http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/2016/01/27/world-war-ii-history-documentary-cherryhill-jewish-war-veterans/79169290/
Film Captures WWII Experience of SJ Vet
January 27, 2016
Sitting in an easy chair in front of a video camera and interviewers, Jewish war veteran
Arthur Seltzer demonstrated remarkable recall for his 90 years.
Unfazed by cameras and questions, the never-shy Seltzer eagerly recounted his World
War II memories in vivid detail — from his U.S. Army training and Atlantic crossing to
England on the cruise liner-converted troop ship Queen Elizabeth to his three most
significant war events, the D-Day beach landing at Normandy, the Battle of Bulge and the
liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau in Germany.
South Jersey-based Armed Forces Heritage Museum (AFHM) officials taped a
documentary last year but have not yet posted it. They said it also will become part of the
exhibit collection at the National Museum of American Jewish Military History in
Washington, D.C.
Recently, an expanded version of the documentary that includes more Seltzer family
history was shown for the first time to the now 91-year-old Seltzer, family members, other
Jewish war veterans and friends in the theater of Spring Hill Assisted Living Center in
Cherry Hill, where Seltzer and his wife, Mildred, of 61 years moved this year from their
nearby Cherry Hill condo.
"I'm overwhelmed by it. And it was a surprise. They didn't tell me it was going to be shown
today," Seltzer said of the living history project professionally compiled and edited by
AFHM president Robert Von Bargen and Nino DePasquale, a museum board member
and its former president who owns a video company.
"I hope it will get more people involved in doing good things for the country."
Seltzer was a 20-year-old corporal serving as a radio operator in a forward position with
the 4th Armored Signal Battalion, shuttling messages back and forth to rear units, to
military leaders such as Gen. George S. Patton and to Supreme Allied Headquarters. He
was one of the 550,000 Jewish servicemen for the U.S. during the war.
Gates of the former German concentration death camp at Dachau, discovered a few months after Germany surrendered to
end the war in Europe in May 1945
His radio equipment, then called VHF, was a secret weapon of its own with a much
advanced technology, allowing telephones and teletypes to operate without wire
connections.
"Landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day was the longest day of my life," he said.
He made it ashore in the fourth wave on June 6, 1944, by jumping over the side of his
landing craft unlike other soldiers who headed straight down the front ramp of other landing
crafts. They were easily gunned down by German guns ashore before making it to the
beach.
However, he sank immediately after hitting the water, but not because he was wounded.
"I couldn't swim, so down I went — and then I dropped my 65-pound pack of gear," he
recalls in the video. He struggled to shore, where wet sand prevented him from digging a
foxhole. Instead, he hid behind the only protection he could find — dead soldiers — and
waited for more radio equipment to arrive.
"Of the 36 soldiers on our landing craft, I was one of only two who survived," recalled
Seltzer.
Eventually, he sent a radio message for battleship firepower to blow a hole in the bluff
— Point Du Hoc — that Army Rangers were ordered to climb. "If we didn't get that done,
we were not going to make it off the beach."
Naval gunfire then blew open a gaping hole followed by additional firing from the 29th
Infantry, allowing troops to move forward to the town of St. Lo.
Seltzer said operating his radio had one critical disadvantage. "Whenever I put up the 9foot antenna, the Germans could zero in on our position," he said.
Audience at Spring Hill Assisted Living Center watches the first screening of a new documentary on the World War II
exploits of former Army corporal Arthur Seltzer, a Jewish war veteran from Cherry Hill
His most vivid memories of the Battle of the Bulge, where the Allies were outnumbered by
the Germans in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium, France and Luxembourg, were the frigid
temperatures, the absence of winter-issued uniforms and the trees. He said the flying
splinters from trees shattered by gunfire killed soldiers as effectively as bullets. He
managed to escape a German SS firing squad when he found himself at the rear of an
enemy-surrounded group of 150 Allied soldiers who were forced to surrender, thinking they
would be taken as prisoners. They were shot instead.
