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• World War II veteran Anthony Acevedo was one of several hundred U.S. soldiers held prisoner in a Nazi slave labor camp. Acevedo, who kept a detailed diary during his imprisonment, says he and the other surviving soldiers signed affidavits promising never to talk about their ordeal.CNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...

• Fast Facts

  1. Born: July 31, 1924
  2. Birthplace: San Bernardino, California
  3. Veteran of World War II
  4. Military rank: Corporal
  5. Medic with the 275th Infantry Regiment of the 70th Infantry Division
  6. Acevedo captured at the Battle of the Bulge on January 6, 1945CNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...
  7. Acevedo one of 350 U.S. soldiers imprisoned at Nazi's Berga am Elster slave labor campCNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...
  8. Berga am Elster was a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration campCNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...
  9. Of the 350, only about 165 survived to be liberated on April 23, 1945CNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...
  10. Acevedo was not given full disability benefits until more than 50 years after he was liberatedCNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...

• Silent for Decades

  Anthony Acevedo says after signing the affidavit agreeing not to speak of his ordeal and the atrocities he witnessed, he kept quiet for several decades. When he returned home from the war, his father told him he "was a coward" because he had been captured. Acevedo left home immediately and did not speak with his parents again for years. Eventually, Acevedo began to talk about his imprisonment to groups of high school students because, as he says, "people have to know what happened."CNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...

• Anthony Acevedo Quotes

  "We had to sign an affidavit ... [saying] we never went through what we went through. We weren't supposed to say a word."CNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...

  "They put us on a train, and we traveled six days and six nights. It was a boxcar that would fit heads of cattle. They had us 80 to a boxcar. You couldn't squat. And there was little tiny windows that you could barely see through."CNN: WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence...

• Related Pages on Mahalo

  Martin Vogel | Veterans Day | Armistice Day | Holocaust | Frank Woodruff Buckles | Lazare Ponticelli | Henry William Allingham | The Battle of the Bulge

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