4, i believe. VE-day indeed is May 7 1945, and you can see Nixon's pic in the book taken on the morning of May 8; DEFINATELY a HUGE hangover...;)
anyway, i can't find thalem anywhere in the book! in epi 9 we see a flashback to the concentrationcamp, and because you read in the book they first saw Landsberg on April 29, Nixon saying Hitler is dead could be right. they were in Thalem, sitting on the roof and watching the germans moving the clutter AFTER April 29.

i'm a little confused right now myself but i think it's not a mistake Nixon says Hitler is dead. he is. but the date at the beginning of the epi is just wrong. it says April 11 or 14 i forgot, but that can't be right since they only saw Landsberg at the 29th and it is a FLASHBACK. the date in the beginning of the epi should be May 2 or so, just before they went to Austria.

or did the makers of the series 'change' the date at which they encountered Landsberg?????!!
my guess is they've got the date wrong that begins the epi, where it says 'thalem, germany april 11' or something like it.

waaaaaaahhhhhhh i have no brain and am totally confused right now. i can't believe they've got it all wrong.....
i'll ask the people on the dreamworks talkbalk, they know everything

regards,
irene

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (62.251.0.22) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 01:00 pm:

okay then i opened a new thread about this subject
used some of your info hope you don't mind i think we'll get an answer here ;)

http://www.dreamworksfansite.com/talkback/forumdisplay.php?forumid=26

the thread is 'dates in epi 9?!'

hope this helps, regards
irene

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (131.174.244.2) on Monday, June 10, 2002 - 09:41 am:

ok here's the explaination
the writers of the series also make a comment

I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY GOT IT WRONG BUT THEY DID

http://www.dreamworksfansite.com/talkback/showthread.php?threadid=2324&pagenumber=3

hope this helps you out

irene

By Amy K Clark (Akclark) (170.160.9.3) on Monday, June 10, 2002 - 01:11 pm:

Irene,
My god, you rock! Thanks for all the information!
I can't believe they got it wrong. A series that PRIDES itself on its historical accuracy, and they get something like this wrong...I hope they'll fix it for when the series comes out on DVD.
I really feel for the writer, especially since he had it RIGHT in his script! Kinda makes him look bad, you know?
Yes, I've seen every episode at least 4 times. I have them all on tape, but am planning on purchasing the DVDs when they come out. I've gotten to the point where I can recite some of the lines! Sad, I know, but I'm hooked. When I become interested in something, I tend to jump in with both feet. That, and the beauty of watching the episodes over and over again is that you catch new details each time. I just watched 1 and 2 last night again, and hadn't realized how much Alton Moore (played by ???) shows up in the early and later episodes. Same with Tipper.
Anyway, thanks again for all that work. Here's hoping they change it!
Amy

By Amy K Clark (Akclark) (170.160.9.3) on Monday, June 10, 2002 - 03:13 pm:

A new book is out on Jewish soliders fighting in Hitler's army. It's a tough idea to digest, but fascinating when you think of it in terms of survival.
Here's an excerpt, highlighted on Dateline last night (6/9/02):

IN 1940, UNTEROFFIZIER Dieter Bergmann wrote to his Jewish grandmother, Elly Landsberg née Mockrauer:
Don�t you realize how much I�m with my whole being rooted in Germany. My life would be very sad without my homeland, without the wonderful German art, without the belief in Germany�s powerful past and the powerful future that awaits Germany. Do you think that I can tear that all out of my heart? . . . Don�t I also have an obligation to my parents, to my brother who showed his love to our Fatherland by dying a hero�s death on the [battlefield]?
Bergmann wrote this letter in defense of his grandmother attacking him for being a �Nazi.� He had passionately performed his military duty and felt loyal to Germany. His grandmother felt scared for his future and believed Bergmann was not living in reality. However, Bergmann hoped that his army service and behavior would prove his Germanness: �Someday, I want to be a German amongst Germans and no longer a second-class citizen only because my wonderful mother is Jewish.� The Mischlinge�s tragedy was that they could not accept that they were no longer 100 percent German. For Hitler, they were separate from the Volk. However, they believed that they were and would remain German regardless of what Hitler said or did. This conviction explains why most remained in Germany during the increasing severity of Nazi laws beginning in 1933, and then subsequent to the end of the war, in 1945. . .
Some tried to change their racial status by denying their Jewish relatives. . . . Field Marshal and State Secretary of Aviation Erhard Alfred Richard Oskar Milch�s �Aryanization� was the most famous case of a Mischling falsifying a father. In 1933, Frau Clara Milch went to her son-in-law, Fritz Heinrich Hermann, police president of Hagen and later SS general, and gave him an affidavit stating that her deceased uncle, Carl Braüer, rather than her Jewish husband, Anton Milch, had fathered her six children. After SA Colonel Theo Croneiss denounced Milch to Göring, Göring took Milch�s mother�s affidavit to Hitler. In 1935, Hitler accepted the mother�s testimony and instructed Göring to have Dr. Kurt Meyer, head of the Reich Office for Genealogy Research, complete the paperwork. On 7 August 1935, Göring wrote Meyer to change Milch�s father in his documents and issue him papers certifying his pure Aryan descent. After the war, according to one of Göring�s interrogators, John E. Dolibois, Göring was proud that he had helped �the half-Jew Milch� remain in �his Luftwaffe.� . . . . Milch became a powerful field marshal, who according to historian James Corum, �ran the Luftwaffe and was its most powerful figure per personnel and planning issues, production, and even strategy.� In addition, Milch had close contact with many of the Nazi elite, entertaining the likes of Himmler, Goebbels, Hess, and Blomberg at his home. Milch�s mother sacrificed her reputation as well as her husband�s to protect her children. Without her lie, Milch might have lost his career and, along with it, his ability to protect his youngest daughter, Helga, who had Down syndrome, from Hitler�s euthanasia program. Moreover, Milch�s mother�s affidavit allowed her daughter to remain married to her husband, an SS general. Milch�s mother�s actions typified how thousands of Aryan mothers attempted, some successfully, most unsuccessfully, to erase their children�s racial stigma.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This excerpt from �Hitler�s Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military� by Bryan Mark Rigg is used with permission. ©2002 by the University Press of Kansas.

If anyone beats me to reading it, or already has, let me know your thoughts!

