‘Make me sick’
WWII soldiers repulsed by current-day Nazis
FOR ARMY Staff Sgt. Alan Moskin, the word “Nazi” evokes memories of May 4, 1945, when his company liberated a concentration camp infused with the stench of death.
Three days later, Adolf Hitler’s Germany surrendered. Moskin remembers thinking the genocidal architects of the Holocaust were vanquished — for good.
More than seven decades later, he watched in disgust as antiSemitic, alt-right protesters descended on Charlottesville, Va., with an innocent woman killed in the street.
“These white supremacists, neo-Nazis, KKK make me sick to my stomach,” said the 91-yearold Jewish veteran of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army.
“In no way do they represent the America I grew up to love, honor and respect. No way.”
Moskin and other members of the “Greatest Generation” are repulsed by the recent white supremacist resurgence put on display for the nation in Virginia.
The World War II veterans, unlike the khaki-clad haters marching with their tiki torches, saw firsthand the horrors inflicted by the German forces on the battlefield and in their death camps.
“We thought that would be the end of that terrible evil and hate that we encountered, along with the unbelievable hell and horror we witnessed with the concentration camps,” recalled Moskin. But the sight of the Charlottesville racists on their television served as a harsh reminder that the fight continues in the new millennium. “Many buddies lost their lives fighting to destroy that evil,” said Moskin. “Too many. To see what recently occurred in our own country, I have little doubt they would be turning over in their graves. Fellow WWII veteran Nicholas Marra shares Moskin’s antipathy for the altright and their very public resurrection of racial and religious-based hate.
The Brooklyn-born Marra, 92, volunteered to join the Navy in 1943 before he was old enough to drink, smoke or vote. His motivation was simple: To defeat an evil political system.
Now, Marra (photo) told the Daily News, he is embarrassed to see that same kind of hate on the home front.
“I think the leaders of those white supremacist groups are failures,” said the son of Italian immigrants. “Hate never wins . . . Those people will disappear.”
Pvt. Luke Gasparre, 93, survived the Battle of the Bulge, earning a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his wartime heroism. He suggested some time in the U.S. military might changes the outlooks of the racists on parade.
“They should serve in the Army, on the front lines,” Gasparre said. “Definitely. They would have a different attitude.”