WWII Sergeant Alan Moskin Discusses Experiences During War & Liberating Mauthausen Concentration Camp

Last evening, I took my son to see World War II Sergeant Alan Moskin, one of the liberators of the  Mauthausen concentration camp, the last camp to be liberated by the Allies. Moskin was giving a talk at the Tice Community Center in Woodcliff Lake, NJ. The talk had been organized by Rabbi Yosef Orenstein of The Eternal Flame project.

Moskin began the evening by making clear that he was going to talk about his experiences frankly. So, I will follow his example and warn any readers that the following descriptions below are based on what Moskin experienced and discussed on this evening, and they are graphic. He fought in, and ultimately lived through the deadliest war in human history, at least to date. It was not pretty, and real war had nothing in common with popular depictions of it in the movies or especially in video games. In the war that Moskin experienced, there was constant, relentless suffering and fear and loss, and unforgettable horrors of seeing mangled and dead bodies. The words that follow were written by me, but again, they were based on what this World War II veteran with a lot of combat experience described, and again, it is neither glamorous nor pretty.

War was no game, he said, it is no joke. He remembered literally seeing body parts flying. He had the experience of having the arm of one of his buddies land on him once during the war, and he also saw the leg of another buddy of his flying through the air, then running to that buddy and seeing his intestines falling out. He placed his helmet under his neck, so that his buddy would not go into shock, which was a common thing during the war. He kept screaming for a medic, even though he knew that nobody could do anything by that point. Eventually, he was approached by a superior officer, who told him that he had to keep advancing, had to keep fighting, that he was not helping by staying behind and trying to calm a dying soldier in the middle of a battle. So, even though he wanted to stay, Moskin followed orders. 

There is a sense of guilt that he has sometimes, when he thinks about the friends that he lost. He said that 100 yards either to the left or to the right at certain points during the war, and he would not have been there, speaking to us. He lost a lot of his friends, and it is impossible not to think about that, and not to wonder why he had gotten so lucky. Why him? But, he carried on.

Moskin fought under General Patton, one of the most legendary personalities of World War II. He said that Patton was able to get the most out of the soldiers, to keep getting just a little bit more, and just a little bit more. That is saying something, when soldiers are facing death in the most horrific ways, day after day, both for themselves, and those they are fighting next to.

Yet, Patton was peculiar in some ways, as well. He believed in reincarnation, and believed that he had been Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as some other legends warriors of the past. That was something that I had never known before. Towards the end of the evening, during the Q and A session, Moskin was asked about rumors about whether or not Patton was anti-Semitic. He said that while he had heard those rumors over the years himself, he did not know for sure, one way or the other.

His nickname during the war was "College Boy," because he had attended Syracuse University prior to serving time in Europe. He would return to Syracuse after the war, as well. He received some basic training, and noticed some things during this time. All of the Southern kids knew full well hot to operate a gun, having regularly gone hunting since childhood. Northern kids, like him, were far less experienced, and sorely needed the training. He also said that at first, he got along with everyone. But when he posted a picture of his arms around some black friends, he started seeing an uglier side to the Southern soldiers, who made clear that they did not like blacks or Jews. He was called a "nigger lover," and was continually harassed. It made no sense to him, how he was about to be sent to fight against Nazis who assumed themselves superior, yet was going to be fighting alongside many Americans who also felt others to be inferior based on religion or pigmentation of the skin, or other frivolous surface issues. 

Even if this perplexed him, he went over to Europe, and fought. He killed a plenty of Nazis, he said, and fought in many battles. He did what he had to do, and knows that the Nazis that he killed would have done the same to him, if given the opportunity. What staggered him was the hatred that these Nazis inexplicably felt. At one point, he was approached by a Nazi prisoner of war, who went up to him and called him a "schwein," a pig. Moskin described how he lifted his gun and pointed it right at the temple of this Nazi officer, but was warned by superior officers that this guy was not worth it, that he would find himself facing a GCM, or general court martial. Eventually, he did put the gun down.

Germans were very good at war, and were fierce soldiers. But, he added, "We were a little better."

Indeed, there were terrible experiences throughout his time serving in the war. But by far, the worst experience had to be liberating the Mauthausen concentration camp. What he recalled the most, he said, was the smell as the army approached. It was an indescribable, but God-awful smell, and it grew stronger as they approached the camp. The smell was obviously even more intense inside of the camp, particularly in the barracks. He said that General Patton himself, when faced with the smell and the site of one of these camps, literally ran to the bathrooms and threw up, although he threatened anyone who told this story. Msokin said that he saw and smelled things there that he had never before imagined, and once seen, that he could never forget. 

For 50 years, he could not bring himself to talk about his experiences during the war, particularly of liberating Mauthausen concentration camp. It was too painful, and had given him nightmares, and so he did not speak to it of anyone, not even his parents, or his brother. But on the 50th anniversary, when he was approached by a persistent woman who wanted him to speak of his experiences, he finally relented, and found that talking about it actually helped quite a bit. He also realized the importance of doing so, of people getting firsthand accounts of what had happened from those who had actually been there to bear witness.

He mentioned that there was almost no resistance when the American forces arrived. Almost, but there was one blond SS officer who was standing on a tower and pointing his gun down at the American troops down below. He kept pointing his gun, even after being spoken to, and presumably understanding the hopelessness and futility of any resistance. Still, he kept pointing his gun down, and after receiving instructions to take him out, Moskin stated that he took him out with his sharpshooting abilities. Moskin summed it up:

"Last mistake he ever made."

