My name is Gerald Bregman.

I was drafted in June 1943 and was sent to Camp Shanks in New York State after which I was put on a coal burning train to Camp Stewart in Georgia.
By the time we arrived at Camp Stewart, we were all covered with black soot. We then marched to our barracks where a Lieutenant began making a speech. But it was so hot, some of the men started passing out. Our training was for Anti Aircraft fighting with day and night maneuvers and digging a hole to sleep in. The holes filled up with water since we were in the swamp lands. On Friday nights, the Jewish Soldiers would get dressed to go to Temple in Savannah. However, our sergeant didn’t know what a Jew was and told us we couldn’t go and to clean the barracks for inspection the next morning. We went anyway and ended up in a bar drinking and dancing.

The Army later decided that they didn’t need anymore Anti Aircraft men, so we were reassigned to train for infantry in Maryland. When our training was finished we were loaded on a troop ship and landed in Scotland and then a train to England. We traveled across the English Channel and landed at Normandy where we joined General Patton. I was assigned to the 7th Armored Division. We were loaded onto trucks and driven to Holland to help the British fight the Nazis, but the next thing we knew was that we were headed to Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge. My company was captured and we were transported by the Germans back to a railroad yard, which the American bombers came over and started bombing the railways. Everyone, the prisoners and Germans scattered to avoid the bombs. When the bombing stopped, the Germans loaded us on the railroad cars where we traveled for 5 days without food or water and were forced to use the boxcar as a latrine.

We arrived at a large Stalag full of prisoners and were given food and water and the use of a latrine. A German officer began to question each of us. I had thrown my Dog Tags away, since I was Jewish and feared what they might do to me. Twenty four of us prisoners were taken to a Rock Quarry for working. At the end of the day, they gave us each one cigarette. But I didn’t smoke and traded with another prisoner for potatoes. He was responsible for cleaning the potatoes for the Germans and would always steal some from the guard’s barracks. I couldn’t eat the potatoes all at once and would hide them under my mattress, which the other prisoners would steal from me.

The war was coming to an end, so the Germans took all 24 American prisoners to a rest camp across the way from an airport between the Russian and American Lines. But the British were strafing the airport and our small camp. I was almost shot by the British planes. We finally walked back to the American lines where they flew us back to a port in France and put us on a troop Ship, which only had room below for 500 troops. The rest had to sleep on the deck. When I finally got home in December 1945, my Mother didn’t recognize me because I had lost so much weight from the 195 lbs. that I weighed when captured. The VA sent 4 women therapists to take care of me for 3 months.

Today at age 90, my pension from the VA is 100% disability and with my social security and the help of a caregiver and my son, I live a nice life.
~ Gerald Bregman, WWII Veteran

We are honored that Gerald has shared his service and story with Comes A Soldier’s Whisper, where we are all connected.

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