Shared Experience

A Holocaust survivor and a concentration camp
liberator share their experience at Mauthausen.

JENNIFER FINER JEWISH NEWS INTERN

H

olocaust survivor
Sam Offen finally got
the opportunity to do
something he waited
almost 50 years to do
— personally thank
. one of the American
soldiers who liberat-
ed him from the
Mauthausen concentration
camp in Austria.
"For 48 years I've been wait-
ing to hug and shake hands
with someone like Donald
Montgomery," Mr. Offen told a
group of students visiting the
Holocaust Memorial Center in
West Bloomfield on Oct. 5.
After meeting privately, they
agreed to share their experi-
ences publicly at the HMC.
Mr. Montgomery served with
the 575th Battalion of the U.S.
Army's 11th Armored Division.
A unit of this division freed
Mauthausen.

cate Mr. Montgomery this
month through a book com-
memorating the 50th anniver-
sary of the division.
"I was looking through the
book when I came across the
name Donald Montgomery liv-
ing in Auburn Hills. Not only
was he from Michigan but he
lived so close," he said.
Mr. Offen called Mr. Mont-
gomery and learned he was a
member of the unit that liber-
ated Mauthausen on May 5,
1945. Mr. Offen will never for-
get the reaction he heard on the
other end of the phone when he
explained his reason for calling.
"He was floored after I told
him I was one of those almost-
corpses he liberated. The first
thing he said was, 'I'll be
darned.' I will never forget those
words, `I'll be darned.' "
Mr. Montgomery was
shocked to hear from a Holo-

Donald
Montgomery
and Sam Offen

of those walking skeletons in
the striped, dirty uniforms could
survive is beyond belief, espe-
cially since I saw so many more
dead than alive. I'm thankful
I could be one of
the group that
helped release
him."
The day after
their phone con-
versation, the
two men met
and spent hours
sharing their ex-
periences and
beginning what
both were as-
sured was the
start of a life-
long friendship.
During that
first meeting two weeks ago,
Mr. Offen and Mr. Montgomery
discussed some of their most
vivid memories from almost 50
years ago, when both men were
in their early 20s.
Mr. Offen's most vivid mem-

ory was of that day in 1945 that
he saw six U.S. tanks coming
over the hill toward Mau-
thausen.
Mr. Montgomery remem-
bered the piles
of bodies seen
by the U.S. sol-
diers as they
entered the
concentration
camp.
"Can you
imagine how
grateful I am
to Donald?"
Mr. Offen
asked the stu-
dents visiting
Sam Offen the HMC. "He
literally saved
my life. Had
the army come in just a few day
later, I would not be here to
share my experiences with you."

"For 48 years I've
been waiting to
hug and shake
hands with
someone like
Donald
Montgomery."

Rupa Sehgal listens to the story.

In Mr. Offen's attempt to find
one of his liberators, he was able
to contact a captain from the
unit living in New Jersey. Al-
though the captain was not one
of the liberators, this contact
eventually helped Mr. Offen lo-

caust survivor so many years
later. He said the telephone call
gave him the first real oppor-
tunity to talk to someone who
had lived through some of the
atrocities of the war.
"It was a blessing for me to

meet him and talk about our ex-
periences and relive some mem-
ories," said Mr. Montgomery,
who had trouble holding back
tears as he told Holocaust
Memorial Center visitors about
his impressions of the concen-
tration camp."To think anyone

