Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Hero of the Week 48

Welcome back viewers

This week's hero is...

Guy Gabaldon


Guy Gabaldon was born on March 22, 1926 in Los Angeles, California. As a boy, he grew up shining shoes in order to help his family. When he was 12, he had to move in with a Japanese-American family (the Nakanos) due to the Gabaldon's poverty. While he lived with the Nakano family, Guy learned about Japanese culture and how to speak the Japanese language. Everything changed when World War II broke out in 1941.

The Nakano family was forced to move to an internment camp after the Attack on Pearl Harbor. With no where else for him to go, Gabaldon enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. In 1943, he was shipped out to the pacific as part of the 2nd Marine Division. He was assigned as a scout and observer and would be part of the Invasion of the Japanese held island of Saipan. Gabaldon didn't know it at the time, but his ability to speak Japanese would become very useful.

On June 15, 1944, the battle of Saipan officially began. For the next three weeks, the American forces engaged in vicious combat with the Japanese garrison that resulted in thousands of casualties on both sides. By the month of July, Saipan had been mostly captured and the bulk of the Japanese forces had been depleted. However, thousands of Japanese soldiers refused to surrender and hid in caves and the dense jungle of the island. If Americans ever approached to demand their surrender, the Japanese would ambush them from hidden positions. They would continue to fight until the Americans used flamethrowers and napalm to set fire to the caves and trees. This would cause all those inside to burn to death.

One of the most tragic parts of the invasion of Saipan was that thousands of Japanese civilians found themselves caught in the crossfire of the battle. Many of them were killed in bombing raids and artillery strikes. They were also forced to accompany Japanese soldiers into the caves. This resulted in thousands of them being killed there. Thousands more committed suicide during the battle when approached by Americans (due to hearing horrible propaganda from the Japanese military).

During the battle, PFC Gabaldon had been wounded but did not see as much combat as many of his comrades did. However, he was able to contribute in a much different way. He decided to use his ability to speak the Japanese language in order to convince them to surrender instead of fighting to the death or committing suicide. On July 6, Gabaldon left his post and approached seven Japanese soldiers who had become isolated from their own lines. After speaking to him, they decided to surrender. After returning to American lines with his prisoners, Gabaldon was reprimanded for deserting his post and threatened with a court-martial if he did it again.

Despite this warning, Gabaldon went out again and this time, returned with 50 Japanese prisoners of war who had been convinced to surrender. After this, he was granted the privilege of, "lone wolf" operator. This meant that he could conduct himself in whatever mission that he wanted. He also gained himself a nickname, "The Pied Piper of Saipan". His defining moment came when he convinced a group of 800 Japanese soldiers and civilians hiding near a cliff to surrender. All in all, Guy Gabaldon would successfully convince more than 1,500 Japanese to lay down their arms without further bloodshed. He continued to do this until he was severely wounded in an ambush near the end of the campaign on Saipan.

Despite Guy Gabaldon's best efforts, the vast majority of the Japanese garrison continued to fight on. On July 7, the garrison launched the largest banzai charge in the whole of World War II. This charge would later be considered to be one of the most savage and brutal fights in the entire war. Saipan was finally declared secure, on July 9. By then, the Americans had suffered 13,790 casualties (3,246 killed or missing). Of the Japanese garrison of 29,000, nearly all either fought to the death or committed suicide. A further 30,000 civilians had been killed or committed suicide as well.

Private First Class Guy Gabaldon survived his wounds. He later fought in the battle of Tinian before being given an honorable discharge. For his heroism on Saipan, Gabaldon received the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart. He passed away on August 31, 2006 at the age of 80.

Guy Gabaldon should incredible bravery and compassion during is combat experience in World War II. It takes great courage to confront a fanatical enemy and convince him lay down his arms. By doing this, Guy saved thousands of people from dying unnecessary deaths when it could have been avoided. I believe that he should be revered as one of America's greatest heroes of World War II.

https://www.navysite.de/ships/lha2about.htm

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/us/04gabaldon.html

https://www.wearethemighty.com/pied-piper-corporal-guy-gabaldon

http://www.wtj.com/articles/gabaldon/

Monday, October 8, 2018

Hero of the Week 47

Welcome back viewers

This week's hero is...

