Eddie Willner

Who was Eddie Willner?

Major Eddie Hellmuth Willner was a German Jew, a survivor of Auschwitz, a Mason, and a US Army Major.

Willner, his mother, and his father, a veteran of the German army from the First World War and holder of the Iron Cross, were detained by the Nazis and eventually imprisoned in Auschwitz. His mother was immediately gassed, but the male Willners were made slave laborers. At Blechhammer, a subcamp of Auschwitz, the senior Willner was murdered by the camp guards when he was 50 as being too old to work, but Eddie was sent to Gross-Rosen concentration camp on a death march, then transported on to Langenstein-Zwieberge, a subcamp of Buchenwald, to provide manual labor for the V-2 rocket program. Towards the end of the war, to avoid letting prisoners acquainted with the V-2 program from being recovered by the allies, the Germans put Willner and the other prisoners on another death march. Willner and six others escaped; two survived, and, following the sounds of artillery, found the 3rd Armored Division, Company D, 32nd Regiment.

Willner and the other survivor, Mauritz Swaab, helped the kitchen crew of the Americans, and helped point out German positions they observed in their escape. After the war, Willner managed to secure immigration to the United States, joined the Army, and served for 21 years. He retired a Major.