A Dark Side of WWII

Adolf Hitler appointed himself Führer in 1934 after the death of the German President Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler was obsessed with establishing a “pure” German race, called “Aryan”. Hitler’s goals of racial purity and territorial expansion were the core of his worldview. Initially, the Nazi’s set up the concentration camps for their opponents, such as Communists or Social Democrats. The first concentration camp was opened in March 1933 at Dachau, which is near Munich. The purpose of the camp expanded to include forced labor, and imprisonment of Jews, Romani, German and Austrian criminals, and foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded during World War II. The prisoner in the camp were treated horribly and there were approximately 32,000 documented deaths and thousands of undocumented deaths. On April 29, 1945, U.S. forces liberated the camp. Today, the camp stands to remind us of the cruelty of evil men.
This week we salute Lin Koerper. Lin served in the U.S. Army from 1975 to 1979. She initially trained as a 64C, a truck driver. Her first duty station was in Germany with the 1st Armored Division. Lin was assigned to the 501st Supply and Transportation Battalion but assigned to the 1st AD DISCOM as a driver for the DISCOM commander. Lin is a native Montanan. Her father, brother, and sister-in-law served in the military. Her most memorable memory was visiting the Dachau concentration camp. She said she will never forget the overwhelming sadness while walking through the camp.
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Dr. Irene Dickerson has a doctorate in Business Administration and is a retired Army Colonel living her best life in Big Sky Country.