Amy

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (131.174.244.2) on Tuesday, June 11, 2002 - 09:34 am:

hi amy

you're very welcome. i TOTALLY agree with you about the whole 'it just gets better every time'-bit of your story. the makers payed so much attention to getting every detail right (ok then apart from that ONE they missed), that every detail deserves to be noticed....haha!
and also when i read 'When I become interested in something, I tend to jump in with both feet'; that could be me saying that! i'm totally like that too
for example; i learned the song 'blood on the risers' by heart and even found a version of the song 'Oklahoma' GREAT i can sing it now with poor O'Keefe......haha.
i don't have a dvdplayer and since i'm an almost broke university student i'll have to save every penny to buy a player and then the dvd's when they come out....but i'm trying!

irene, Nijmegen

ps oh yeah about this jumping in it with both feet; i'm going to visit omaha beach this summer, am planning a trip to Bastogne in the holidays and i'd really like to bycicle (i know you don't do that much but here in Holland everyone bycicles everywhere......) Hell's Highway: i think i'm going to Eindhoven by train bringing my bike with me and then ride up north straight to Arnhem....GREAT IDEA HUH?

By Amy K Clark (Akclark) (170.160.9.3) on Tuesday, June 11, 2002 - 10:13 am:

Irene,
I'M SO JEALOUS. While past being a poor university student (graduated a few years ago), I'm not quite up enough on my finances to take a trip such as yours. That, and I'm also considerably farther away from Normandy than you are. Please, please, please be sure to post your pictures when you return.
I don't have a DVD player either, but am still planning on buying the set when it comes out, as I can always camp out at my parents' house or a friend's house to use their player. Lana Miller (George Luz's daughter) told me that there will be outtakes and possibly cut scenes on the DVDs, and I can't miss out on the opportunity to see those!
Amy

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (131.174.155.188) on Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 12:48 pm:

neither can i!
i'll post my pictures for you!

irene

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (131.174.155.188) on Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 01:53 pm:

by the way
i just found out that BoB is being broadcast on this Belgium tv station. unfortunately, i already missed the first 4 epi's and also it is in French....waaaahhhh and they synchronize (sp?) it too..... so it's all 'bonjour Luz' etc...
not funny but hey i'm going to tape it anyway and then i'll just put the sound off!
am delighted anyway and i can't wait untill Saturday and then i'll see Crossroads and Bastogne (2 epi's every saturday) for my second time!!!!!

i just thought i'd share my happiness with you...

irene, aka GI Joe ;)

By Amy K Clark (Akclark) (170.160.9.3) on Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 02:59 pm:

Do you want us to type out the lines in English? That way you can read along while you watch the episodes on mute? ;) Just kidding.

Consider yourself lucky that you get to see it again! Of course, I can watch it whenever I want, but I suppose I'm just rubbing that in....

Enjoy!

Amy

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (131.174.244.2) on Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 10:34 am:

yes you are

nevermind i've got the recaps which are great and i also have the book and of course i saw it all before. so it won't be much of a problem. i've had 4 years of french classes in highschool so i would be ashamed of myself if i cannot at least follow it a BIT.
the lines typed out in english would be great, though

thanks i will enjoy it!

irene

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (204.48.169.252) on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 01:30 am:

why4

Luz, last of the red hot lovers

why6

John Janovec [Tom Hardy] committing a serious violation of the non-fraternization rule; he doesn't seem overly concerned

why7

Capt. Speirs inquires as to the location of his ill-gotten booty [check out his complete lack of interest on interrupting inflagre delecto]

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (204.48.169.252) on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 01:37 am:

why10

Nix tells Winters his early morning jump was interrupted by his plane taking a hit; most of the men died; he has the lousy job of writing the families.

why11

Winters is no longer in a jovial mood

why15

Nix sharing news from home [again it was Lt. Foley doing the current events thing]

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (204.48.169.252) on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 01:50 am:

why24

Nix sings along with the men despite his misery [the men are singing, 'Blood on the Risers', thanx, HBO Messboards]

why25

�It seems the Germans are baaad!� I love the face Luz is making [along with everything else he does]

why26

Joe Liebgott [Ross McCall] is surprised to hear David Kenyon Webster [Eion Bailey] hasn't completed his education

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (204.48.169.252) on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 02:03 am:

why33

Perco, Christenson, Sgt. Denver 'Bull' Randleman [Michael Cudlitz], Joe Liesnewski [Simon Schatzberger] and Luz make a horrifying discovery

why34

Sgt. Don Malarkey [Scott Grimes] and Edward 'Babe' Heffron [Robin Laing] note the numbers tattooed on the arms of the victims

why39

Web is so angry and frustrated, he doesn't care to speak in German anymore

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (131.174.244.2) on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 06:03 am:

once again Jane; great work! i love the pictures!!!!! i also like that scene in epi 9 where Perco is sprinting back to the village to find Winters and tell him about what they've found.....

irene

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (204.48.169.252) on Wednesday, July 03, 2002 - 12:32 am:

Irene,
Yes, that was a good one. Even though we already know what Perco has to report to Maj. Winter's, its still shocking and disgusting.

Gimme some time, I'll try to see if I can do a screen cap of that scene. I like it because it mentions Lt. Jack E. Foley's name, one of my faves. He wasn't represented enough in BOB, despite his having alot of input in the book. Check out what has been put up about him on,

Main Page>Easy Company>Jack E Foley

Thanks for the words of appreciation, Irene! I'm not done yet.

Jane

By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (202.57.38.253) on Thursday, July 04, 2002 - 09:03 am:

oh wow! I love those pics. i've been saving some pics i have seen in the net and those sure would add to my collection. Thanks Jane. ;)

Gold

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (204.48.169.252) on Thursday, July 04, 2002 - 11:46 am:

Gold?
From PH? I'm the moderator at Easycompanygroup.

For more pics go to,

http://photos.yahoo.com/jlindholm2000

I am severely behind in redoing these, some dont have captions. Some are still grainly. But nonetheless Enjoy!

Jane

By alan james o'reilly (Alanor) (62.254.64.5) on Saturday, July 27, 2002 - 01:18 pm:

From today's statements and going through the messages above, I felt I should put down some impressions that have been going round in my head since the series last year. Please bear with me. This site is often quite theraputic.

