Politics
There are billions of stories concerning politics and racism. Here is one of them:
The U.S. Army 2nd Armored Division landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-day plus 3, June 9, 1944. Hell On Wheels raced across France with the rest of the Third Army during July and August. The 2nd Armored Division was holding positions on the Roer River when ordered to help contain the German's Ardennes offensive, better known as the Battle of the Bulge. The Division helped reduce the Bulge in January, fighting in the Ardennes forest in deep snow and freezing winter conditions.
After a rest in February, the Division drove on across the 1,153 foot wide Rhine River on March 27, 1945 in an unprecedented seven hours while under mortar fire.
On April 11, 1945 the 2nd Armored Division was the first American Division to reach the Elbe River. On orders, the Division halted on the Elbe. On July 2nd they were the first American unit to enter Berlin.
The 2nd Armored Division soldiers were awarded 9,369 awards for distinguished service and bravery that included 2 Medals of Honor, 23 Distinguished Service Crosses, 2,302 Silver Stars, and nearly 6,000 Purple Hearts. In 238 battle days the 2nd Armored suffered 7,348 casualties, including 1,160 killed in action. After a brief period of occupation duty, the 2nd Armored Division returned to Fort Hood, Texas in 1946.
Second Lieutenant Maurice Louis Levy took the photographs that illustrate the story above. He was my father.
2nd Lt. Maurice Levy
Before he became an army photographer, he graduated in 1943 from The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas and joined the 45th Infantry Division out of Oklahoma. He led his platoon on amphibious landings in Sicily, and the Italian mainland at Salerno and then Anzio. He took some shrapnel in his ass and was taken off front line duty. He was experienced with a camera so they reassigned him to lead an army photographic unit. He was sent to Northern France in support of the 2nd Armored Division. The next thing he knew he was bogged down in the Ardennes Forest taking pictures of tanks in snow as you can see above. He also found himself as a Jewish man taking pictures of a mass grave as they liberated a concentration camp. I chose not to post that picture here.
His father was from Manchester, England, and his mother was born in Dallas but her parents immigrated from Poland when it was a part of the Russian Empire. They were Jewish and they settled near Dallas, Texas.
When the allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy they were unaware of the atrocities that they would find in the camps. Lt. Levy and his platoon were among the first to discover the mass graves, emaciated prisoners and gas chambers. And it was their duty to take pictures.
Upon returning home he was supposed to turn all his photos over to the government but he kept a few, as you can see above.
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15 years later he was the NBC bureau chief in Fort Worth, Texas. He could assign himself to any story he wanted to cover. He focused considerable attention on the civil rights movement. He was there when the 9 African-American school children entered Central High School in Little Rock and he covered the Rosa Parks story for NBC.
Then, with a German mortar fragment buried in the back of his thigh he decided to ignore a threat from segregationists in Montgomery, Alabama. They told all the newsmen to get out of town and to not take pictures of the Freedom Riders that were due the following day. These were people who wanted to test the South's segregation laws. The supreme court had ruled that these laws were unconstitutional. Nevertheless, several southern states refused to take them off their books. They continued to enforce separate facilities for whites and blacks in restaurants, bathrooms and on buses. The riders simply boarded commercial buses in Washington D.C. and attempted to ride them to New Orleans.
As the black and white Freedom Riders exited their bus in Montgomery my father stepped out of the crowd and turned on his camera. Just before he got pummeled he managed to switch the film with a fake roll that was subsequently destroyed.It might have been worse for him but as he was getting beat a couple of Life Magazine still photographers named Ritter and Uhrbrock stepped out of the crowd and took a photo of my dad getting kicked. The attackers turned on them but they, too, managed to switch thier film.
Maurice "Moe" Levy NBCcourtesy Life Magazine
That night on the evening news the entire country witnessed the Freedom Riders exiting their bus surrounded by segregationists. The Following week Life Magazine had a spread that included this picture of my father.
In Montgomery the strategy was to threaten and attack the newsmen but over in Aniston, Alabama, they had no inhibition about directly attacking the buses and putting Freedom Riders in the hospital. They were also attacked in Birmingham. The original Freedom riders were mostly hospitalized and could not continue. However, fresh volunteers began showing up. First from Nashville and then from everywhere. Ultimately, Attorney General Robert Kennedy had to order 500 federal officers into Alabama to prevent further violence.
Anniston, Alabamacourtesy Life Magazine
The world knows these stories because of guys like Levy, Ritter, and Uhrbrock.
The Freedom Riders (The Moe Levy stuff starts at 1:05:40)My father suffered permanent injury that day in Montgomery, just as he had 15 years earlier in the Ardennes forest.This is about race and politics.
This is about how you define "us" and "them."
This is about how in-group love versus out-group hate gets confusing in the modern world.
The real lesson to learn from the racism displayed by the Nazis and the racism displayed by the fine citizens of Alabama is that we is them. We are no different than the Nazis. In our society, like in theirs, there is an element that is willing to go to any lengths to be cruel to individuals they perceive as being "them."
Ritter and Uhrbrockcourtesy Life Magazine
Humans sport cerebral cortexes that are programmed to love and care for their in-group and hate and fight their out-groups. We are built to primarily use visual cues to define these groups. It's a good thing that the Germans wore different uniforms because their skin is the same color as ours.
Actually, we are Germans. The largest ethnic group in America is people with German ancestry. Based on their technological development I would have to say that Germans think "outside the box" better than almost anyone and even they, I mean we, can't seem to go against their/our innate programming and stop being prejudice.
