A Deep Hurt That Cannot Be Reached
Four days after his last note to the Buslee family, Louis Albrecht, father of the Buslee crew co-pilot David Franklin Albrecht, sent them this letter of sympathy. Both the Albrecht and Buslee families had learned the sad fate of their sons who died side by side in the cockpit of the B-17 43-37822 in the skies above Magdeburg, Germany on September 28, 1944.
Feb. 3, 1945
Congregational Church
Scribner, Nebr.
Louis M. Albrecht, Pastor
Mr. & Mrs. John Buslee
Chicago, Ill.
Dear Friends: Your letter received. We received the same kind of a message. Our sympathy is with you. There is little that a person can say. Just a deep hurt that can not be reached. Our boys have done their duty and I try to feel that this is more than life. I wouldn’t want David to be alive in some men’s shoes. Our younger son was wounded Dec. 1. He was still in the hospital the last we heard. We expect David’s wife to come to be with us soon. May God’s power be with you in our prayer.
Rev. & Mrs. Louis M. Albrecht & Girls
Thank you to John Dale Kielhofer, John Oliver (Jay) Buslee’s nephew, for sharing this family letter with me.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2020
WWII Timeline – 1947 and Beyond
I’m continuing my WWII Timeline series with a look at 1947 and beyond in this post. This is the final post of my WWII Timeline series.
A Timeline of WWII, 1947 and Beyond
April 16, 1947
Former Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Höss was hanged at Auschwitz near Crematory I.
September 15, 1947
Twenty-one former SS-Einsatz leaders went on trial before the U.S. Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Fourteen were sentenced to death, with only the four group commanders actually being executed. The others’ death sentences were commuted.
May 1948
The Soviets blockaded Berlin.
Regarding the Malmedy Massacre trial, political complications arose after the Soviets blockaded Berlin. The strategic importance of post-war Germany in the emerging Cold War became apparent to the U.S. amid public outcry in Germany against war crime trials being conducted by the U.S. Army.
June 25, 1948
President Harry Truman signed the Displaced Persons Act which allowed more than 200,000 European refugees to settle in the United States.
November 1948
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentenced Japanese War Minister Tojo Hideki to death for his war crimes.
1949
Regarding the Malmedy Massacre trial, in 1949, following a series of public charges and counter charges by trial participants and further investigations over whether justice had been served in the conduct of the trial, six of the remaining death sentences were commuted.
A U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee then began an investigation, led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, concerning the U.S. Army’s overall handling of the case. The Senate investigation heightened the controversy surrounding the trial, due in part to the aggressive behavior of Sen. McCarthy.
April 4, 1949
The United States, Canada, and several Western European nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty which established NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
May 1949
Following the establishment of NATO, the Soviets lifted their blockade of western Berlin.
Early 1950’s
Regarding the Malmedy Massacre trial, by the early 1950s, following years of accusations, denials, investigations, controversy, and political turmoil, the final remaining death sentences were commuted and release of all of the convicted SS men began.
December 1, 1950
President Harry Truman created the Federal Civil Defense Administration under the Office of Emergency Management.
September 8, 1951
The declaration of war against Japan in 1941 was officially lifted when forty-nine nations signed the Japanese Peace Treaty in San Francisco. It reestablished Japanese sovereignty and peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations.
October 19, 1951
The declaration of war against Germany in 1941 was officially lifted when President Harry Truman signed an act formally ending World War II after having Congress abolish the state of war with Germany.
December 1956
The last prisoner from the Malmedy Massacre trial, Jochen Peiper, was released from Landsberg Prison. He eventually settled in eastern France.
May 11, 1960
Adolf Eichmann was captured in Argentina by the Israeli secret service.
April 11 – August 14, 1961
Adolf Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem and found guilty of crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. A fellow Nazi reported Eichmann once said he would,
leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction.
May 31, 1962
Adolf Eichmann was hanged at Ramleh.
July 14, 1976
In the last of the acts following the Malmedy Massacre trial, on Bastille Day in France, Jochen Peiper was killed when a fire of mysterious origin destroyed his home. Firefighters responding to the blaze found their water hoses had been cut.
Sources:
This series of posts is based on a compilation of timelines from:
The History Place:
The National WWII Museum Interactive Timeline
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
World War II Chronicle by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.
Most recent post from the series:
This is the final post of my WWII Timeline series.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2020
Sad News from Louis Albrecht
Eight days after his first letter to the Buslee family, Louis Albrecht, father of the Buslee crew co-pilot David Franklin Albrecht, sent them this short, sad note.