"Why We Fight"

The patrol - see above - starts off in a relaxed mood, for the vets's anyhow. O'Keefe is apprehensive, prompting Randleman to ask "Whad'ya so nervous about, O'Keefe? The folks could hear your heart pounding back in Arkansas". Perconte is saying to Luz "Hey, George, don't this remind ya a' Bastogne?" "Well," says Luz, "there's no snow, we got warm food in our bellies and the trees ain't ****** explodin'...but apart from that, yeah, I guess it does remind me a' Bastogne - Bull, smack 'im for me will ya?"

Typical GI banter, I guess...

Then they come to the clearing and behold the sight that extinguishes all the banter. It leaves the veterans speechless. It leaves the new man O'Keefe numb with shock. It sends Perconte haring back as if the devil was after him, to find the Major. When he does, he exclaims "Sir, we found somethin'!" Puzzled, Winters asks "What did you find, Frank?" Perconte, who has seen most of the horrors that war can throw up, is stuck for words. "I - I dunno, Sir..." he replies.

On arrival at the camp, the officers locate one inmate who seems more coherent than the rest. Winters summons Liebgott to relay questions and interpret. "What's this place for, Joe?" the Major asks. Liebgott struggles with the answer. "Unwanted?, outcasts?" he suggests. The Major asks "Are they criminals?" The inmate vehemently responds in the negative. "Nein! Nein!" he insists and adds words that Liebgott relays as "teachers, shop keepers, office workers, musicians...Juden, Juden.." Liebgott is struck personally by the last term - it sets up the grim sequel in Ep. 10, that affected Skinny Sisk for years afterwards (see his letter to Winters in the book).

The troops undertake to get food and provisions to the inmates and Colonel Sink arrives with the senior medical officer of the division, who has distressing news. The inmates will have to be kept confined until the army can get its medical teams in and assess their condition. In the meantime, they cannot be fed ordinary food. "It's a cryin' ass shame, Dick," Sink declares to Winters "but we gotta do it!" Winters relays the order to Liebgott, who is aghast. "Sir, we can't do that!" he protests. "We've got to, Joe," Winters replies sadly, "it's Colonel Sink's order".

Liebgott, good soldier, climbs onto the back of a lorry and shouts "Achtung! Achtung!" He delivers the message as best he can but the situation is impossible. Liebgott does what any decent young man would do in the circumstances. He slumps down onto the tray, lowers his head and bursts into tears.

That scene seemed to encapsulate the real difference between the soldiers from the western world and the regime that they fought against.

But this was not all. Later on, Winters soberly informs Nixon that "they're finding camps like this all over Germany..."

Camps, what camps? Camps for those who didn't "fit" into the TWO (Then World Order - Nazism had global aspirations).

Now we have the NWO (New World Order).

I begin to experience something of O'Keefe's nervousness...

Regards
Alan O'R

By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.170.2.67) on Saturday, July 27, 2002 - 11:43 pm:

Bull said "Why are you so jumpy, O'keefe?"
O: "i'm not jumpy sir"
B:"we can hear your heart pounding...."
then Christenson said " Jesus Christ, give the kid a break Bull"
I think Luz said: "Yeah, it's a lot like Bastogne" and "Bull, smack him for me please?"
Sorry, just couldn't help remembering the lines, alan

Gold

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (62.251.0.23) on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 02:16 am:

i'm still puzzled why winters couldn't let webster tell the prisoners that they had to get back in the camp. i mean why put poor Lieb through that if webster speaks german too? ok maybe his german was less good but if i was winters i would have tried anything to avoid Lieb from telling those people the horrible news...

but i guess this didn't really happen back then, did it? in that case i think the writers of the series should have thought of it. but ok, then we wouldn't all see ross mccall's great performance...

irene

By alan james o'reilly (Alanor) (62.254.64.5) on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 08:41 am:

Hi all

Thanks for your comments - a while since I saw the series and thus could only recall main thrust of the conversation.

Good point Irene. One could argue that Winters summoned Liebgott intially without knowledge that the inmates were Jewish. I don't recall where Webster was positioned following Sink's order to Winters, and I think Liebgott was still at Winters' elbow, so to speak. Also, Winters may have reasoned that Lieb had won the confidence of the inmates because he was the first to speak to them directly. A new interpreter may have aroused suspicion.

The discovery of the camp(s) gets very little space in the book and the scene in Ep. 9 is not described so I guess at the end of the day, it is the case that good drama is not always good history. Ross McCall's performance is no less effective for that, as is the drama of the entire scene.

P.S. Vol. 5 of Purnell's History of the Second World War, p 2158, shows that Czech citizen Rudolf Vrba escaped from Auschwitz in April 1944 and published a detailed report about the camps. Some articles, based on this, appeared in The Times and other British newspapers but no other serious action was taken. Vbra states "The transportations could have been stopped by pin-point bombing of the railways, gas-chambers, and crematoria by the Russians (who were nearest), the British or the Americans after the revelation of the facts. But they were not." Thus, allied soldiers were largely unprepared for the tragedy they encountered at Belsen, Sandbostel, Buchloe and elsewhere (BoB p 262-263) - but the book does leave us with this:

"The impact of seeing those people behind that fence left me saying, only to myself, 'Now I know why I am here!'" Major Richard Winters

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (204.48.169.252) on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 01:26 pm:

Alan and others,
If you jump to Jack E. Foley's section, you can read an account by someone from 506th. Easy Company was not the first American unit to find the concentration camps.}

http://www.tircuit.com/bandofbrothers/messages/135/849.html?1025477063

Jane

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (62.251.0.23) on Saturday, August 03, 2002 - 04:49 am:

'One could argue that Winters summoned Liebgott intially without knowledge that the inmates were Jewish'
posted by alan

very true and a very reasonable explaination, thanks i didn't think of that!

irene

By Jos Vonk (Raptorrat) (80.126.1.14) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 12:24 pm:

Hi,

One of the things I noticed was that no one told Liebgott why the inmates should go back in to the camp. I think that would have made a difference for him at least.

I'm not sure if easy was the first to see an concentration camp, But I do think that those kind of things were considered not important to tell the mere soldier in the field. so they would think that they were the first.