Jankiel Wiernik


Jankiel Wiernik was born in 1889 in Poland. For the first half of his life, he worked as a carpenter around the country before settling in Warsaw. However, his life changed forever at the breakout of World War II. After the fall of Poland to Nazi Germany, Jankiel Wiernik was one of thousands of people who were herded into the Warsaw Ghetto. After spending over a year in the ghetto, he and thousands of others were forced onto a train that took them to a death camp in Eastern Poland. It was a place called, Treblinka.

As soon as they arrived, the prisoners were separated into two groups. One very small group (including Wiernik) were lined up and sent to the barracks to prepare for work. The rest of the prisoners were immediately taken to Treblinka's gas chambers to be murdered.

At first Wiernik was forced to work as a Sonderkommando. He was part of the group that was supposed to retrieve the bodies of the people who had been gassed and take them to the cremetorium to be burned. He was eventually selected to become part of Treblinka's main work force when he revealed his skills as a carpenter to the guards. 

This revelation saved Wiernik's life. He was taken from the Sonderkommando and placed with a handful of prisoners who were being forced to help run the extermination process at Treblinka. For the next year, Wiernik was forced to repair buildings, fix the railroad, and to lead new prisoners to the gas chambers. He witnessed thousands of people being murdered on a daily basis and (along with his few prisoners) was subjected to sadistic brutality by Treblinka's guards. However, they were also secretly resisting.

Due to his position as a carpenter among the prisoners, Wiernik was able to view multiple areas of the death camp. As a result of this, he became a valuable asset to his fellow prisoners who were planning an uprising. The prisoners had been planning this ever since they had heard of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising from new prisoners who had survived the selection process. They were determined to fight back and obtain their freedom or else to die trying. 

On August 2, 1943, the Treblinka Uprising began. First, they broke into the guard's weapons storeroom and seized guns and ammunition. After this, some of the prisoners attacked the guards and set the camp on fire while others broke the gate to the camp open and made a break for the woods. Although the guards were initially caught by surprise, they quickly retaliated. The uprising in Treblinka was crushed within a few hours. By then however, over 300 of the prisoners of Treblinka (including Wiernik who had killed a guard with an axe) had managed to successfully escape. 

After his escape, Jankiel Wiernik managed to evade the pursuing SS and Gestapo. He was given shelter by a kind Pole who made contact with the Polish resistance in Warsaw. Wiernik eventually joined the Resistance and reported what he had witnessed in Treblinka. The leaders of the resistance urged him to write an account of his experience. In 1944, Jankiel Wiernik wrote a short biography titled, A Year in Treblinka. The book was smuggled out of Poland by the resistance and was published in England and the United States. It was the first written account of what would be known as the Holocaust to ever be published by a survivor. 

For the rest of the war, Wiernik fought with the Polish resistance. When it was over, he testified at the Nuremberg Trials for Nazi war criminals. In 1947, immigrated to Israel. For the rest of his life, Wiernik was continually haunted by his experience in Treblinka. He dedicated much of his later life to building models of the death camp which he donated to museums. In 1961, he testified at the trial of Adolf Eichmann. He died in 1972 at the age of 83.

From the time that it first opened (July, 1942) until the it was liquidated (October, 1943), more than 800,000 people were murdered in the death camp known as, Treblinka. Although 300 prisoners had escaped in the uprising, only around 100 (Wiernik included) survived the war to bear witness to the atrocities that were committed. The last survivor of Treblinka (Samuel Willenberg) passed away on February 19, 2016. 

Jankiel Wiernik truly was a remarkable person. He found the courage and the resilience to survive a terrible ordeal and make sure it was never forgotten. After his escape, he dedicated the rest of his life to preserving the memory of the victims of the Treblinka death camp. Because of men like him, the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust will never be forgotten (even when all the survivors have passed on).

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/trials/wierniktestimony.html

http://www.zchor.org/treblink/wiernik.htm

https://www.chroniclesofterror.pl/dlibra/show-content?id=305&navq=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jaHJvbmljbGVzb2Z0ZXJyb3IucGwvZGxpYnJhL3Jlc3VsdHM_cT13aWVybmlrJmFjdGlvbj1TaW1wbGVTZWFyY2hBY3Rpb24mbWRpcmlkcz0mdHlwZT0tNiZzdGFydHN0cj1fYWxsJnA9MA&navref=MzE3OzMwNSAzMTU7MzAzIDI5MTsyNzk

https://www.ushmm.org/research/the-center-for-advanced-holocaust-studies/miles-lerman-center-for-the-study-of-jewish-resistance/medals-of-resistance-award/treblinka-death-camp-revolt