January 30, 1945
(Incorrectly dated Dec. 30, 1945)
Dear Friends. We have just received word that David was killed in action Sept. 28, 1944. We hope you have had better news.
Truly Yours,
Louis M. Albrecht
Scribner, Nebr.
Unfortunately, the Buslee family had received the same sad news on January 28, 1945, which they shared in a letter to my grandmother, Raleigh Mae Farrar, the mother of Buslee crew waist gunner, George Edwin Farrar, my father.
Thank you to John Dale Kielhofer, John Oliver (Jay) Buslee’s nephew, for sharing this family letter with me.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2020
WWII Timeline – 1946
I’m continuing my WWII Timeline series with a look at 1946 in this post.
A Timeline of WWII, 1946
March 5, 1946
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his Sinews of Peace/Iron Curtain Speech at Missouri’s Westminster College. This speech may be regarded as the most important Churchill delivered as Leader of the Opposition (1945-1951). His passage on the iron curtain had incalculable impact upon public opinion in the United States and in Western Europe. Russian historians date the beginning of the Cold War from this speech. A link to the entire speech is in the Sources section below and includes Churchill’s full reference to the iron curtain starting with,
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent…
March 11, 1946
The British arrested former Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Höss, who was posing as a gardener or farm worker in Gottrupel, Germany.
March 20, 1946
The imprisonment of Japanese in American internment camps, which began on February 19, 1942, ended with the closing of the camps.
April 15, 1946
Rudolf Höss testified at the Nuremberg trials. Later he was tried in Warsaw, Poland and found guilty. While in prison, he wrote his memoirs about Auschwitz and claimed,
History will mark me as the greatest mass murderer of all time.
April 28, 1946
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East indicted Japanese War Minister Tojo Hideki as a war criminal and charged him with fifty-five counts.
May 16, 1946
The two month trial of the U.S. Military Tribunal for War Crimes for seventy-four former SS men, including Jochen (aka Joachim) Peiper and SS General Sepp Dietrich, concerning the Malmedy Massacre of December 17, 1944, began.
See more about the Malmedy Massacre of December 17, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge in my Fall 1944 Timeline post and subsequent information regarding January 1945 in my Winter 1945 Timeline post.
The trial was held in a courthouse at Dachau. The defense team raised allegations of mistreatment including physical abuse by the U.S. Army and cited the use of mock trials in obtaining SS confessions as improper. The defense also complained that the court’s legal expert, a Jew, constantly ruled in favor of the prosecution.
The trial included testimony by a survivor of the massacre who was able to point out the SS man that actually fired the first shot.
July 11, 1946
In the Malmedy Massacre trial, the Judges returned a verdict after two and a half hours of deliberation. All of the SS were found guilty as charged. Forty-three, including Jochen Peiper, were sentenced to death, and twenty-two, including Sepp Dietrich, were sentenced to life imprisonment. The others received long prison terms in Landsberg Prison, the same prison where Hitler had served time following the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.
Controversy continued, however, as various U.S. Army Boards conducted critical reviews of the trial process and methods used during pretrial interrogations. As a result, most of the death sentences were commuted and over half of the life sentences were reduced.
October 16, 1946
Hermann Göring commited suicide two hours before the scheduled execution of the first group of major Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. Hans Frank and the others were hanged and the bodies taken to Dachau and burned in the final use of the crematories there. Their ashes were scattered into a river.
During his imprisonment, Hans Frank stated,
A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased.
December 9, 1946
Twenty-three former SS doctors and scientists went on trial before the U.S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Sixteen were found guilty, and seven were hanged.
December 31, 1946
Harry Truman issued Presidential Proclamation 2714 declaring an official end to World War II, officially declaring the cessation of all hostilities. Even though the actual combat of the war ended May 8, 1945 in Europe and September 2, 1945 in the Pacific, the state of war was not lifted off of Japan and Germany in order to give a reason for the necessity of occupation troops in those countries.
Once the War Crimes Trials ended, the hostilities were seen as over. The signing of Proclamation 2714 is the reason why the U.S. recognizes its World War II veterans as anyone who has served between the dates of December 7, 1941, and December 31, 1946.
Sources:
This series of posts is based on a compilation of timelines from:
The History Place:
The National WWII Museum Interactive Timeline
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
World War II Chronicle by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.
Winston Churchill’s Sinews of Peace-Iron Curtain Speech
Höss Testimony at the Nuremberg Trials
Most recent post from the series:
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2020
The Arrowhead Club 