unsung heroes in American Field Service
2nd Floor
Portland, OR
97204-1523
Tel: 800-AFS-INFO
Fax: 503-241-1653
Email: afsinfo@afs.org
growing up. "He just never said anything about it. It was the piece of the puzzle that always was
missing."
caused the U.S. military to reject him, but that Colin Gemmell had done some kind of
service in conjunction with the British.
asked about the war. What he learned has changed Hugh's life.
World War I, but it sprang back into life after France fell" in 1940, Hugh says. "They drove
ambulances on the front lines in Africa and throughout Europe. They were all volunteers. These
were men who were too old, too young or physically handicapped to the extent they couldn't
pass the Army medical board. But they wanted to do their part, they wanted to serve. They had
artificial legs, one eye, no ears or really bad speech impediments. One guy told me, 'Basically if
you were breathing and you could drive, they'd take you.' "
were purchased by American civic groups. In five years they would transport nearly a million
wounded and dead from battlefields.
in the desert. "They acquitted themselves heroically," says Hugh. "They were classified as
noncombatant. They did not carry arms, even though they were subject to intense fire." In Africa
and later in Europe, 37 AFS drivers were killed in action. Many more were wounded; some
were captured by enemy forces.
went up through France, into Holland," Hugh says. The end of the war was near. On April 13,
1945, AFS Company 567, platoons C and D, got orders to join the British military as they
liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Colin Gemmell was not at Bergen-Belsen
that day; he was liberating another hospital. But his AFS buddies came back and told the story.
Bergen-Belsen had been a work camp; it had no gas chambers or crematoriums. In a
last-minute effort to kill the 40,000 Jews still in the camp, so none would live to tell the story, the
Germans had simply turned off the water and not fed the inmates for seven days. Typhus had
set in, and tuberculosis. The weakened prisoners, after barely surviving years of war, died fast.
Their bodies were in piles outside camp buildings. Inside, dead and dying were on every floor
and bed.
carried them away in their ambulances.
began doing research on the AFS. He discovered an archive in New York and learned that a
reunion would be held in October of 1995.
Veteran's Hospital in Portland. "It was just a rusting hulk," he says. But it looked like photos
he'd seen of the AFS ambulances. The next time Colin came to visit, Hugh drove him by. "He
said, 'That's exactly what I used to drive in Italy.' I took a picture of him with it. I called it 'Two Old
Wrecks, One Running, One Not.' "
was half gone, the floor had rotted out. It was a total basket case." Hugh and his five brothers
restored the old ambulance. They painted the 1943 Dodge olive drab and added the insignia of
Colin's AFS Unit 567, an eagle. ("They called it 'The Chicken', " Hugh says.) In October they
towed it to Williamsburg, Va., to surprise the AFS men at their reunion.
closer, everything got quiet. When it came around the circle driveway and parked in front of
them, and they saw this vehicle they hadn't seen in 50 years, there was total amazement. Jaws
were open. There were quite a few tears. And then they started moving toward it, rubbing their
hands over it. And then the cheering started, then the laughing, then the patting on the back."
Army will have what it's calling its "final reunion" in England this summer. It has invited the AFS
vets to join them. "The common British soldiers still remember these men," says Hugh. "I've
got letters from guys who were wounded, telling me they owe their lives to these American
volunteers."
weeks ago, he called the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center, at Pacific University, and asked
if someone could locate a refugee from Bergen-Belsen who might write a letter recommending
the plan.
course I'll write you the letter. Now let me tell you about my mother.' "
Bergen-Belsen that day in 1945. Alice lives in Portland. For 20 years she has spoken to several
classrooms a week, describing her experience in the Nazi camps. "And every time my mother
speaks, she always concludes by saying, 'I wish I could find my liberators. I just want to say
thank you.' " Geri told Hugh there were two other survivors of Bergen-Belsen in the Portland
area.
excited. "They had always wanted to meet a survivor," says Geri. "Hugh's father said to him,
'We just want to shower the survivors with gifts.' "
I have a birthday present for you, but I can't wrap it.' She said, 'What is it?' And I said, 'I found
your liberators.' She was silent a few long seconds. She was amazed. I told her we'd like to
plan a reunion. She said, 'We're going to give them a champagne reception.' "
week of remembrance of the Holocaust. Survivors who've waited 55 years will get a chance to
thank their liberators. And the men from the AFS finally will be given recognition. "They never got
acknowledged the way the veterans did," says Hugh. "But look at what they did. Just a bunch of
volunteers nobody else wanted."
Boulé at 503-221-8450, 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201, or marboule@aol.com
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