Oral History Interview with Nino deProphetis
Nino deProphetis describes serving with the US Army in Europe from November 1944 to December 1945; being the commanding officer of the 81st Armored Medical Battalion, part of the 11th Armored Division of General Patton’s Third Army; leading a contingent of 30 men to Mauthausen concentration camp after the Nazis had left in April 1945; his entry into the camp and seeing the bodies of thousands of inmates; seeing two gas chambers; how his unit was only equipped to treat battle casualties and was quickly reinforced with troops that brought an abundance of food; the subsequent deaths of surviving prisoners by overfeeding; the terrible malnutrition and gastrointestinal disease of most prisoners; the immediate disposal of dead bodies into a trench; General Patton’s orders for local citizens to exhume the bodies of former inmates and rebury them in individual graves; supervising the evacuation of patients for the following two weeks until he was transferred to the Gmunden area, near Salzburg; being placed in charge, as Burgermeister, of Attersee; and remaining with the Army of Occupation for six months, in charge of all battalion vehicles until his return to the US.
Date: | 11/06/1987 |
Interviewer: | Philip G. Solomon |
Interviewee: | Nino deProphetis |
Language: | English |
Subject: | Concentration camp inmates--Medical care. Jews--Persecutions--Europe. Malnutrition. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Western Front. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. World War, 1939-1945--Medical care. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American. World War, 1939-1945--Veterans--United States. Men--Personal narratives. Geographic Name Gmunden (Austria) Upper Austria (Austria) Weissenbach am Attersee (Austria) |
Location: | USA Mauthausen concentration camp Attersee, Austria |
Permalink: | https://hoha.digitalcollections.gratz.edu/item/oral-history-interview-with-nino-deprophetis/ |
Audio Transcript | Time |
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0:50:44 |