He had killed a number of Nazis during the war, and although he said that he did not really regret that, he made clear that killing was not what he described his "cup of tea." He recalled killing one member of the Hitler Youth (Deutsches Jungvolk in der Hitler Jugend) who was about to kill his buddy, but had not seen Moskin. So, Moskin took him out before he could do it, and killed him. But he went over afterword and looked at the German, and saw that it was a kid. He could not have been older than 14 or 15. He searched his pockets, and found a black and white picture of the kid's parents, with a note of love on the back. It bothered Moskin, the idea that this kid would never be going home to his parents, that he had no future in this world. Yet, he did what he had to do, because this was war. 

As the American troops entered the camp, there was a pile of bodies on both sides of the entrance. Some of the people were alive, but he barely. He had never seen such suffering, and said that these bodies were literally skin and bones, with limbs that reminded him of legs of tables. Their eyes were set deep in their sockets. 

Moskin said that while we have since learned that the top brass among government officials (such as FDR and Churchill) knew about the camps, that regular soldiers like him had no idea about them. All of this was new to them, and none of them had ever experienced anything like this before, this magnitude of suffering.  

Many of these people asked for cigarettes. Not seeing any harm, the soldiers gave them cigarrettes. But these people opened the cigarettes and began eating the tobacco inside. He saw them do that with a dead horse, as well. Just tear the horse apart and eat some of the insides, with blood squirting out. That was what starvation did to people, he said. 

As bad as this sight was, it was worse when they got closer. He recalls one man who approached him with open arms once Moskin had mentioned that he was a Jew. The man fell to his feet and began groveling, kissing his boots, which were caked in mud and feces. This made Moskin uncomfortable, and so he lifted the man up. Then, he saw open sores and puss running down his back. This man, and many others, had lice that he could see crawling around, and the smell coming from them, which was  already unreal, was so much worse when close.

The barracks were even worse. There was a mixture of dead and live people, and once again, the smell was unbearable. Moskin kept calling for medics, even though there was little to nothing that the already overwhelmed medics could do. One of the saddest parts of the liberation of the camp, he said, was that many of these people had survived some of the worst horrors imaginable right up to the end of the war, only to die within the first hours of having been liberated.

Moskin felt that it was his duty now to tell this story, to recall his own accounts regarding what he saw during the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Many people seem intent on either denying that the Holocaust ever happened, or at least on minimizing how big it was. This, despite all of the evidence, including the testimony during the Nuremberg Trials, and other places, as well as the accounts and stories of survivors, as well as Allied troops who liberated the camps, like he did. Also, there is video footage, meticulous records kept by the Germans themselves and, of course, the existence of at least some of the concentration and death camps. Still, many remain skeptical, and this makes Moskin angry.

He emphasized that it was the responsibility of all of us to nip this kind of prejudiced and hatred in the bud, by confronting people when they said racist or bigoted things, or claimed to say them in jest, like it is just a joke. Too many kids have a false sense of what wars are all about, he said. They get an unrealistic impression based on movies and especially video games, where the objective is to shoot and kill as many enemy soldiers as possible, and where death and/or injuries are obviously not accurate, or meant to be taken seriously. But in real life, Moskin's experiences of actual battles and war were very gruesome. Body parts literally flying around, being able to identify that an arm that landed on him belonged to a friend because of a tattoo that he recognized, seeing some mates in unbelievable pain and suffering and trying to keep them from going into shock, being order to continue fighting when a good friend is lying in the mud somewhere in Germany during his last moments alive. All of these were some of what Moskin described what the reality of war was like. The other guys are trying to kill you and will not hesitate for a moment, so you have to find a way to kill them first. That is the reality, and it is not pretty or glamorous. Too many kids growing up on video games have lost that sense of what war is all about, and that it should be avoided at all costs.

Even worse, these days, the stakes are much higher. Back in World War II, guns were essential for each soldier to have. These days, he reminded the room, wars are decided by much deadlier weapons than guns. There are missiles and weapons of mass destruction that can do far more serious damage, and that is why war should be avoided to the extent possible. Moskin also took inspiration from former President Kennedy, and there was one famous quote from the former president that he felt was especially relevant:

"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind." 

Moskin felt that presidents of the past, and he mentioned Kennedy and Reagan by name as an example of this, held the highest office in the land with a certain stature and dignity that they brought to the office of the President, and which he felt added to it.  He said that this seems to be missing these days, and he misses that.

During the question and answer session, he himself had a question for the kids in attendance. He asked if they (particularly the boys) would be ready if a draft was reinstated. He himself was in favor of that, and said that we as a country had grown too reliant on the idea of the poor, mostly minorities,  joining the armed forces and fighting in the country's wars.

One kid stated that he was terrified of the idea of being drafted. When Moskin sounded surprised at the word "terrified," the kid explained that it was the idea of having his parents attend his funeral services if something happened that made him nervous.

Moskin also explained that he has reservations about women combat. He did not elaborate too much on that, only that he felt some measure of suspicion about that.

There was an 18-year old woman (he jokingly asked if she was ready to be drafted) who asked about what he felt about the situation in China, where she claimed there were camps similar to those of Nazi Germany. Moskin was not certain, and said that he was not aware that the situation had gotten quite that bad in China.

All in all, this was an informative night. I had brought my son to be a part of it, as the chances to see people who actually witnessed this chapter in history personally are growing fewer and father between. There was a Holocaust survivor in attendance, although she had apparently left early, and did not say anything publicly. But it was an eye-opening night, and a night to come to better understand that this ugly chapter in history actually happened. Hopefully, my son got an idea of the shock value that came with realization of the horrors of the Holocaust, and particularly of the Nazi concentration and death camps, by someone who helped to liberate one of them.