3 minute read
Dachau Liberator Speaks
Dunwoody resident, 98, among the first liberators of Dachau, to speak Oct. 18
BY CATHY COBBS
Dunwoody resident Hilbert “Hibby” Margol, 98, has seen a lot in his life, but nothing more life-changing than what he witnessed on April 29, 1945 in Germany. Margol and his twin brother, Howard, 19-year-old American soldiers during World War II, were Howitzers gunners traveling with their battery on the way to Munich, Germany. The war was all but over, with Allied forces liberating concentration camps in Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau and Flossenburg and the world reeling from the photographic images of death and depravity wrought by the Nazis.
On that fateful day, the Margols were driving their Howitzers along a two-lane country road about eight miles from Munich when they received orders to halt the four-vehicle battery temporarily.
The pair detected a pungent odor that they first attributed to a chemical plant, but Howard, according to Hibby, then said it reminded him of his mother holding a newly slaughtered chicken over a gas stove to burn off any remaining feathers. Their commander gave the Margols permission to investigate the area.
“We walked about 10 to 15 minutes in the woods, and then came up to a long line of railroad box cars that was loaded with dead bodies,” Hibby Margol said. “We had no idea of the significance of what we were witnessing.”
The pair then entered the gates of the concentration camp, known as Dachau, under a sign in German that said, “Work makes you free,” and saw piles of bodies stacked everywhere throughout the camp.
“We never saw any live people during our brief time there, just dead people,” he said. “We didn’t know at the time, but the prisoners who were still alive were hiding in the barracks.”
The fact that the brothers were in the same division was a miracle of sorts. Both Hibby and Howard, who died six years ago right before his 93rd birthday, had been drafted while college students, but in 1944, Howard was sent to the 104th Infantry Division in the Mohave Desert, and his brother assigned to the 42nd Rainbow Division at Camp Gruber, OK.
“We were not happy about it at all,” Hibby said. “Our mother wrote a letter to President (Franklin) Roosevelt asking that we be put back together, and within two weeks, she received a letter on White House stationary granting her request. We didn’t know who was going where, but then found out that Howard would come to the 42nd.”
Hibby will talk about his experiences to the Dunwoody Newcomers’s Club on Oct. 18 at 10:30 a.m. The meeting is open to the public, but reservation must be made by Oct. 7 by emailing Judy Cone at ricemom212@ aol.com.
Hibby Margol with a photo of himself as a U.S Army Infantryman during World War II.
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