War doesn’t typically stop for religious holidays. But as Passover approached in March of 1945, more than 800 Jewish-American servicemen found themselves at a seder in the heart of the Third Reich. Among them was 21-year-old Hilbert Margol, a Private First Class serving in the US Army’s 42nd Infantry Division. Now 101, Margol is among the last surviving World War II veterans and he is still hard at work ensuring the history of Jewish resilience during WWII is not forgotten.
In 1943, Margol was drafted into the army alongside his now-deceased identical twin brother, Howard. After basic training, Margol was assigned to the 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division and his twin brother to the 104th Infantry Division. Their mother was fiercely against this, writing to president Franklin Delano Roosevelt personally and urging him not to separate her sons. Miraculously, Roosevelt responded, granting her request.
Reunited in the 42nd Infantry Division, the two brothers deployed overseas, arriving in Marseille, France, on January 18, 1945. Moving across France and into Germany, Margol and his unit provided crucial fire support with 105mm howitzers, maintaining a high operational tempo as the Allied armies rapidly advanced and winter turned to spring. By the spring of 1945, the Third Reich was crumbling. Once-dominant German forces were in shambles, retreating on all fronts. Millions of Allied troops poured into Germany, discovering the full extent of Nazi crimes.
“When we crossed over the Rhine River into Germany from France, the first town that wasn’t too far into Germany was called Dahn,” Margol said. “After the town was secure and the Germans were all gone, they gave our division a two-day rest period.”
The 42nd Infantry Division was commanded by Maj. Gen. Harry J. Collins, a highly decorated and respected US Army officer. He was also committed to tackling antisemitism within his ranks, working directly with the division’s Jewish chaplain — Rabbi Eli Bohnen — to ensure his Jewish soldiers were taken care of. If Bohnen ever witnessed or became aware of any antisemitic event, he was to notify the general immediately so appropriate action could be taken.
“That was the kind of person he was,” said Margol.
As the 42nd Infantry Division began its two-day rest period in Dahn, Bohnen informed General Collins that the next evening would be the first night of Passover and that he wanted to put together a seder.
“General Collins liked the idea and sent the chaplain with his Jeep driver and a couple of trucks back to France,” Margol said. “[They] got in touch with a Jewish agency there in Paris, and they got freshly killed chickens, vegetables, French wine — whatever they felt they needed.”
Bohnen also acquired a haggadah. But since the division was preparing for 800 soldiers to attend the seder, one copy of the seder text wouldn’t suffice.
“ They found a mimeograph machine, but it was dirty and dusty, so then they went looking for rags to try and clean it,” Margol recalled. “All they could find were two Nazi flags. That’s what they used to clean the mimeograph machine that ended up printing 800 copies of that prayer book.”
The 42nd Infantry Division’s “Rainbow Haggadah” is believed to be the first haggadah printing in Germany since the Nazis took power in 1933. Few copies survive today. Before the traditional Hebrew text, Collins inserted a message to the Jewish soldiers under his command.
“The celebration of Passover should have unusual significance for you at this time, for like your ancestors of old, you too are now engaged in a battle for freedom against a modern Pharaoh,” he proclaimed. “This Pharaoh has sought not only to enslave your people but to make slaves of the whole world. God grant that victory for us will make it possible for you to celebrate the next Passover with your loved ones at home, in a world you helped make free.”
The division held the seder on March 28, 1945, inside a former Nazi party meeting hall at 29 Adolf Hitler Street, Dahn, Germany.
Onwards to Dachau
Just weeks after this unlikely Passover celebration, Margol and his fellow soldiers reached the outskirts of a German city that would become synonymous with Nazi atrocities — Dachau.
“This was early Sunday morning, April 29, 1945,” Margol recalled. “We were on a two-lane country road headed to Munich, and we had just passed road signs. The largest sign had the word Dachau on it.”
Soon after, they pulled off on the right side of the road. There was a small clearing in a wooded area, just large enough to position their four howitzers. A powerful stench filled the air as they set up the artillery pieces. Margol’s brother, Howard, noticed it first.
“Our mother used to go to a kosher meat market and buy a freshly killed chicken, take it home, and hold it over the gas flame of the stove in the kitchen to burn off any remaining pin feathers,” Margol said. “It would burn some of the skin and the fat of the chicken. Howard said that’s what the odor reminded him of.”
During a lull in firing missions, the brothers got permission from their sergeant to take a closer look in the woods on the left side of the road. A 10-minute walk brought them to the Dachau concentration camp, where tens of thousands of inmates had died over the course of the war.
Walking through the gates of Dachau, they were confronted with a harrowing sight: boxcars filled with bodies of Jewish victims. Nearby, a crematorium bore witness to the systematic extermination that had taken place.
“We didn’t understand what we were seeing,” Margol said. “The officers in headquarters, they knew all about the camps, but the camps were not military objectives.”
Soldiers such as the Margol brothers were not kept informed. Despite this, the 42nd Infantry Division, along with the 45th Infantry Division, were the first Americans to liberate Dachau.
Never forget
Realizing the importance of documenting what they saw, the brothers decided to use their recently acquired box camera.
“The only film we had was what was inside the camera,” Margol said. “We hadn’t taken any pictures yet; we were waiting for something important.”
Hilbert took two photographs of deceased victims in boxcars at Dachau. Both snapshots now reside in the collections of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
“ I just feel it’s my duty to let people know what I experienced,” Margol said.
With antisemitic incidents and Holocaust revisionism on the rise in the United States, Margol seeks to tell his story “to anyone who will listen” and speak out against those who deny what he witnessed.
“I hope and pray,” he said, “that the offspring and descendants of all the survivors of the Holocaust outlive the survivors of those that said the Holocaust never existed.”
The Times of Israel Community.
