"The curtain has fallen on one of the most inhuman and most horrible chapters of mankind…" Letter to Max and Elizabeth [10/30/1945]

John H. Horn

John H. Horn [1945] War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Unit: 3rd United States Army Intelligence Center Service Location: Belgium; Germany Rank: Staff Sergeant

John Horn, a staff sergeant with the 3rd United States Army Intelligence Center, was a German-Jewish émigré. While some members of his immediate family escaped the Holocaust, having left Germany for America or Palestine before the war, many remained. Most of Horn's letters home deal with general topics--the routine of Army life--but in October 1945, Horn writes from Berlin with a heart-wrenching account of the fate of his family. In only a few lines, Horn encapsulates the murder of Germany 's Jews: the round-ups, the danger of living under assumed identities, the efforts of a few who would save Jews undermined by the actions of traitors, and finally the deportations to certain death at Auschwitz.