three people who passed away in 2009 worth noting

It’s the beginning of a new year. Possibly a time to look back and take one minute to remember some important things. Three people passed away in 2009 that are not household names but names which were part of something(s) worth remembering:

 

Harry Kinnard

Susan Hibbert

Richard Sonnenfeldt

I am a believer that studying history permits us to avoid some of the mistakes we have made in the past as well as remind us how some very little things can have huge impact.Time is Now

 

Harry Kinnard, 93

 

A retired Army lieutenant general who as a paratroop officer suggested the famously defiant answer “Nuts!” to a German demand for surrender at Bastogne during the 1944 Battle of the Bulge. In later years, he was the principal architect of the Army’s concept of using helicopters in infantry warfare in Vietnam.

So. Picture this. The German army is kicking the shit out of the American/British/French army Christmas time 1944. German forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven main roads in the Ardennes mountain range converged on the small town of Bastogne, control of its crossroads was vital to the German attack. The siege lasted from December 20 to December 27, when the besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General Patton’s Third Army. The most famous quote of the battle came from the 101st’s acting commander, Brigadier General McAuliffe <who Harry Kinnard suggested the infamous response ..>.

When confronted with a written request from German General Luttwitz for surrender of Bastogne, he replied “NUTS!” (It was interpreted to the German truce party as “Go to hell!”).

This is a great example of a refusal to lose. Stubbornness in knowing what was right … and what was needed. And maybe even some creativity with regard to this steadfast will to win. Maybe we should all remember that if we are going to be stubborn while in the ‘right’ we may as well do it with some flair.

Oh. And also an excellent example of articulation simplicity. Not a single word wasted.

Susan Hibbert, 84

Susan Hibbert, who died on February 2 aged 84, is thought to have been the last British witness to the signing of the German surrender in May 1945 – a document that she typed up and whose completion marked the end of the Second World War in Europe; minutes later she conveyed that momentous news to London with the historic signal: "The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945." Staff sergeant who typed and witnessed the German surrender, and cabled the news to London

Susan Hibbert, who died on February 2 aged 84, is thought to have been the last British witness to the signing of the German surrender in May 1945 – a document that she typed up.

A British Staff Sergeant, then Susan Heald, who typed the English version of the German surrender document and then messaged London when World War II ended in Europe on May 7, 1945, with these words,

“The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945.”

So. Maybe this makes you rethink “just a secretary” or “administrative assistant.” I wonder if her hands were shaking when she typed it. I wonder what she felt as she messaged it out to the world. I wonder what her life seemed to her after experiencing a moment like this. Sometimes I think we forget that while generals and presidents and ambassadors are negotiating and debating wording in the end someone has to capture it all, in perfection without mistakes, and share it with the world.

Richard Sonnenfeldt, 86

Richard W. Sonnenfeldt, who fled Nazi Germany as a teenager, became the chief interpreter for American prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and interrogated some of the most notorious Nazi leaders of World War II

Sonnenfeldt was drafted into the Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped to liberate Dachau. A month later, General William J. Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services, plucked Mr. Sonnenfeldt out of the Army motor pool, saying his English was “better than we’ve heard from any other interpreter,”

Chief interpreter for American prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, which he recounted in his memoirs, Witness to Nuremberg. A German-born Jew, Sonnenfeldt was a US Army private who helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp when he was selected as interpreter because of his bilingual skills. Sonnenfeldt interrogated some of World War II’s most notorious Nazi leaders, including Hitler’s second-in-command, Hermann Goering; Albert Speer, who headed Germany’s war manufacturing; and Reich Minister Rudolf Hess. They were all convicted as war criminals.

So. What strength of character would one have to have to be Jewish, be there to liberate one of the worst concentration camps in WW2 and then have to sit in the same room as some of the people who facilitated the concentration camps? There are times I read things about people and wonder if I would be strong enough to do what they did. This would be one of those times.

Anyway.

Three non household names and people.

These three people are a small and seemingly insignificant group of people of a dying generation who are a reminder of a significant event … as well as a reminder that seemingly insignificant positions play some fairly significant roles in the scheme of things.

Written by Bruce