This past April, the world united in marking 70 years since the end of WWII and the liberation of the Nazi death camps by the Allied armies. In May, Americans celebrated the Memorial Day holiday, remembering our men and women in uniform who selflessly made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for freedom and liberty in the U.S. and around the world.
This past month, Alaskans lost one of its last living WWII veterans, Dan Cuddy, who will be remembered not only for his contribution to Alaska's business and civic community, but more importantly, for his heroic service as a young Alaskan in uniform on German soil.
At the 2012 Jewish Cultural Gala, an annual event that honors great Alaskans for their commitment and contribution to Alaska and humanity as a whole, Cuddy was the recipient of the "Shalom Peace Award," as a member of the company who liberated the infamous Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald, and for his role in its final closure. Rachel Gottstein, a Holocaust survivor of three concentration camps, was also honored. Both were honored at the gala as "Alaska's Greatest: WWII Liberator and Survivor" for being "Sparks of Light in the Darkest Chapter of Human History."
As a young man from Valdez, Cuddy voluntarily interrupted his studies at Stanford University to return to Alaska in order to enlist at Fort Richardson. He was later sent overseas to fight under Gen. George S. Patton, participating in the Battle of the Bulge, and was among the troops who closed down Buchenwald.
It was in 2007, just a year after the formation of the Alaska Jewish Museum board, when we learned from Perry Green, a board member, of Cuddy's heroic story -- one that would be of great importance to the future mission of our museum. We reached out to Cuddy and asked if he would be willing to give a testimonial account of what he saw at Buchenwald. He responded very kindly and invited us to his office at First National Bank of Alaska headquarters. He delivered a very lengthy, emotional, eyewitness testimony about one of the greatest atrocities in human history. In this testimony, he recalled the total shock that he and his fellow soldiers felt when they entered the camp:
In Buchenwald, there were four crematoria, there were no graves in Buchenwald. The ashes were used for sidewalks. The wife of the commander, had a lampshade. Do you know what the lampshade was made of? It was made of tattoos, human skin. She would watch the people come in, and whenever she would see a man with a tattoo she would point him out, and he was the next one to die. The next morning that tattoo would be on her desk. And the tattoos were put together to make a lampshade. A lampshade out of the tattoos.
In the crematory there were meat hooks, meat hooks...the walkways around the place were ... nice, they were about four feet wide and were covered with cinders. You know what the cinders were? (They were) the remains of humans ... and that was Buchenwald."
He also recalled how after the liberation, "Our colonel in charge of the camp did one thing that I thought was very, very good. He demanded that the local residents, everyone one of them, walk through the concentration camp. He required everybody in that town to walk through it. The local residents (had) denied they knew it was there."
When Cuddy came back to Alaska, he was asked to speak to the Rotary Club, "I was still in uniform then and I talked to them about Buchenwald. None of them had heard of it before." During his remarks at the 2012 Jewish Gala, Cuddy emphatically declared: "Our liberation of those people justified our entry into WWII. Liberation of Buchenwald, that alone justified our entry into the war."
Cuddy saw great importance in telling his story: "To the Holocaust deniers ... I can certify that the Holocaust did happen. It's important to educate people about the Holocaust, as there are so many who would like to see (its) memory ... go away. Education is the only thing that can keep it from happening again."
Even as recently as this past January, Cuddy demonstrated his belief in the importance of Holocaust education by granting a film interview to Jack Green, a student at Romig Middle School, as part of his project with Nathaniel Bertucio and Jack Easley on WWII, "Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Regime," for National History Day. During this interview, Cuddy impressed upon students the role of the United States in the fight against Hitler and just how gratifying it had been to "save those people's lives."
During the 2007 interview, he also spoke of his brother, David Cuddy, a parachutist and member of the "Devil's Brigade," a precursor to the Green Berets, who defended the U.S. at Attu and Kiska islands and made the ultimate sacrifice at the Battle of Anzio in 1944.
When asked what inspired him to voluntarily enlist at Fort Richardson and risk his life in WWII, Cuddy responded humbly, "Well, that was our time in life to do it."
The night that he was honored at the gala was an unforgettable and historic event in Anchorage. All were moved to tears by Cuddy's personal testimony, and Mrs. Gottstein's heartfelt expression of gratitude to him and to his fellow American veterans for assisting in the liberation of Holocaust survivors from the Nazi death camps.
Cuddy's heroic story will be featured in a future exhibit at the Alaska Jewish Museum. The museum, which provides a home for Jewish history, art and culture in Alaska, has made one of its missions the celebration of the humanitarian actions of great Alaskans who have risked life and limb to bring freedom to suffering peoples around the world. In this vein, its first permanent exhibit "On the Wings of Eagles: Alaska's Contribution to Operation Magic Carpet,"designed by curator Leslie Fried, celebrates the heroic airlift, by pilots of Alaska Airlines of 50,000 Jewish refugees from Yemen to Israel from 1948 to 1950.
Dan Cuddy will be remembered by all Alaskans for being a great testament to Alaska's spirit of freedom and liberation.
Rabbi Yosef Greenberg serves as the spiritual leader of Alaska Jewish Campus and the president of the Alaska Jewish Museum. Liz Ashlock and Shani Green co-chair the annual Jewish Cultural Gala. They encourage readers to learn more about the museum online at www.alaskajewishmuseum.com or call 770-7021.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.