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (66.214.69.217) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 01:38 pm:

Jos,
I'm going to have to review this scene...but I do believe you are right!
Sounds like you do not own the book [yet]. The 'Easy Co. discovers 'Buchenwald' [sp]' part of the series is made up...the book only mentions the concentration camps.
Jack Foley says in his essay on the c. camps [look for this on Jack's page] that Easy was not the first group of GI's at an extermination camp...this portion of the mini series, I know he was not please with as it strays the most from the real day-to-day activities of Company E.
I've asked him to post here himself, as many fans have speculated on whether Joe Liebgott knew about the camps before Company E actually visited one [yes, he did], etc. Jack, is online, but he basically is not comfortable in the limelight.

I have mentioned to him his word would settle all the speculation, but alas, I have yet to see him post anywhere on the net. He's a shy fellow and very sweet...but do look for him at the Emmys and the HBO Emmy's post party...i'm going to
Jane

jef atcurraheehispeed

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.98) on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 02:57 pm:

Foley' s thoughts are mentioned about the camp but were any other members of Easy asked about their feelings regarding the portrayal of the camp?

In regards to the mini-series, if one checks the book there are many instances of changes, sometimes just for the sake of change. We know Webster manned a machine gun covering the patrol in ep.8 and was not on the patrol.
All in all, I can' t believe that either the cast as an ensemble or individual members were not nominated for emmys amd especially Kamin' s music.
Gary

By Jane Lindholm (Jlindholm) (204.48.169.252) on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 07:37 pm:

<<All in all, I can' t believe that either the cast as an ensemble or individual members were not nominated for emmys amd especially Kamin' s music.
Gary >>

If you jump to the following page, you will see Chris� [chrisdfw] answer to this. [The post is dated July 30]. Apparently, it was up to each of the actors to nominate themselves for an award.

Easy Medic Eugene Roe: The Mini Series: 2002 Emmy's

What I wonder is, �Did the BOB actors know about this?� I�m sure David Schwimmer does as he has been nominated in the past. Most of the actors for the series are newcomers and what�s more this was an American production with a largely British cast who are not members of the �Screen Actors� Guild� [American actors� union]. Would Damian Lewis or Dexter Fletcher [a well known performer in UK] know how the Emmys work?
Yes, this is a shame.
Jane

By Michael Wisotzkey (Afireinside) (24.171.105.61) on Friday, September 20, 2002 - 05:57 pm:

In Episode Nine - "Why We Fight", do you know the song the violinist are
playing?

They say it was Mozart but then Nixon comes out and says "Beethoven, thats
not Mozart...thats Beethoven."

Thanx,
Michael
iburninside@hotmail.com

Please send me your answers =)

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.144) on Friday, September 20, 2002 - 10:16 pm:

Michael
Except for The Dreaded Question about when the DVD is coming out the question on the music is one of the most FAQ. It' s been answered ad nauseum on several different sites. Do yourself and the show a favor, buy the cd. It' s on there and you can play it to your heart' s content.
I' ve even seen it at Wal-Mart.
Gary

By irene vrinte (Gijoe) (62.251.0.24) on Saturday, September 21, 2002 - 03:50 am:

michael, i'm with gary! buy the CD NOW!

irene

By Iines (Iines) (195.197.127.8) on Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 02:27 pm:

I was so shocked when i saw those concentration camps in this episode. I didn't even know that there was anything like those. I just wonder, how anybody could do like this to others. What they were thinking!! I hope that camps weren't so horrible really. Some of those pictures of dead and starving people are so shocking that i usually just reel them over when i watch this episode. Luckily our heroes came to save them
That was really unthinking to put poor Liebgott to tell prisoners bad news

By Michael Wisotzkey (Afireinside) (24.171.108.16) on Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 10:06 pm:

Yeah. They were pretty rough. Nazi's were sick. Well most of them..half of them didnt have a chance. Once I read in a book about Hitler a German soldier got shot for saying this.

"Jesus was one man who died for thousands of men. With Hitler, thousands die for one man."

Good quote huh?

By Marc Brand (Marcfire) (194.138.137.11) on Monday, November 11, 2002 - 03:14 am:

Ines,

Unfortunatley the Camps were even more horrible than what was shown on BoB. Many of the prisoners never made it longer than a few hours in the Camps, because they were Gassed or Shot right away. This mostly happened to women and kids, anybody who could be usefull to the germans was kept alive a bit longer. There were lot's of awefull experiments with people too.

I'm from Holland and of the 140.000 jews who lived here in 1940, 36.000 made it through the war. In Poland it was even worse, 200.000 jews out of 3,3 million survived the massacre that the Germans started.

Let's just hope that this will never happen again, unfortunatley we all know the answer to this. It will happen again and it already has happend again recently. In Screbrenica 10.000 people were slaugthered in 1995 i believe.

Where will this world end?

Marc

By Iines (Iines) (195.197.127.169) on Monday, November 11, 2002 - 02:11 pm:

I can't ever understand why nazis did that Jewish were people like they. Or i dont know was that Hitler even a human. Where were his feelings?
Marc, do you know why they slaugtered those people in Screbrenica?

Iines

By Marc Brand (Marcfire) (194.138.137.11) on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 07:23 am:

Ines,

In the 90's the war in former Yugoslavia resulted in the massacre of thousands of muslims by the Bosnian Serbs. Screbrenica was supposed to be a safe haven for those people and they had to be protected by Dutch military. Unfortunately our soldiers were under equiped, under fed, not allowed to fire and they had no airsupport or support in anyway. In other words, they were helpless against the agressors over there. Around 5% of the Dutch soldiers who served there have committed suicide the past few years because they couldn't live with it anymore. Due to politics and all, they had to watch and were able to do nothing about it.

This is very sad, but it shows that the world has learned nothing and will probably learn nothing that will stop these horrible events in the future.

Marc

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.17) on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 08:51 am:

What seems strange is that with today' s instant
communication that leaders don' t know that sooner
or later there will be a reprisal. It seems that
nationalism, in some cases, and pan-religion are
rising. Although the Moslems are mad at the Jews,
they are still mad about the Crusades at which time the Christians were killing Moslems and Jews.
This is why some prople are turning away from religion,which talks about peace while its adherents commit atrocities in the name of the religion. Confusing and pitiful.
Gary

By bregje van den boom (Bregje) (62.194.184.79) on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 12:42 pm:

they didn't only kill jews in the camps but also people who didn't agree with hitler (germans aswell).
they did terrible things such as:sterelising young girls in a brutal way
experiment on twins
and they even made soap out of human fat
and much more...
disgusting isn't it?

