Pfc. Murray Schwartz

106^th 423rd Co. C Serial # 14118469

After the 106^`x' was surrendered on December 19, 1944, Murray took the option of trying to make it back to the American lines. In the dark, and wounded, he fell into a fox hole. A German soldier was in that fox hole and Murray was captured. Taken to a make-shift German aid station in a barn, a German Army doctor saw the "H" on Murray's dog tags. This doctor told Murray that if he wanted to live to see the end of the war he should get rid of his dog tags. This doctor knew that American Jewish POW's were being sent to the death camps. Following much internal conflict, Murray placed his dog tags in the rafters of the barn. When it was discovered that Murray had no dog tags he was taken by the Gestapo. He was interrogated and tortured for three days before the Gestapo finally believed he had just lost the dog tags.

Murray, along with a number of other men, were taken to the Limburg rail road yards where they were forced to repair damage done by Allied bombers. They worked in the bitter cold with almost no winter clothing. this group of lien were housed on the third floor of a three-story brick building at night in a large unheated room. One evening Allied bombers struck the rail road yard again. The three story brick building collapsed into the basement and the men were buried alive. Somehow most were able to dig themselves out. Murray remarked that the only good thing about it was the fact that the German guards on the ground floor were all killed.

At some point, Murray was transferred to Stalag Xll-A. When the camp was liberated in April of 1945 Murray was in the camp "hospital" with typhus and malnutrition.

After a long and prosperous life, he retired to his sheep farm in Mechanic Falls, Maine, with his to beloved dogs Molly and Sammy. A play, "Manny's War", was written about Murray and performed at Bates College. Besides the Bronze Star he received three purple hearts. At some point he acquired the photos of the liberation of Stalag 12-A here enclosed. He was extremely helpful to family members of the men of the 106^th who were trying to gather

information about family members. Until his health failed, Murray went every Memorial Day for quite a number of years to Belgium and the American Cemetery at Henri Chappell where his comrades are buried. On one of these trips he returned to the barn where he had been treated for his wounds to retrieve his dog tags. He never found them.

Murray died in November 2005. He is sadly missed by his friends and daughter. He requested that half his ashes be taken to Arlington and the other half to Henri Chappell to rest with his comrades.

Shalom Murray. You are remembered.

All information provided by Rosemary Clarke