Sad day. Just learned that the last living of the four American soldiers who liberated Buchenwald died this week at the age of 83. James Hoyt, of Oxford Iowa, a tiny town about 16 miles west of Iowa City, never talked about the experience until my journalism professor/mentor Stephen Bloom interviewed him as part of the Oxford Project.
You can read about the project in the latest edition of ArtScene Iowa. A book on the project is coming out in September from Welcome Books.
A big piece of history died with him.
2 comments:
HI, Peter Feldstein here, Steve's collaborator. You'll be interested to know that I received an email from a fellow in Germany who is a member of a group that researches the history of World War II. They contact veterans, meet them, and honor them. They had been looking for Jim for many years. It turns out that his records were destroyed years ago in a fire. Unfortunately they found him through his obituary on CNN.com. They sent me a picture of the monument with the names of the four men, including Jim, who were the first Americans in Buchenwald. If you send me your email I will send the photo to you.
Will do, Peter. I'd be happy to post it here.
Post a Comment