Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

4.23. GOING HOME Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIDachau, a concentration camp. There was a horrible smell around this camp.Years later when I passed the slaughter houses at Sioux City, Iowa, I smelledthe same odor.Dachau had been cleaned up somewhat. There were still piles of bonesaround. We saw the incinerator ovens and the gas chambers. Most of thebuildings were off limits since they were infested with lice. Some of the menlaid on the oven trays and had their photographs taken with just their feetsticking out.4.23 Going HomeThe day came when I had to leave the old outfit to come home. Each divisionwas to be disbanded in turn. Men who were eligible to come home by thepoint system were transferred to one of these divisions. I was transferred toan armored division near Dilsen, Czechoslovakia. We were sent by train toone of the cigarette camps near Rheims, France. In a few days we were on ourway home aboard a American troopship, the S.S. Le June. This ship was aluxury liner compared with the other ships I had been on. We had real bunksand plenty of American food. We ran into a terrific storm in the Atlantic andthe ship pitched and rolled badly. Even some of the sailors manning the shipbecame seasick. With a lot of men sick, the men who weren’t sick could eatlike kings. They had to cook for everybody even if they didn’t eat. I don’tbelieve I ever ate more in my life than I did on this trip. I developed a caseof constipation on this trip. The head (toilet) was in the bow of the ship. Itconsisted of a long trough which ran fore and aft with a board laid acrossto sit on. A stream of water continuously poured in the trough to keep thecrap flushed through the drains at each end. This worked fine in a storm butwith the ship pitching nothing had a chance to drain out. The ship wouldpitch and all the crud would flow too violently to one end or the other thatit would overflow the trough onto the floor. If you sat near the end of thetrough you were in real trouble. The only safe place was to sit dead center.86