Native American Soldier Frees Holocaust Survivors
- The RiverWinds
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
*The following content may not be appropriate for children. We leave that to the parents' discretion.
On April 29, 1945, Oklahoma Cherokee 1st Lieutenant Jack Bushyhead (1919-1977) was the highest-ranking officer leading his company of the 45th Infantry Division. The 45th, also known as the Thunderbird Division, consisted of 14,500 troops, including over 1,500 Native Americans. Between 1943 and 1944, the Thunderbirds fought battles in North Africa, Italy, and France.
On that spring day in April, they were advancing on Dachau, Germany, towards a reported concentration camp. As they approached the camp, the U.S. soldiers discovered 39 railway cars containing over 2,000 skeletal remains. The air was filled with the smell of decaying bodies mixed with putrid excrement. The soldiers had varied reactions, including rage, disbelief, weeping, and vomiting at the sight of the dead. This experience was all before they even reached the camp.
Upon arrival into the camp, the division noted the war crimes heaped as high as the mountains of corpses piled up, lying as a silent witness to unchecked anti-semitism - the dehumanization of an entire race of people. Soldiers reported seeing rooms filled with naked bodies stacked from floor to ceiling as they were waiting to be thrown into the crematorium after having come through the gas chambers.
it is challenging to comprehend the thoughts and emotions that go through a soldier's mind when encountering such horrendous acts committed during a war. When presented with an opportunity for retribution against the perpetrator, it is likely to be seized. As indigenous people, we carry this trauma of ethnic cleansing in our DNA as well. Would that affect the decisions made by a soldier during war? It is very possible. Ultimately, it is up to the Creator to determine whether that person served as an instrument of justice.
The psychological impact of the horrors and atrocities native soldiers witnessed in the concentration camps necessitated an outlet for their emotional pain. It was an authentic experience for them, and there is an attempt to rewrite history by silencing their stories. Native Americans have the highest volunteer ratio for military service compared to others ethnicities in the United States. Even so, these warriors voices are not heard as much as they should be. The voices of our First Nations warriors and elders will be heard regarding the Holocaust. Make no mistake - it was a real historical event (contrary to what Holocaust-deniers would purport).
As native descendants of survivors of genocide, we are in a unique position to see and recognize genocide taking place when we see it. Our ancestors survived it... at least SOME of them. Far be it from us to gaslight another ethnicity's genocide experience.
Lieutenant Harold T. Moyer explained: “Every man in the outfit who saw those boxcars…felt and was justified in meting out death as a punishment to the Germans who were responsible.”
Lt. Jack Bushyhead felt the same way many of his men were feeling. He could have received the traditional native honors and accolades for capturing many enemies. Instead, he chose to wield immediate justice by personally ordering the execution of at least 60 Nazi SS troops.
One Army chaplain recalls that fateful day and describes how he felt: "We watched with less feeling than if a dog were being beaten.” David Max Eichorn, Army Chaplain.
Colonel Buechner described Lt. Bushyhead and what he thought may have caused him to make the decision to order the execution of so many German soldiers.
“He (Lt. Bushyhead) was a kind and gentle person but also a warrior, both by training and tradition. He hated injustice in any form, and when confronted with the cruelty and indignities that had been inflicted on defenseless people (the Jews), he cried out for vengeance, just as his tribal leaders had done before him. An inscrutable plan of his God and theirs was to place him in Dachau, a place of horror and death, on April 29, 1945.” Col. Buechner
When Colonel Buechner asked Lt. Bushyhead why he ordered the execution of the Nazi’s Lt. Bushyhead’s response was to look at him with a vacant stare and then said,
"Doc, have you been to the crematorium? Have you seen the gas chamber? Have you seen the box cars? Have you seen the little people?”
Judging and determining appropriate responses in these situations might be difficult. It is easy to express opinions from the safety and comfort of our homes. Moreover, the native soldiers were only a few generations removed from the Indian Policies that led to their families being forced onto reservations after being removed from their ancestral lands.
Before that, the native people were gathered and placed into concentration camps, which were very similar, if not identical in some respects, to what these soldiers witnessed when liberating the Jewish people from the genocide they were experiencing.
Col. Charles L. Decker, an acting deputy judge advocate, concluded in late 1945 that, while there had probably been a violation of international law, "in the light of the conditions which greeted the eyes of the first combat troops, it is not believed that justice or equity demand that the difficult and perhaps impossible task of fixing individual responsibility now be undertaken”.
It is estimated that somewhere at least 6 million (and possibly as many as 56 million) native people died in what is commonly referred to as the Native American Holocaust, bearing a striking resemblance to the 6 million plus Jews and many others who were systematically exterminated. In his atrocious book, Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler once claimed that he took inspiration from the United States' policies towards Native Americans, which included confiscating their weapons, confining them to reservations, and systematically reducing their population. Some of the camps built for Native Americans resembled the forced assimilation boarding schools.
“He admired the camps for Boer prisoners in South Africa and for the Indians in the Wild West and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America’s extermination — by starvation and uneven combat—of the red savages who could not be tamed by captivity.” Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography
As Indigenous people, we always strive to find positivity in challenging situations. When native soldiers returned home from serving in World War II, their firsthand accounts inspired many leaders and elders to make a culturally significant decision. This decision may have been influenced by their deep understanding of the struggles and suffering of the Jewish people, who had endured a genocide.
"Humanity is being given another chance not to make the same mistake of remaining quiet.. The voices of the witnesses will not be silenced. Will yours?" Chief Joseph "AmaHura" RiverWind
There is a unique bond between Native Americans and the Jewish people because of similar historical traumas. If we nurture and honor that bond and each other, we can continue to be heroes for one another during each other's greatest times of need. If you want to nurture that bond and are Native American or Jewish, please comment below and let's work together for a better world.
Sources:
Kershaw, Alex (2012). The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau. New York City: Crown. pp. 273, 274
"Dachau". 45thinfantrydivision.com. Archived from the original on February 17, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
Buechner, Howard (2007) Col. Howard A. Buechner's account of the execution of Waffen-SS soldiers at Dachau
Ware, Emma (2019) Colonization of the Americas killed 10% of the World Population
Toland, John (1976) Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography pg 202
Jewish Virtual Library: A Project of AICE, Dachau Liberation Reprisals
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