Oral History Interview with Steven Dittrich, September 19, 2010

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Steven Dittrich. Dittrich was born 15 October 1952 in Oceanside, New York. He is first generation American and grew up in an extended family that spoke German in the household. In his narrative, he relates the experiences his father and grandmother had during World War II. His father, Erwin K. Dittrich, was born in Westheim, Germany 25 March 1923. His grandmother was Jewish while his grandfather was a Christian. In March 1943 his grandmother received a deportation order sending her and her son, Erwin, to a transit camp in Bielefeld, Germany. After two months the mother and son were put aboard a train and sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp where the mother died of starvation in 1944. Erwin was sent to a camp at Trebnitz, Germany. The commandant of the camp was Franz Stuschka who was tried and found guilty of war crimes committed during the war. Erwin’s job was to clean the SS barracks. As the Russian Army advanced the camp was evacuated in February 1945 and he was sent to Theresienstadt. In May 1945 the Nazis turned over control of the camp to the Red Cross before it was liberated by the Russians. He remained in camp two months then walked 150 miles to Berlin where he became a driver for the 82nd Airborne. Erwin then went to work for the United Nations as a driver in the Schlachtenberg Displaced Persons Camp. He married in 1947 and immigrated to the United States. His wife came the following year. Erwin went to work for the New York Port Authority and retired in 1987. He died August 2007