![]() For nearly fifty years, Norman never talked about his experiences and most people did not even know he had been in the service. Norman served as an auxiliary police officer in Livingston, New Jersey. In 1966, Norman opened a shoe store in Union, New Jersey. He worked at a shoe factory and later became a travelling shoe salesman. On December 31, 1949, Norman married Ruth Faust. He enrolled in and received a degree from the University of Virginia. He was awarded a Bronze Star and several other service medals. Norman was sent to Paris, France, and then Richmond, Virginia to recuperate. The military would not admit that US soldiers were held in a slave labor camp and forced Norman to sign an affidavit promising not to speak about his experiences at Berga. Of the 350 prisoners with Norman, 80 died or were killed at Berga. Norman, who was 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighed 86 pounds. On April 20, Norman was liberated by the 90th Infantry Division. He was put onto an overloaded cart of injured and dying prisoners. His foot became so swollen that it broke open his boot and he could not walk anymore. While he was marching, the lice bites on Norman’s left leg became infected and then gangrenous. In early April, as Allied forces approached the region, Norman and the other prisoners were sent on a death march. ![]() As punishment, the guards beat everyone in the group. Norman and the other prisoners would sometimes sabotage their work by mixing dirt into the explosive charges and overloading carts so that they fell into the river. Norman also had to pack the gunpowder charges used in the tunnels. ![]() He picked up blast debris after gunpowder explosions in the tunnel and loaded it into mine carts, which were emptied into a nearby river. As Norman recounted, their goal “was to get the maximum amount of work out of each man before they killed him.” Norman’s work group was assigned to tunnel 11, one of many tunnels being dug into a mountain to create an underground factory. The guards were SS and regularly beat the prisoners with lengths of rubber hose or rifle butts. ![]() Norman received two meals per day consisting of a small portion of bread made partly of sawdust, a cup of greasy liquid, and ersatz coffee. This group consisted of Jews and those that the guards considered troublemakers and undesirables. In February, Norman and about 350 other prisoners were transported to Berga slave labor camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, in Berga am Elster. Norman identified himself as Jewish and was moved to a separate barrack. Other prisoners offered to hide Norman’s identity, but he did not want to risk retribution if he was caught. After about 12 days, the German officers demanded that Jewish prisoners identify themselves. American prisoners registered the new arrivals and identified everyone as Protestant, although many, including Norman, were not. After days of travelling at night through Allied bombing attacks, the train arrived at a prisoner of war camp, Stalag IX-B, in Bad Orb, Germany. They were given no food or water and had to use a bucket to relieve themselves. Norman was locked inside a railroad car with at least 70 men. On January 6, after suffering heavy casualties and going days with no food, Company B surrendered to the German Army. While defending Falkenburg Hill in early January 1945, Norman’s company lost contact with the regiment. Norman’s regiment was attached to the 45th Infantry Division. In December 1944, the 275th regiment was deployed to France to provide reinforcements during the Battle of the Bulge. Norman, a private first class, was assigned as a scout in Company B, 275th regiment, 70th Infantry Division. On June 24, 1943, following his graduation from Augusta Military Academy, Norman was drafted into the US Army. The United States entered World War II on December 8, 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the early 1930s, Norman’s family moved to Norfolk. Abraham, later called Albert, was a merchandise manager at a shoe store and an inventor. Abraham’s family had immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. Norman Fellman was born on January 27, 1924, in Portsmouth, Virginia, to a Jewish couple, Abraham and Edith Soloman Fellman.
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