By Marc Brand (Marcfire) (194.138.137.11) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 02:03 am:

Your right Bregje, (i like your name by the way)
the Germans killed lot's of other people too. From gay's, politicians, musicians, artists, gypsies, prisoners of war to civilians.

The experiments were awefull, they also tried to figure out how much food a prisoner would need to barely stay alive and still be able to do some work. Dr. Joseph Mengele was one of the sick bastard who initialized the experiments. He escaped to Argentina after the war. He was haunted by people like Simon Wiestenthal until he died of a hart atack.

By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.170.2.87) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 07:32 am:

Yes, i saw pictures (courtesy of some friends) of the children they were experimenting on and it was so disgusting. Poor children Those people who did that were really sick!

gold

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.109) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 09:36 am:

The Nazis were so fanatic about killing the people
in the camps that trains needed for the war effort
were tied up taking people to the camps.
In 1958, we were in Jerusalem on Mt. Zion. There
was a small museum there named the "Chamber of
Destruction." I remember seeing the soap, ashes
from a crematorium and lamp shades made from male
torsos. Women coming in to view this and the other
things there would be crying or screaming. I imagined that some of them had survived the camps and those things brought back memories-bad ones.
It did not have the same effect on me. I was young and had not gone through the war in Europe
Except for the lamp shades, the items in an of themselves were innocuous. A bar of soap is a bar of soap. We who did not live through this cannot really believe what beasts the Nazis were, just as watching episode 7 doesn' t give us the full horror of having lived through that. Nor does going to Auschwitz today give one but an iota of what happened there-there' s nobody home.
Gary

By bregje van den boom (Bregje) (62.194.184.79) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 12:17 pm:

Hey irene , it's nice to have another person from nijmegen on this site

By alan james o'reilly (Alanor) (62.254.64.5) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 03:25 pm:

For an in depth perspective on persecution of 'gays' by the Nazi regime, I suggest "The Pink Swastika" by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams, 4th edit., 2002, ISBN 0964760975. Visit www.abidingtruth.com.

The book documents how Hitler appointed homosexuals to key positions in his government. Hitler had murdered the homosexual Ernst Röhm, commander of the SA or �Storm Section� in 1934 but that was because he feared the latter�s power. He also removed Fritsch, Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1938, on a fictitious charge of homosexuality for the same reason. A contemporary source described Hitler's Nazis as "a gang of homosexuals, thugs and drunks...not 10% were sexually normal".

Once again, one is minded to be grateful for the deliverance to which Easy Company contributed so much.

Regards
Alan O'R

P.S. The highly respected General Colin Powell resigned from the Joint Chiefs of Staff over the issue that the then President Clinton was promoting at the time. As an old soldier, the General understood the real implications of this issue.

By Steven F (Ziggy89) (24.184.77.96) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 06:51 pm:

I went to the holocaust museum in Washington and they have special "privacy" wall over some disturbing items. Some people walk right past but i was drawn and saw a lampshade of human skin. the camps were harrendeous. they are far worst than show in BoB. ill try to post some pictures i have that arent that distrubing.

By Steven F (Ziggy89) (24.184.77.96) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 06:59 pm:

I cannot figure out how to post pics.
Any body wants pics email me at Brisbane_2000@yahoo.com

By Derek D. Tircuit (Dtircuit) (68.11.131.123) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 08:14 pm:

Steven, type this:

"\image{Text description}"

Without the quotes. Then, when you post your message, the site will ask you to "Browse" for your file. Click the browse button, and navigate to your pictures. Trust me, it'll work.

I hope you figure it out, I'd love to see more pics from everyone.

If all else fails, email the pics to me and I'll post them for you.

Adios,
Derek

By Steven F (Ziggy89) (24.184.77.96) on Thursday, November 14, 2002 - 03:33 pm:

Thanks il, post the pics soon

By Michael Wisotzkey (Afireinside) (24.171.107.160) on Thursday, November 14, 2002 - 05:18 pm:

Hurry!

By Michael Wisotzkey (Afireinside) (24.171.107.160) on Thursday, November 14, 2002 - 05:21 pm:

Post the disturbing ones too...
I want to see how bad your talking *wink

By Steven F (Ziggy89) (24.184.77.96) on Friday, November 15, 2002 - 09:07 pm:

Here are some pics
i dont want to post alot so il, put some on now and a little later
/image{Air pressure experiment}
/image{all bones}
/image{all dead }
i have a never bad one that u must email me for. i cant let people who dont want to see this be forced to.

By Steven F (Ziggy89) (24.184.77.96) on Friday, November 15, 2002 - 09:11 pm:

Here are some pics
i dont want to post alot so il, put some on now and a little later
1,Air pressure experiment
2,all bones
3,all dead
i have a never bad one that u must email me for. i cant let people who dont want to see this be forced to.

By homefront41 (Homefront41) (198.81.26.142) on Friday, November 15, 2002 - 09:51 pm:

Michael and Ziggy: Why don't you just e-mail each other. Ziggy, you're having trouble with publishing photos and no one else is clammoring for your photos. Just sent them to him:

iburninside@hotmail.com

By steve lundy (Breechblock) (216.209.116.141) on Saturday, November 16, 2002 - 06:17 pm:

Hi everyone,
Did everyone notice this? As Bull and Luz and the rest of the soldiers were patroling in the woods there were birds singing in the air and as they got closer to the camp there weren't any birds.
I remember also that I visited whats left of some of the camps when I was posted in Germany with the Canadian army and even to this day birds do not fly over those places. Kind of gave us a creepy feeling.
One thing though, I know and realise what happened to those people is unforgiveable, but after the war Germany had to pay out millions and millions of dollars to Isreal for what they did and also some of the companys who had slave labor and used Jewish prisoners as a work force also had to pay a bundle over the years. That is good and as far as I'm concerned the Germans should never be allowed to forget what happened. But, and I mean no disrespect to the Jewish people, with all the millions of dollars given to Isreal after the war even though the Jews killed weren't from Isreal at the time, they wouldn't have been saved if it were not for all the allied countries and soldiers who VOLUNTEERED to stop this insane a**hole Adolph. Wouldn't it be a nice gesture of "thankyou for saving our lives and families" and give some of that money to the veterans who need medical care and help the hospitals also who look after them. Because if it was not for our soldiers and the soldiers of other allied countries and if nobody was able to stop hitler, there probably would'nt be anyone left.
All in all I'm glad he was stopped. It's to bad he wasn't stopped sooner.
Hope everyone is well,
Steve

