[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 85 (Thursday, May 22, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1039]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING WALLACE CARDEN, WORLD WAR II VETERAN AND SURVIVOR OF THE NAZI 
                             BERGA POW CAMP

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. SPENCER BACHUS

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 21, 2008

  Mr. BACHUS. Madam Speaker, on Memorial Day 2008, let us take time to 
reflect on the courage and indomitable will of a special group of World 
War II veterans: the survivors of the Berga POW camp.
  Wallace Carden of Vestavia Hills in Alabama's Sixth District was one 
of the soldiers imprisoned in a cruel camp that simultaneously showed 
the worst of man's inhumanity--and the transcendent ability of the 
human spirit to endure and ultimately triumph.
  Berga was a German concentration camp. Three hundred and fifty 
American soldiers were sent there after being captured during the 
Battle of the Bulge. Some were exiled there because they were Jewish. 
Wallace Carden, then just 19 years old, was detained simply because 
Nazi officers thought he looked Jewish.
  The soldiers were ill-fed, heavily worked, and badly beaten; some 
were even killed. By day, they were forced to dig underground tunnels 
for weapons factories; by night, they shivered in squalid conditions, 
emaciated from hunger. But confronted with such inhumanity, these 
American soldiers persevered. They gave each other support, equally 
shared what little food they had, held faith in their country and God, 
and never allowed their spirit to be consumed by the evil and hate 
surrounding them.
  Though physically separated from their brothers on the battlefield, 
the Berga soldiers honored America with their determination and will to 
survive. In the decades since, Wallace Carden and his fellow soldiers 
have provided important personal testimonials about Nazi brutality and 
prejudice, so that succeeding generations never forget the Holocaust 
and fully appreciate what it took for freedom to triumph during World 
War II.
  Congressional Resolution H. Res. 883 rightly recognizes the service 
and sacrifice of the U.S. soldiers imprisoned at Berga, and I am a 
proud cosponsor. Their story is an integral part of the history of 
World War II, and their conduct under the most extreme and trying 
conditions an enormous credit to themselves and their country.
  For my part, I want to thank Wallace Carden for his service to his 
community and country. Alabama is proud of him, and it is appropriate 
that on this Memorial Day recognition is being bestowed on Mr. Carden 
as well as an entire group of American soldiers whose soaring spirit 
should continue to inspire all of us.

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