Sydney Goodman

From the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Instagram:

‘When I get home,’ sounds like a fairy story or dream now but soon it will be a reality.”

Jewish American soldier Sydney Goodman never could have imagined that just over a year after enlisting in the US Army he would be taken prisoner by the Nazis.

In December 1944, Sydney was captured by German forces in Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge. He and more than 300 other American soldiers were ultimately sent to the forced labor camp Berga an der Elster.

During his time as a POW, Sydney wrote on the back of the family photographs he kept with him. He documented his experiences and kept records of those who died in captivity. In his dated entries, Sydney described the unusually terrible conditions he experienced at the camp, including the lack of food and basic resources.

On January 14, 1945, he wrote on the back of a photo of himself reaching down to his infant daughter in her crib: “Today makes 4 wks. (28 days) that I have been a PW. Thought of home today & I couldn’t keep from crying. I miss Grace & Karen & the folks so very much. Dear God I hope it isn’t too long.”

Despite the extraordinary challenges of life in the camp, Sydney was resolved to survive. He ate the measly portions of food he was provided and bundled up in the few clothes he had to get through the freezing winter nights.

In April 1945, American prisoners at Berga—including Sydney—were forced on a march south from the camp. Their route was eventually intercepted by US Army forces, and the POWs were liberated.

While Sydney survived the war, we remember the heroic efforts of the US servicemen who died.

^ The Germans kept 300 American Prisoners of War at the Berga Concentration Camp (instead of a Prisoner Of War Camp like they should have been under the Provisions of the Third Geneva Convention and the Hague Treaties) because of the Germans’ Racist Ideals.

They took any American Prisoner of War who were Jewish or didn’t look “Aryan” (Blacks, Hispanics, Italians, etc.) to Berga and forced them to work in dangerous tunnels 150 feet underground turning brown coal into fuel for tanks, airplanes, etc.

It was part of the Germans “Vernichtung durch Arbeit” ("Extermination Through Labor") Program.

75 American Prisoners died at Berga during their 50 day stay.

36 more American Prisoners died on a 2 ½ week Death March before the rest were liberated by the Allies.  ^