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.140) on Saturday, November 16, 2002 - 07:11 pm:

Steve
As in most things it isn' t as simple as that.
In the early days of the Reich, Hitler offered to make deals that would have saved Jews. No one wanted them. The US turned away the "St. Louis" with about 900 refugees and no one else would take them. The ship returned to Europe and most of the passengers died in the camps. Allied planes were bombing targets near some camps.The location and layout of the camps was known but the pilots were never allowed to bomb the camps(the gas chambers and the crematoria) which could have saved lives.
The British, bowing to Arab pressure, issued a White Paper limiting the number of Jews who could come into Palestine.
Many escapes and savings of Jews were done illegally. Many of the camps were liberated after the Nazis had fled as was the case at Landsberg. In other instances, the fleeing Nazis took the weakened Jews with them on death marches or open roof box cars.
Also, the Soviets massacred many Jews, one of the better known was at Baba Yar.
To handle any distribution here would have been a logistical nightmare. Which companies and which soldiers, etc. and how-through a fund or individually?
The situations with the Third Reich and WWII were varied, numerous and complicated. There was blood on many hands.
The Danish people smuggled the majority of their Jews to neutral Sweden.
There is so much to learn from what exists and everything is not known.
Take care.
Gary

By steve lundy (Breechblock) (216.209.141.33) on Saturday, November 16, 2002 - 10:26 pm:

Gary,
Thanks for responding. Yes I know that there were ships that had jews on board that were fleeing Germany and many countries did not want them and turned them away. Alot of the people were accepted by France but that was before the Germans had invaded, and when they finally did we all know what happened. As for Russia, during and after the war jews were being slaughtered as well. There were as well trains which had POW's in box cars which were straffed by allied planes and in some cases these trains were marked with the international sign of the Red Cross. Mistakes were made and accidental bombings were commonplace. Thirty five percent of allied tank cassualities were made by poor armoured vehicle recognition, and the list goes on and on!!
My only point was that if the allied forces had not stopped the buggers, probably none of them would have been left, and most likely all the evidence would have been gone. With all the money that they have recieved afterwards it would have been nice if they shared it with the veterans who needed it as well.
Have a great day.
Steve.

By Ziggy Garton (Unclezigzag2) (195.93.32.7) on Monday, November 18, 2002 - 07:11 pm:

He's called Steven, and stick to that - I don't want him confused with me

By steve lundy (Breechblock) (216.209.164.184) on Tuesday, November 19, 2002 - 02:32 pm:

Hi everyone,
Hey, I'm not trying to pee in anyones coffee, just my opinion thats all, right or wrong.
Steve.

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.116) on Tuesday, November 19, 2002 - 03:42 pm:

Who is supposed to be Steven? I read the names above and go by that. Lundy uses "Steve" above and below. If there is a problem, e-mail each other and fight it out in private as adults. Oh, yes. You might as well include Etienne who was Steve long before you two.
The soldiers who found the camps were being paid to fight a war in Europe with an enemy that threatened our country. The government here knew they would find the camps and would have to handle it before the authorities took over.
"It would have been nice" if our country had had the decency to pay them better and have better benefits for their survivors, especially since they knew to what they were they were exposing these young soldiers.
The victims of the Nazis were not going to be paid enough to cleanse the memory of what they went through to lead a normal life. A non-Jewish lady worked for us who had been taken at age 12 to Germany as slave labor and eventually ended up in Dachau. She out worked others here because even though she wasn' t really well off this was better than over there. She would talk very little about what happened but said that she too after all these years would wake up from the nightmares still remembered which had been caused by the Germans.
Gary Stephan Weiner

By steve lundy (Breechblock) (216.209.164.97) on Tuesday, November 19, 2002 - 09:30 pm:

Gary,
Like I said, it is just an opinion, nothing more and nothing less. Oh, and by the way most Canadians are origionally from other countries who imigrated from parts of europe and elseware.
I myself was born here, but my ancestry hails from around the world. My fathers father (my grandfather) came from Ireland, and my dads mothers family came from Germany in the late 1800's. They were German Jews. When the first world war broke out they weren't considered jewish but German and that made life pretty hard, so they moved away and resettled some place where nobody knew them. Over the years they just forgot about their heritage and just blended in.
My mothers family is French Canadian and Iriquois Indian. God what a bloody mix, but thats life. And after all that, well, lets just say, it's great to be different, in my opinion.
Hope everyones well.
Mister opinionated,
Steve Lundy
P.S. Not to be confused with Steven or Stephen!!

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.116) on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 - 02:39 pm:

Derek
I got the dvd set through Amazon.ca using Canadareward for $57.41 delivered. Thanks for your help.
Gary

By Ziggy Garton (Unclezigzag2) (205.188.209.69) on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 - 06:47 pm:

To Steve L: thanks for your message, but you must imagine my amazement. No, you haven't upset me, old bean, far from it. I don't know what can have given you such an idea. I enjoy your posts on here, mate, they're very good. Whereas the two of us do not claim to be anything other than enthusiastic, as opposed to well-informed, I think that our posts do carry at least a general intelligence and lead to sensible discussion, which is more than can be said for the frivolous and downright embarrassing stuff some people contribute. Do you know what? I think some members are getting me confused with some geezer who wants to post images of the holocaust on the internet - not something I'd choose to do, I assure you; nor am I Jewish; nor easily upset. As far as I'm concerned, mate, I'll see you on those beaches in 2004 and me, you and whoever else turns up will give our own toast to the vets then - because we can appreciate why they fought - plus an extra round for Nix, as one doesn't do him justice. Keep it up. See you later.

By Ewa Molik (Layyla) (212.182.63.102) on Monday, December 30, 2002 - 03:42 pm:

I'm responding to posts early at this topic - that such things like concentration camps existed..i happen to live in a town in poland where the second- biggest concentration camp in eastern Europe have been located and still it remains here at least some of it, but NO, it;s not still in use.it's a museum right now and i need to tell you all that if you haven't seen something like this personally and in the real world and only seen it on tv- you still know nothing.yes, of course the series does a great job picturing the camp but it's not the same..somewhere up on this subject crematorium ovens are shown- "we" have, if i remember correctly, about 20 here in Oswiecim concentration camp.
i'm not sure if this is really interesting to you so i'll finish at this point of description.if you are interested,though,please let me know so i can put some more informatuion on this terrible but sadly true fact..
i'll share my other opinions on other ocassion
layla

By Michael Wisotzkey (Afireinside) (24.171.107.160) on Wednesday, January 08, 2003 - 10:49 pm:

Schindler's List is a movie to see if you want to understand how truely bad the Nazi genocide was. It was plain terrible. This movie is the best Holocaust movie to date I think. It was Steven Spielberg called it "the most satisfying experience of my career." You must watch it, its pretty long, 2 tapes with a VHS, but it is SO good and VERY sad. Dont watch if you dont like sad movies.

