Green, Dr. Meyer

Liberator
Buchenwald

Dr. Meyer Green was born in 1917 in Poland, the son of Louis Abraham and Bessie Gruenberg, and came to the United States at the age of nine. He attended the United Hebrew Schools in Detroit an was subsequently accepted to the University of Detroit Dental School, where he completed his training in 1943. Following that he entered the U. S. Army to serve as a dentist. While living in the Detroit area he experienced moderate anti-Semitism.

Assigned to the European Theater of Operations he landed on Normandy Beach a few days after D-Day and was attached to an armored infantry unit that was part of the First Army under the command of General Hodges. He was involved in medical support to various campaigns through France, Belgium, and Germany, including the Ardennes Forest, the Battle of the Bulge an Remagen, for which he was awarded campaign Battle Stars.

While at Erfurt, Germany, he entered the Buchenwald concentration camp within a few days of its liberation. At Buchenwald he witnessed the condition of the inmates, mostly Jewish, and recalled them as being horrible and too gruesome to describe. He also saw the gas chamber there with canisters of Zyklon-B gas but does not remember seeing any crematoriums.

Dr. Green had an assistant, a German-born Jew named Ralph Budenski, who was of considerable help to him since he spoke German fluently. Dr. Green did not provide any dental services to camp inmates or to any of the German civilian population or prisoners of war. He recalls two specific experiences. One, that of German soldiers attempting to surrender to him even though he was a medical officer, in an effort to avoid being captured by the Russian forces. The other was being contacted by a female German dentist who solicited his help, as a fellow professional, in securing the release of a friend who was in U. S. military custody for Nazi activities. He told her that he was Jewish and that her friend should get what he had coming to him.

Following his tour of duty in Europe, Dr. Green was briefly assigned to San Antonio. After his discharge from the U. S. Army, he continued his profession, becoming board certified in oral medicine and served for a time as President of the American Academy of Oral Medicine. He has one daughter. Dr. Green still has difficulty in understanding how Germany and the German people, once a bastion of civilization and center of learning, were able to turn to such bestiality so quickly.

Interview Information:
Date: December 3, 1999
Length: 46 minutes
Interviewer: Hans R. Weinmann
Format: Video recording