Whenever any of us at the Daily Telegraph interview any veteran of any branch of the armed forces who fought in any of the wars America has faced, you are sure to hear a remarkable story.
I still remember the day when a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard suddenly walked into the newsroom the day before the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Iwo Jima and talked about helping put Marines on the beach that day. On another occasion, I spoke with a veteran who had occupied the ball turret of a B-17 bomber during World War II and saw a German jet fighter; the spectacle of an aircraft without a propeller was “like seeing a flying saucer,” he recalled.
And then there was the Army Ranger veteran who was wounded by a German grenade when he was part of that first wave of invaders to hit the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, and still had the scars it inflicted. In another account, a member of a bomber crew remembered the advice that he and other airmen were given; if shot down and forced to surrender, turn yourself over to the civilian police or members of the Luffwaffe, the German air force. Do not surrender to the SS or the Hitler Youth; they’re likely to kill you.
One local veteran’s accounts we had the privilege of helping record are a testament to one of the darkest chapters in human history, the Holocaust in Europe. I thought of them Tuesday upon learning that Max Kammer of Bluefield had passed away at the age of 89.
Kammer was well known in the community for Kammer Furniture in downtown Bluefield, but he was also known for his civic work and his service during World War II when he served with the American Third Army in Europe. He became a captain and served in the headquarters of the XX Corps Artillery. He told fellow reporter Bill Archer that he was assigned there thanks to his anti-tank training and ability to read maps.
On April 4, 1945, Allied troops searching for a secret communications center encountered the Ohrdurf-Nord death camp, part of the Buchenwald concentration camp complex. What they found was horrific evidence of Nazi atrocities.
Using a confiscated German camera, Capt. Max Kammer shot photographs of prisoners young and old huddled in miserable conditions. Several of these photographs are part of the Holocaust Museum collection in Washington, D.C.
I first learned of these experiences when I covered a symposium Kammer had created to show people back in America the horrors he and other veterans had witnessed. Besides photographs, he had artifacts such as a flail guards used on prisoners.
And he had accounts of all he had seen and heard.
One particular story comes to mind. Kammer recalled how he was working at a camp when General Patton himself arrived. The general was shown a big chart outlining the Germans taken prisoner and which services they represented; army, air force, Waffen SS and so forth. The SS managed concentration camps and organized much of the Holocaust.
Patton made it clear that he didn’t want to hear about members of the SS being taken prisoner, Kammer recalled. Patton had seen the death camps.
Kammer never boasted at all about his service. He just wanted other people to know what had happened; like a journalist, he was representing all those people who couldn’t see Buchenwald and the other death camps for themselves.
Seeing such horror could shake one’s faith in human beings and the essential goodness of humanity, but Max Kammer plainly did not lose faith. I can’t recall ever seeing him when he wasn’t upbeat, and everyone I spoke with Tuesday as I conducted the sad task of writing a story for him couldn’t recall him being negative. After seeing the very worst people can do, he went on to demonstrate many of humanity’s better attributes.
Max Kammer will be greatly missed as are all the veterans who witnessed history in the making. The most anyone can hope to do is to leave the world a better place, and he succeeded in doing exactly that.
Greg Jordan is a reporter for the Daily Telegraph. Contact him at gjordan@bdtonline.com.
Columns
March 11, 2010
Despite witnessing atrocities, Kammer made the world a better place
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