Ted Heck, Ret. Lieutenant: WW2 History Lesson - Off to Germany we Go to Rebuild the Country

I had the extreme pleasure of hearing 90-yr-old Ted Heck talk about his experiences in Germany after World War Two. Although he saw combat, he wanted to emphasize America's role in getting Germany back on its feet.

 The program was esp. meaningful since I recently watched the 10-hour documentary about the Holocaust called Shoah (hell). The filmmaker was interviewed on the Charlie Rose Show.

Filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, b. 1925, is a French Jew who interviewed survivors of Treblinka, Auschwitz and other camps, as well as the Germans who incarcerated them. The man above is a driver of one of the notorious cattle cars, where one-third of the people on board died from thirst, malnutrition, or being trampled on.

I learned things about the Holocaust I never knew. Before gas chambers were invented for their efficiency and ability to exterminate thousands upon thousands of people per day, the Nazis used "Gas vans" where the vehicle's exhaust was pumped directly into the van.

This searing documentary, while difficult to watch, is so compelling you want to stay until the bitter end to see the end of the suffering.

 Here's Ted Heck before his talk. I told him my dad was a paymaster at Guantanamo Bay and never saw action.

Here are excerpts from Ted's talk. Many of his friends were in the audience. When one of em entered the room, Ted called out, "We missed you at tennis this morning."

A talented athlete, Ted took up skiing while he was in post-war Germany. Here's his skiing and athletic column. 

His success, he said, is due to the four C's:

Choice
Chance
Coincidence
Communication

Note the role that chance plays. He met many important people overseas who offered him jobs of a lifetime. Back in the USA, he was vice president of many companies and quite successful. A widower with two children and no grandchildren, his girlfriend of 22 years comes from a big family so he plays the avuncular role there.

 Back in 1941, Winston Churchill was so sure of winning the war, he began to plan for Germany's restoration.  Henry Morgenthau, FDR's secy of the treasury, feared Germany's power, and wanted to turn the country into farmlands.

"How are you going to keep them down on the Farm after they've seen Paris" was a famous comment about servicemen from the sticks dazzled by the big city.

The Americans set up a "denazification camp" after the war near Hammelburg. It was important to show you were triumphant. The GIs had lots of free time and would play sports. When they played golf, they would have the Nazis fetch the golf balls.

General Eisenhower had given strict orders that the GIs not fraternize with the Germans. It was impossible, said Heck, and also a bad idea, since they wanted to impart ideas of democracy to the Germans.

Germans are used to obeying orders. An autocrat always ruled the country until after WW1 when it became a democratic republic.

In the presidential election of 1932, Hitler received only 30 percent of the vote. But through luck and Machiavellian deceit he became the leader, with his pal Goebbels at his side, and they quickly turned it into a dictatorship.

While stationed in Germany, 50,000 GI's were sent to colleges. Heck had been studying English literature at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, but now he was offered classes at Cambridge University in London. He attended Bull College, specifically set up to train servicemen.

Cambridge was founded in 1231 by a charter from King Henry 8.

Heck said his mother kept a scrapbook of her son's achievements "to feed my ego," he joked.

Heck showed us a slide of all his classmates from Cambridge: Darwin, Byron, Cromwell, Samuel Pepys, Thomas Gray must-clik), Edmund Spenser, Churchill. 

Recreation was a huge part of the soldiers' lives. A baseball stadium was built - in a month! - and Heck played alongside of Cal McLish, who would become a Major League pitcher, pitching his last game in 1959. McLish was 18 yo at the time and Heck enjoyed being with him so much he got him a job as his jeep driver. Officers, such as Lt. Heck, all had drivers.

Heck particularly enjoyed hearing a lecture by Lord Bertrand Russell.

 Wait a minute! I think I hear Bertie espousing philosophy and logic right now. Can't quite tell if this is before or after his death at 97 yrs old.

"Hearing him was one of the greatest experiences of my life," said Heck. He also had the opportunity to see Sir Laurence Olivier in SIX PLAYS during one week at the Old Vic Company.

The USO had a program to bring in entertainers into Germany. Heck saw Bob Hope and

Dietrich, who put her arms around him and 30 other men in the room.

Ghent Altarpiece or Adoration of the Mystic Lamb - Flemish panel painting, 1432.

This is one of the most influential of all paintings and the one most frequently stolen (six times), according to historian Noah Charney.

How did our hero become the leading authority on the painting in Bethlehem, PA, when he returned to Lehigh University?

The brother of his college professor was called to Germany to catalog artworks looted by the Nazis. Most were hidden in underground salt mines for protection.

Marburg Museum now held many of the stolen items. "It was like a Target store warehouse," said Heck.

He saw Manets and Cezannes face to face.

 Manet's Bar at the Folies Bergere.

As if this isn't enough of Heck's fascinating life, he's an actor as well, and had a small part in the first movie ever made about World War Two.

800 men auditioned for the part of an American soldier who is briefly interviewed on television in the 1951 film Decision Before Dawn.

In the film, Heck says the immortal lines, "C'mon you krauthead, you're holding up the line."

"And who's gonna play YOU in your life story?" asked a member of the appreciative audience.

After the movie, Bill Murray, who sat next to me went up to talk about the flourishing Black Market after the war. Bill's father was drafted into the army at age 38.

It was such a privilege being with the charismatic Ted Heck I almost asked for his autograph or a lock of his hair or a nail clipping. Shaking his hand sufficed.

Heck said his favorite song of all-time is the one they sang to commemorate the end of the war: Symphony: C'est fini.