By Cesar Elias Sanjur III (Cesare) (200.46.128.91) on Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 12:07 pm:

Hello everyone from Panama....

Well, I have to say that when I watched the episode it brought me back memories of "Holocaust" (first time I saw a movie about the theme) and "Schindler's List" (first time I watched the theme treated with highly detailed realism). Althought it was a Arbeitslager the inmates' physical condition is the best depicted ever.

But when we watched the series on HBO and the DVD version (superb!) I pointed out that the episode is indeed a deep one. When Capt. Nixon corrects Luz's perception of the piece being played by the German quartet, he does it in a thoughtful mood, because he's still in trouble over the things he saw. And why not? Webster had the same problem. Remember the epoque, remember those times: Webster was a Harvad student and Nix a Yale man; both were men who attened the best colleges in the U.S. in an environment in which German culture, arts, technical and scientific achievements were revered and education bore a deep influence in those years. To those men it was a shock to discover that, as famous Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes said once, "the same men who listened to Beethoven and read Goethe were the same who devised the gas chambers". Remember Webster's angry tirade against the German POWs? It was a cri de coeur against the people which at the end became a huge deception to those who once admired them.

And I concur with others when they say that this episode portrayed the full shock of the discovery of the camps by the G.I.s... but there was a previous time: in the movie "The Big Red One", Lee Marvin's platoon enter a KZ in Austria in which they discover the ovens and a little inmate (a child who dies afterwards). One of the U.S. soldiers is so shocked that he forgets about his past behaviour (he's portrayed as a coward) and empties his Garand's magazine into a SS guard.

The only thing I would have liked to see in the episode was to have a scene portraying inmates from a non-Jewish religion, like Gypsies or others (like the Jehovah's Witnesses who were a hallmark of courage and valor in the KZs). There were famous non-Jew prisioners in the camps (one example is Turkish journalist Nerin E. Gün who was at KZ Dachau. He was imprisioned for a series of anti-Nazi articles and sent to a couple of detention camps in Austria before being sent to Dachau. After the war he wrote the first biography of Eva Braun). This is a theme seldom explored: the non-Jewish victims of the concentration camps.

Finally, I believe the Beethoven's piece played is the String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor (Opus 131), one of the so-called "Final Sonatas".

Bye,

Cesare

By Cesar Elias Sanjur III (Cesare) (200.46.128.91) on Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 12:09 pm:

By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.160.183.79) on Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 10:08 pm:

Welcome Cesare, nice input. Just a note, Nixon corrected Liebgott because it was Liebgott who said "All they need is a little mozart"

gold

By Ewa Molik (Layyla) (212.182.63.102) on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 03:01 pm:

Did anyone who read the book thought about this? it was wriiten that apart from discovering the camp they also guarded the camp for displaced people. i find it rather important or at least interestnig that they took some of those peolpe to... how to put it... serve them?? after all in the book there was quite much about it. i especially like the part from the book where luz akes taht polish kid for rides and gives him presents. i like maybe only because i'm Polish myself but i find it nice it read..
i really like this episode because it is so true - i still wonder how on earth they, meaning the makers of the series, did it? who were those skinny, almost dead peolpe at the camp? of course ther must have been plenty of dummies but there were living people!! it's breath taking, just awsome
and what i like the most id that scne with guys in the forest - for me it's the beginning to new life - without war, however later they discover the camp. it is the time where the worst finishes anyway...the war is over
layla

By Ewa Molik (Layyla) (212.182.63.102) on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 03:07 pm:

By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.160.183.79) on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 04:07 pm:

I just watched this ep last night (again) Ewa and it really is overwhelming. I can't believe how the Nazis had the guts to do those!

gold

By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.160.183.79) on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 04:12 pm:

I just watched this ep last night (again) Ewa and it really is overwhelming. I can't believe how the Nazis had the guts to do those!

gold

By Ewa Molik (Layyla) (212.182.63.102) on Wednesday, January 29, 2003 - 12:40 pm:

Yes i agree. but look at this from a different angle - if this series didn't show all the cruelty of nazis reign who would dare to do it? i think nobody. so because it is part of the world history and the history of easy - it's good to see just as it was. although it is horrible
ewa

By Norbert Winzek (Blaubaer1961) (80.131.203.12) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 05:44 am:

hello,

this was the most impressing episode of this series ... and it shows that behind the cruelty of the war there is even something worse ... It is hard to believe, if I look out the window, bright sunshine, saturday morning, people working in the garden, that this could happen here in this country just 60 years ago ...

Something which confused me in this episode was the time schedule, as Irene mentioned
above. The series starts with "11th of April, Talheim". I was excited, because I live in Heilbronn close to Talheim (it's the only Talheim in Germany written that way) and there were fightings around my hometown for eleven days which ended at the 13th of April. Later in the episode it's written "one month later, Stürzelberg". Actually one month later the war was over (8th of may). So there was definitely something wrong.

So I started surfing around the net to get the different dates and historical events in the right line.

Firstly at the homepage of the Easy Company: (http://www.easy502nd.com/history.htm) "In
April 1945, Easy went back into action around Düsseldorf, Germany, along the Rhine River, to help close the Ruhr pocket. In May, Easy was in the Kempten Area. May 8th the war in Europe came to an end, the summer of 1945 saw Easy Company doing occupation duty in Austria."

Since Stürzelberg is located close to Düsseldorf, this could be correct, but not one month later.

But something else confused me: one officer mentioned in the news session in Stürzelberg the
bridge of Remagen, which was captured by the US troops. But the bridge of Remagen was
captured by the 9th US army at the 7th of march already (www.bruecke-remagen.de). That was
actually the reason why Eisenhower had the idea of the ruhr pocket - in which the Easy was
involved. The ruhr pocket (http://www.historisches-centrum.de/ruhr/pocket/kessel0.htm) was closed at the 1st of April 1945 and splitted in two parts around the 12th of April. And president Roosevelt died at the 12th of April 1945 (mentioned in the episode). The fightings in the part around Düsseldorf ended at the 21st of April.