That battle, a German offensive to try to split the Allies, was the largest fought on the
Western Front in Europe during the war and also the largest ever fought by the U.S. Army.
After capturing Bastogne and crossing the Rhine River into Germany and then the Elbe
River, they met the Russian allies, who were to march into Berlin first. "I knew when we
crossed the Elbe the war would be over."
However, there was one final and horrific experience awaiting him after the official end of
the war in May 1945.
His unit was among those who stumbled upon Dachau, 10 miles north of Munich.
"It was the first time we knew of concentration camps. What we saw was enough to turn
your stomach," he said.
Seltzer was with 20th Armored Division troops who thought they were discovering a
prisoner of war facility on Aug. 29, 1945. Instead, they found a camp piled high with the
tangled bodies of prisoners and mass graves, as well as 31,000 to 32,000 others still alive
but starving and emaciated.
Seltzer was ordered to take photos to document the horrible discovery, which haunted him
in nightmares for years despite his efforts to forget.
Five years ago he retraced his war steps on a six-country, 16-day tour — this time with his
wife — from England to France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and finally to
Germany, a trip he said closed his war chapter by seeing what those countries have
become today.
"He was most stunned by the eerie quiet at Dachau, where he broke down in tears, and by
the changes at Omaha Beach.
"It didn't look at all the same," he observed about the beach. "There is a road there now
and motels where the German machine guns were."
At Dachau he remembered the "smell of death" that had permeated the camp that August
day in 1945.
Reflecting on the war as a whole, Seltzer said if it wasn't for the Air Force, the war would
not have been won.
"Soldiers were always looking to the sky to see if our bombers were there," he
remembered.
Seltzer did not wait around after the war was over for his Bronze Star for staying behind
during a retreat and blowing up his radio equipment during the Battle of the Bulge so it
would not end up in enemy hands.. He did not receive it until 67 years later in 2012 after
his former commander, retired Brig Gen. Harold Rice of California ( a colonel during the
war) contacted him and wrote the information needed for the military decoration.
A former commander of the Jewish War Veterans, Furer-Brag-Wolf Post 126 in Cherry Hill,
and past state commander of the Jewish War Veterans, Seltzer took on a mission to
educate school students in his later years. He also is a longtime member of Cherry Hill's
Memorial Day Committee.
The heritage museum has a website and is collecting memorabilia from local veterans. It's
working on a mobile museum exhibit it will unveil this spring and use until it can build a
world-class museum, possibly on the perimeter of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
"We are hoping to do more videos like this," said military retiree Nelson Mellitz, a
museum board of directors member who also is a director of the Washington museum. "It
will eventually appear on our website — www.afhmus.org — along with three other videos
of war veterans that are already finished and we'll also post it on YouTube.
Norman Rosenshine, a director at the Washington museum near Dupont Circle, said he
has known Seltzer for several decades through the state Jewish veterans organization.
"He has fascinating stories and had a more interesting military life compared to many
soldiers. As soon as I heard about the documentary, we said 'yes' to accepting it and will
include it in our museum's World War II exhibit," said Rosenshine, a former Elizabeth,
Union County, resident who now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
At the Spring Hill Assisted Living theater, several of Seltzer's children and grandchildren
watched the documentary with him.
Son Richard of Marlton called the film "tremendous" and used the same word to
describe his father as a person.
"We never knew these stories for a long time because he didn't tell until we had our own
kids," he said.
Cherry HIll Councilwoman Melissa Kane presented Seltzer with a council
proclamation declaring him a "true American hero" not just for his war service but for
serving in veterans organizations to preserve their legacy and for his educational efforts in
speaking to local high school students about his experiences.
"Arthur is worthy of every word in this proclamation," said Kane."And the video was
fascinating and educational."
Cherry Hill High School East teacher Tom Rosenberg praised Seltzer for speaking to more
than 700 of his history class students over the past 10 years.
"He is an invaluable resource and told students what no book could ever teach. He is
honored and beloved by all who know him," Rosenberg said.