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Shelby Keeton recalls meeting with Weisenthal at Nazi concentration camp Melodie Phelps News Editor It's been 60 years, but the memories of the day when the 11th Armored Division entered the gates of Mauthausen, a German concentration camp, are still vivid for local resident Shelby Keeton. Keeton was reminded of that day once again, when he read an article in a state newspaper about the death of famed Nazi hunter Simon Weisenthal. Weisenthal died on September 20, after spending much of his life fighting for justice for the victims of the Holocaust. It was May 6, 1945, when the 11th Armored Division came through the gates of Mauthausen, according to Keeton. "When we entered the camp, we saw a bunch of human skeletons, walking around. They were skin and bones," said Keeton. Keeton said there were many dead bodies piled up, with flesh decaying from their bones. Weisenthal was not among those who were outside. "When we came in that morning, Simon had been put in the death barracks," recalled Keeton. "He had been too weak and not able to work...So they had placed him in the death barracks." Weisenthal had been smuggled tidbits of food, which helped keep him alive, according to Keeton. Newspaper accounts say that Weisenthal weighed less than 100 pounds when the armored division arrived that day. On that morning, Keeton said that Weisenthal mustered enough strength to get outside to see what was going on when the division entered the camp. He heard the tank and saw the star on the side. "He wanted to touch that star," said Keeton. "About 50 feet before he got to the star, he collapsed. His feet just gave out on him." "Two of the boys picked him up by the arms and carried him to the tank," Keeton continued. "He touched the star and fainted into freedom." Keeton said that he and Weisenthal shared a cup of coffee that day, and during that conversation, Weisenthal told the local man that he would stay on in Germany, that his help was needed to convict the war criminals. Weisenthal told Keeton that there were "some good and decent Germans who would need his help to exonerate them." "He spent the rest of his life searching for those criminals," said Keeton. "He was a great and respected man." Weisenthal spent more than 50 years hunting Nazi war criminals, speaking out against neo-Nazism and racism and remembering the Jewish experience as a lesson for humanity. He estimated that he helped bring some 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice. Weinsethal was 96 years old at the time of his death. Add a comment |
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