So to my conclusion this part of the episode could be called "11th April, Stürzelberg", location was alright, date wrong. And the sentence with the bridge of Remagen is wrong.

Now we follow the Easy to the bavarian area. As mentioned in the episode the Easy was located
close to Landsberg (one question at the end in the concentration camp: "where we are?").
Landsberg itsself was occupied by the US troops at the 27th/28th of April. Close to Landsberg
there were the concentration camps of Kaufering
(http://www.buergervereinigung-landsberg.org/english/history/history.shtml) which were shown in the series quite precisely. Due to the shape of the buildings they were unique. These camps belonged to the KZ Dachau.

Some other units who were involved in liberating death camps around Landsberg (f.ex. the 12th
armored division: http://www.acu.edu/academics/history/12ad/campsx/cover.htm):
- 10th ARMORED DIVISION
Liberated Landsberg (Dachau subcamp)
April 27, 1945
- 12th ARMORED DIVISION
Liberated Landsberg (Dachau subcamp)
April 27, 1945
- 14th ARMORED DIVISION
Liberated Dachau subcamps
May 2-3, 1945
- 20th ARMORED DIVISION
Liberated Dachau
April 29, 1945
- 99th INFANTRY DIVISION
Liberated Dachau subcamp
May 3-4, 1945
- 101st AIRBORNE DIVISION
Liberated Landsberg (Dachau subcamp)
April 28, 1945
- 103rd INFANTRY DIVISION
Liberated Landsberg (Dachau subcamp)
April 27, 1945
(http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/right.htm)

And there is a Thalheim (with h) close to Landsberg. Hitler died at the 30th of April(Finally!!). So put an h to Talheim and change the date to the end of April and everything will be correct. Besides that
my hometown was liberated by the 100th infantry division.

Norbert

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.179) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 09:51 am:

Norbert
Quite an impressive post. The problem with the dates was discussed earlier. I think it was on the HBO Message Boards but not as extensively as you have done.

Gary

By cias (Cias) (208.148.113.179) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 10:28 am:

Norbert

It' s actually near the beginning of this topic that the dates are discussed.

Gary

By Yip Keung (Yipkeung) (203.218.108.185) on Tuesday, March 18, 2003 - 09:34 am:

Norbert,

I'm not too sure about the dates, but the Easy Company depicted in the Band of Brothers miniseries is from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, not the 502nd PIR.

Keung

By Steven F (Ziggy89) (24.189.86.157) on Saturday, June 28, 2003 - 06:13 pm:

Does anyone know the lyrics to the song the soliders were singing in the trucks? Its like glory glory what a hell of a way to die. I dont know the rest of the song. Can someone help me out?

By John Nichols (Gordonfan24) (66.32.232.230) on Saturday, June 28, 2003 - 09:51 pm:

Ziggy,
The song they are singing is actually the "Battle Hymn of the Republic". They replaced the words "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!" with "Glory, Glory, What a Helluva way to die!" The whole song is on the link below. Enjoy.
John

http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/bathymn.html

By Steven F (Ziggy89) (24.189.86.157) on Sunday, June 29, 2003 - 05:14 pm:

Thanks

By Michael Robert (Mrm47) (12.80.105.85) on Sunday, June 29, 2003 - 07:37 pm:

Steven,

Actually the song they are singing is �Blood on the Risers�. The lyrics can be found under the topic �WWII and Easy Company History� at this web site (in case the below link doesn�t work). Hope this helps.

Michael

http://www.tircuit.com/bandofbrothers/messages/18/1383.html?1020188753

By Gareth Bennett-Ryan (Garethgazz) (62.254.0.36) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 06:15 am:

I have a question about Douglas Spain who portrayed Tony Garcia.
In replacements he talks with an american accent, no spanish. Then in this episode he suddenly has a spanish accent. hat's going on? Anyone know?

By �ukasz Ba�do (Everon) (195.116.255.21) on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 09:35 am:

Hi Guys. I'm rather new here , but im also big fan of BoB and i salute to all those brave man who fought in the name of honor, and peace.
Well i won't hide that the nine episode is very hard to watch for me and for all peoples that can understand the true meaning of death camps. This topic is very close too me because i'm from Poland and I know that part of WWII very well. In the nine episode after the Easy comp. discovered death camp, is scene where maj.Winters is telling to Capt.Nixon about bigger camp liberated by Russian army. I have to admin that wasn't one camp but two builded close to each other. first was called "O�wiêcim" ( it is the name of the village where it is situated -now it is a museum), and the second one is "Brzezinka". Or other name "Auschwitz-Birkenau". Well i've been there . Big camp where Nazi Soldiers where executing jewish, polish, gypsy peoples. The camp is very big. The first thing that is hard to explain is the sign on the gate that leads to the camp "Arbraht macht frei" (eng. Work makes you free). There is no words that can tell what i have saw there, but for one thing it was horrible. Rooms with special glass and behind it tons of humans hair, or prostesis . Place where nazi doctors were testing how long new-born babies can stay under the water, or how much pain they can stand befor they die. this is very sad. You can see the cells where prisoners were kept. The place where prisoners were cremated alive, or place where they were suffocated by gas called "Cyklon-B". Hundred of peoples died there, poets, musicians, lawers, jewelers .... and soo one. There was a polish writer who described that in one sentence "Cz³owiek , cz³owiekowi zgotowa³ taki los" (eng. "That fate was given to a man by another ma"). I pray for everone who died there, and i salute to peoples who died in the name of freedom. "war , war never changes", i hope it won't come back.

my e-mail:lukaszbando@fabrykawww.com in case you have some question. I would appriciate contact to Mr. Winters i'd like to talk about that with Him.

By �ukasz Ba�do (Everon) (195.116.255.21) on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 09:48 am:

more info you will find here:

http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/

By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.160.165.243) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 07:36 am:

Welcome to the boards Bañdo.

gold

By �ukasz Ba�do (Everon) (195.116.255.21) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 09:13 am:

thx but call me Everon or Bandit , whatever :D

By slagiltspadia (195.252.64.213) on Friday, December 11, 2009 - 02:41 am: