Alexander Schmidt-Fellner

From the Shadow of Death to the Light of Liberty

My hero is my grandfather because of his experiences in World War II. My grandfather was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and lived there until 1946. On September 1st, 1939, Germany invaded Poland which officially started WWII. At the time of the war Alexander Schmidt-Fellner, my grandfather, was 18yrs old and in high school. His dad hated Hitler, and despite not being Jewish was thrown in Dachau that year. His Dad’s crime was to help some Jews leave and go to England.

This next part is why he is a hero to me. In late 1944-1945, my grandfather was put into a forced labor camp because of his father’s actions. By then his father was dead and his mother was also in a camp. This is his story of survival. Just before his capture Alexander Schmidt-Fellner worked for the Nazis even though he hated them. He was in great need of money. His job was to direct trucks and armor around Germany. Alex loved his job, even if it was not for the right cause, and it also allowed him to remain unnoticed.

After getting back from a business trip, Alex was informed by his secretary that some “people” wanted to see him and there was a letter on top of all his mail from the Gestapo (Nazi Secret Police). The letter was an order for Alex to report to the Gestapo headquarters. Meanwhile an undercover Gestapo agent was spying on Alex from a tree near his office. Alex called to confirm that he got the message and the operator said that he was two days late. Again men were following him to make sure that he was going to the Headquarters. He reached the building and a guard escorted him in. He explained why he was there and the guard opened up a massive steel door that lead into the “offices”. Alex sat in a chair as a Gestapo Commandant explained that since he was not eligible to serve in the army he was to do his part for the Fatherland by doing “manual labor”. Alex explained his importance to his company and the Commandant phoned another officer and he was given a 2 week break, though he didn’t get out of the manual labor.

Immediately after that briefing Alex knew something was up so he called his boss and told him that if he disappeared, not to worry. Alex completely disobeyed orders and he visited his sister. He returned unscathed but was ordered to report to the “Collection Camp” in Eichkamp. He spent two days in a train car. Finally, reaching his destination in Sarstedt, he was carted into the camp and got acquainted with his new life. Sarstedt was NOT a concentration camp. It was not heavily guarded and the prisoners could go to the neighboring town for food, receive and send mail. There were only 25-40 inmates and everyday they would get into a cage and be lowered 2500ft into a salt mine. The oxygen in the mine was so thin that after every step a cloud of salt would shoot out. Alex was only fed a loaf of bread with jam which he got once a week. The work was very hard and unrewarding. One night a Gypsy prisoner went crazy and started to burn his neighbor’s clothes. When they woke up the next morning the Gypsy was loaded into a truck and never seen again.

Then after many months of hard labor he was transferred to Lenne. This camp was extremely big compared to the one in Sarstedt. This camp had over 1000 inmates. This camp was considered a concentration camp because it was heavily guarded and the torture was relentless. Every Saturday the SS would get the whole camp and put them in bleachers. When all of the prisoners were seated the SS guard would bring out two massive barrels full of manure and they would pick two prisoners from the stands. These two prisoner were chosen to hold their breath while in the manure pile for as long as they could. The catch is that whoever came up first would get their head chopped off right in front of the camp. The SS guards would bet on prisoners and if you survived the guard would always pick you again. Every Saturday this would happen. This is like a murder that kept happening that no one could stop.

After months of going through the atrocities of the Germans, Alex’s break finally came. The month was April 1945, and the German war horse had ground to a halt. The dream of the thousand year Reich had all but drained away. At the camp the inmates were told to get into these trucks and the ones who did were never seen again, but Alex took the risk of disobeying orders and made a run for the woods. Luckily he made it and a couple of his buddies managed to snatch some kitchen knives. As they were lying in wait they heard an unfamiliar rumble in the distance. Suddenly out of the blue, an American tank rumbled through the woods and they liberated the camp. After the liberation Alex went to America to start a new life. He spent the rest of his life in America and went from a busboy to a Vice President of a Fortune 500 company. The moral is not that he survived throughout the whole ordeal but that he remained positive for the rest of his life.