Dear Mr. Schmidt, October 2000

Thank you for your e-mail, describing the visit of the members of the 80th Infantry, and especially the copy of the article in the Army paper describing the events.  I was pleased to see the evidence of good feeling so prominent  during their visit, and especially the actions that tell me that they were there to achieve a reconciliation.  That there was good feeling on the part of the people of Weimar was also encouraging.

I think you will agree with me that the work of the 120th Evacuation Hospital was very, very different when we were there in April of 1945, at the same period in time that the 80th Infantry was there. We confronted personally, directly and painfully the consequence, the awful consequence of the actions of the Nazi regime, and there was no place to hide! We carried no weapons, and we were no threat to the people of Weimar, but we did carry away with us, as living witnesses, for all the world to know and understand, the terrible conditions we saw and lived with, and struggled to bring to those masses of humanity, at long last, a sense of hope and the promise of a future.

I believe we did our job well, as has been described by others, but we will never forget, and we believe the world must never forget, what we did, and what we saw. It is especially important that the people of Weimar understand that a return to Weimar for any of us will be a most painful and difficult experience, but one that I believe will be meaningful for us all, for us Americans, and for the people of Weimar.  Your greatest writer and poet, so closely identified with Ettersburg, and with the Goethe oak around which Buchenwald was constructed, has said it best:  "Gefuehl  ist alles"---  feeling is, indeed everything!. Tragically, that  feeling for  humanity was abandoned at Buchenwald, and elsewhere in all the concentration camps in Europe established by Herr Hitler as he pursued his "final solution".

Understandably, in my army unit there are many who are still living who will be unable to join in  a return visit to Germany, not just because of physical limitations, but because of their close identification with their experiences there in 1945, the memory of which haunts them to this day!  Some have been living with the torturous  memories of the sights and  sounds, and, especially, the odor of the camp, and have no desire, or will to relive those experiences.  Some of us, however, believe it is important that we overcome those awful memories, and address our fellow humans in the new millennium, in order to reestablish our mutual humanity, to bring feeling and compassion back into our lives, and carry the message of reconciliation for those who will follow us. 

We want Buchenwald to be, forever, a living memory for all future time of what humanity at its basest level is capable of perpetrating on  other humans. At the same time,  we want to reaffirm and reinforce the philosophy of Goethe that "Gefuehl ist alles", always and  forever. I believe that such a living mission is what any memorial to the 120th Evacuation Hospital and to the survivors and victims of the Buchenwald Camp should be.

The question is, can we make such  an  event meaningful by merely returning to Weimar and Ettersburg? I believe we can and should make every effort  to carry  a message of re-dedication and reconciliation as our prime objective. To begin the new millennium with that kind of message for future humanity would be well worth the return for many of us, and for the people of Weimar who must continue living with the reality of their historical past, even as they celebrate their magnificent cultural heritage. We too want to celebrate the places of Goethe and Schiller, but we must work  to make a return visit of the 120th Evacuation Hospital  mutually meaningful; we in the United States, and you in Weimar.  We can do so, I believe as we establish our 120th Evacuation Hospital Website, and as we invite you and others to contribute to its growth and maturity. We want the veterans who were there to tell their own individual stories; we want the people of Weimar to share their memories, and we want children throughout the world, especially in the United States and Germany to ask us questions in order to seek a deeper understanding, so that any inherited animosities they still carry  may be addressed and overcome. It is an awesome challenge, I know, but a mission well worth working to achieve.  Let me know your feelings, and I apologize for writing this in English!

Best regards, Warren E. Priest