Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II

by Lou Potter, Nina Rosenblum, William Miles

A chronicle of the first black tank battalion in World War II follows these soldiers across Europe as they won hard-fought battles, and finally, liberated Buchenwald and Dachau. 35,000 first printing.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151512833
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Harcourt
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 2.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 1.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A Tribute To Heroes

Liberators is a great documentary that became a political football, because it challenged the idea of WWII as a white man's war (the Japanese alone would disagree) and showed the undisputed fact that segregated Black units, which were supposed not to have fought, not only did well, and participated in the Battle Of The Bulge, but liberated several concentration camps on their way to Berlin. These units faced hardships not encountered by White units, in that they were subject to the discrimination of the day, and were denied time away from the front until the end of the war. One of the unfair, but vicious, attacks are that this documentary is "a hoax", or "exaggerated". Well let us see. Benjamin Bender, who certainly believed he was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp, saw Black tankers and troopers when he was liberated. This is pretty hard to explain away. Then, there is the charge that the units in question were "too far away". Well, according to the CO of the 183 Combat Engineers, Lt. Colonel Lawrence J. Fuller, at any time, his troops were dispersed over an area of 100 miles. The same for the 761st, who had units attached to whatever unit needed them. This was the result of a conscious decision to keep them apart as much as possible. Being headquartered within 60 miles of Dachau, the 761st's Sherman M4 tanks had a cruising range of 120 miles - you do the math on that one. In the end, to be extremely charitable, maybe the camp they liberated went by another name (Gunskirchen has been mentioned) than Dachau. That does not make this documentary "a hoax". Even if the tankers who went back with Benjamin Bender to pay their respects in the documentary, were merely in the same unit and were not the ones who actually helped liberate the camp or him, that doesn't make them anything less than heroes. The real question is: what is the fuss all about? Why the hatred and vehemence? Only the lowest form of racist would deny these heroes their achievements. I believe mr. Bender.

This books presents a subject that has long been ignored.

This book presents a subject that has long been ignored by the rest of America. The shameful events Black soldiers had to endure have been swept under the rug for to many years. This book lightly touches on the prejudice that took place during the WWII. There is still much that needs to be told. However, the records are basically kept secret. Due to again to the powers that be in DC and the monumental cost of obtaining these records.