[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 CRITICISM OF ALLEGED PBS' DOCUMENTARY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Payne of Virginia). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of February 11, 1994, and May 23, 1994, the gentleman 
from Texas [Mr. Laughlin] is recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. LAUGHLIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Committee on 
the Judiciary for his remarks.
  On this week when our Nation is preparing to celebrate the 50th 
anniversary of the invasion of Nazi Europe, I think it is appropriate 
that I take this special order to address an injustice that was done to 
millions of veterans of our Nation.
  Before I make that comment, Mr. Speaker, I should make note that the 
distinguished chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, who just 
finished taking the special order in the memory of Judge Sam B. Hall, 
Jr. of Texas, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Brooks], too, is a veteran 
of World War II and served with great honor and distinction in the 
battles in the Pacific at Guadalcanal, Guam, Okinawa and finally in 
North China. Here is a distinguished Member of the House who gave 
service as a youngster, a young man in World War II. I should note with 
great personal pride that 30 years ago this week, I was commissioned a 
second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve. I have personal experience 
firsthand in the pride that one has in his or her military unit.
  Mr. Speaker, that brings me to the point of discussing a Public 
Broadcasting System alleged documentary about military units who served 
in World War II.
  To commemorate Veterans Day on November 11, 1992, Public Broadcasting 
Service [PBS] aired nationwide a documentary entitled: Liberators: 
Fighting on Two Fronts in WW II.
  The injustice to our veterans is the inaccurate presentation of the 
events and facts in the documentary.
  This film was produced by Miles Production Co. of New York City.
  It's authors/producers were William Miles and Nina Rosenblum, both 
award winners in their profession.
  Cooperating with the author/producers in preparing this film for 
airing was station WNET/13 of New York City.
  PBS aired the film over its network of affiliated stations throughout 
the United States, only to find out after the fact the accuracy of the 
film was flawed.
  This documentary portrays the 761st Tank Battalion and the 183rd 
Combat Engineer Battalion as the liberators of the infamous Buchenwald 
Nazi Concentration Camp on April 11, 1945; and the 761st as liberating 
Dachau, another well-known Hitler death camp on May 4, 1945.
  Neither of these portrayals is accurate, Mr. Speaker.
  With little advice from knowledgeable military sources, without 
contacting any agency of the Department of the Army about the history 
of one of the units, with complete disregard of available documentary 
evidence, this film was produced to satisfy the agenda of the producers 
and authors.
  The authors produced a film relating the horrible plight of the 
persecuted Jews under Hitler to that of African-Americans in a 
segregated United States.
  To accomplish this preconceived objective, the authors arranged the 
script so that solders from the 761st Tank Battalion and the 183d 
Combat Engineer Battalion could be portrayed as the saviors of European 
Jews from Hitler's horror camps.
  This theme obviously had great social as well as commercial value to 
the producers.
  Claiming that the official records pertaining to these units troops 
were ``non-existent, incomplete, untold, and heretofore unknown'' the 
authors/producers relied on so called ``oral testimony'' of 8 to 10 
veterans of the units they selected to place in the role of the 
liberators.
  They chose not to seek the testimony of hundreds of other such 
veterans, including the Army Center for Military History and officers 
who were responsible for the deployment/resupply of those units and 
when true history failed to suit their purpose, the authors chose to 
ignore the facts.
  The 761st did, indeed, play a role in the liberation of a camp at 
Gunskirchen and should be given due credit for liberating this 
concentration camp of death and inhuman treatment. But Gunskirchen was 
not well-known in the United States.
  So the authors conveniently switched the scene to Buchenwald and 
Dachau in order to gain the appeal of a larger audience while 
misrepresenting facts.

                              {time}  2250

  Military records confirm that the 6th Armored Division did liberate 
the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. One of my constituents, Pat McEnroe 
of Victoria, TX, was a member of the 6th Armored Division and 
participated along with members of the 6th in liberation of the 
Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
  To be more precise, a patrol, led by the late Captain Fred Keffer--
later to become Dr. Frederick Keffer, head of the Physics Department at 
the University of Pittsburgh--of the 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, an 
organic unit of the 6th Armored Division discovered the infamous camp.
  The 4th Armored Division also is credited with assisting in the 
liberation of Buchenwald.
  On the day in question, April 11, 1945, the 6th Armored Division was 
operating under the command of the 20th Corps, and Buchenwald was 
located in that zone.
  On that same day, all four companies of the 761st Tank Battalion were 
attached to the 71st Infantry Division which was operating under the 
command of the 12th Corps.
  Official records indicate that the 71st Infantry Division, including 
the attached 761st Tank Battalion was fighting near Coburg, Germany, 
which is approximately 60 to 70 miles from Buchenwald.
  These official records, which were available to the producers of the 
film through the Office of the Department of the Army Center for 
Military History, Suitland Reference Branch, also reflect that Dachau 
was liberated by the 45th and 42d Infantry Divisions.
  The authors and producers could have found in the daily report that 
the 71st Infantry Division with the 761st Tank Battalion attached 
thereto was with the 12th Army Group from June 6, 1944, through May 
1945.
  The President of the 761st Tank Battalion Association, Mr. Phil 
Latimer who was the supply officer of the battalion in 1945, has stated 
in a letter that ``at no time was the 761st Tank Battalion at 
Buchenwald or Dauchau.''
  Prior to the airing of the film, two members of the 6th Armored 
Division, Mr. Melvin Rappaport of combat Command A and Mr. Milton 
Harrison of the 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, advised WNET officials 
that the content, as announced, of the documentary was not accurate.
  Further, the senior living officer of the wartime 6th Armored 
Division, Mr. James Moncrief also advised WNET in writing--two letters: 
dated October 31, 1992, and November 7, 1992--that the proposed film 
was not historically correct.
  A book by the same name was published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 
[HBJ] soon after the film was released. There was a suggestion made 
that the book be placed in all high school libraries.
  After much criticism from veterans, Veterans' groups, and from many 
Jewish organizations, HBJ, the publishing firm, issued a disclaimer 
which was placed in all books which were sold after June 1993.
  While WNET, after an independent investigation to determine the facts 
surrounding this controversial film, has admitted the alleged 
documentary's flaws and inaccuracies, and pulled the tape, neither the 
authors, producers nor PBS have publicly made any such admission.
  Mr. Speaker, I have great admiration and respect for all the brave 
men of the country who left their loved ones and the comforts of their 
home to fight overseas for the honor and standards of our great 
country.
  Those young men of all military units serving in World War II made 
the history upon which we are reflecting today. That is their history. 
They have enormous pride in their history.
  I, for one, resent their history being rewritten, falsified, or 
distorted.
  I resent such misrepresentation being broadcast over a national 
television network to millions of Americans as true history.
  Mr. Speaker, never again should a military documentary misrepresent 
the military units or the military individuals who have served our 
Nation and who have participated in military actions in the name of 
freedom, in the name of democracy, to liberate a people and groups of 
people who have been subjected to Nazi treatment or to totalitarian 
government.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope this sort of documentary about the courage and 
service of brave men and women from all across America never happens 
again in our land.

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