James F. Dorris, Jr. was born in November 1924 in Chattanooga [Annotator’s Note: Chattanooga, Tennessee]. He enjoyed growing up there. His father was a sales manager at Eureka Foundry Company and his mother never worked once she were married. Dorris had one brother and a lot of cousins. He attended Notre Dame High School. Dorris’ great-grandfather served in the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865] which fascinated Dorris and they often talked about his experiences. He attended a Confederate Army reunion with his great-grandfather. Dorris’ father was too young to be called up [Annotator's Note: for World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918], but he did volunteer to drive troops around. Dorris was fishing at a lake when they learned about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Dorris had plans to go to college and wanted to be an engineer. He followed along with the progress of the war by listening to the radio and reading the newspapers. Dorris knew what Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was doing and was ready to go fight him. He was very bitter about the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor. He was a freshman at the University of Chattanooga when he got notice that he was being drafted into the infantry, but he was allowed to finish his freshman year.

When James F. Dorris, Jr. first went into the service, he took tests to see what he was qualified for. He was put into ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] for engineering. Before that, he went to Fort McClellan, Alabama for basic training. Then he was sent to North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota for engineering courses. He was there from September [Annotator’s Note: of 1943] until the following March or April, when he was sent back to the infantry and did more training at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma from July until October [Annotator’s Note: of 1944]. The ASTP program was ended around this time. The trip overseas took about ten days on a ship. They were not told where they were going, but passed the Straits of Gibraltar and arrived at Marseille, France. Dorris served with Company A, 222nd Regiment, 42nd Division [Annotator’s Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] all the way through the war. They were loaded onto 40 and eights [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses]. It was very crowded and they had to sleep on the floor. This was in early December [Annotator’s Note: 1944]. The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] had not yet started. They arrived in Lengelsheim, France and unloaded. When they went into the town, the men they were relieving told them that they were lucky because they had not seen a German in a week. Ironically, Germans came in that night with a tank and infantry and attacked the local railroad station. Private Berlin [Annotator’s Note: unable to identify] was the first man in their unit to be killed. The snow was eight inches deep. After this skirmish, they were ordered to fall back to the Maginot Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by France in the 1930s] which was about a mile away. They went on patrols at night. The Germans also sent patrols and attacked at night.

James F. Dorris, Jr. did not enjoy his first taste of combat. Some men were killed. They got reinforcements. They could see tanks below from their position on a high hill. They did not have any anti-tank guns, only rifles. One of the men in the group was a machine gunner, and he waited for the tank to approach. The tank commander was out of the turret looking for Americans. When the tank got close, the gunner jumped up and fired down into the tank with his machine gun which he emptied. There was no way anyone inside could have survived. The tank turned and fell off the side of the hill. The man received a Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] for that action. Everyone in the unit was friends. Once they were in the foxholes in the forest in eight or ten inches of snow on the ground. Dorris and his friend Norris broke down some tree limbs and slept on those. They were very tired after long days. Dorris woke up because he was freezing cold. He woke up Norris so he would not freeze to death. Dorris had to kick up to wake him up, and Norris was angry he had woken him up. A truck later came by and provided them with shovels, and one overcoat for four of them to share. They put the overcoat on the ground of the foxhole they dug so they would not get damp. They spent the night like that until the next morning. The Germans had pulled out. They got pancakes, bacon, and hot coffee that morning. From then on, the attacked every day. When they took heavy casualties, they would be pulled back to get reinforcements and more arms. Their rations came with cigarettes, crackers, and candy. Dorris would save his candy and give it to local children. There was a local couple who invited some of the men in and shared schnapps with them. Dorris was not a big drinker and the drink burned his stomach and made his eyes water. The couple thought he was crying, and they started crying. [Annotator’s Note: Dorris smiles.]

James F. Dorris, Jr. and his unit [Annotator’s Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] started going through Germany, first stopping in Wurzburg. They continued chasing the Germans through several towns, and would fight whenever there was resistance. Their destination was Munich [Annotator’s Note: Munich, Germany]. They soon got orders to take the Dachau concentration camp [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany]. They had never heard of a concentration camp. There were 14-foot concrete walls all around the complex. As they marched, they suddenly encountered a horrible odor. They came upon a crematorium where the Germans were burning bodies. They came upon a train with 40 boxcars which had been loaded with 60 or 70 prisoners in each car which had been made to hold only 40. They had been in there for nine days without food or water, and unable to sit or stand. Some of them gradually died. When the Germans heard the Americans were coming, they machine gunned those still alive. They found one man who had survived. He was skin and bones. They took him to the nearest aid station. As they went into the iron gate of the camp, they say the sign “Arbeit macht frei” which meant “Work will set you free”. A lieutenant told Dorris to go in and not let anyone out. There was a wire wall that had been charged with electricity, but it had been turned off. He came across a body that was in an unnatural position, like the arms and legs had been broken. His left eye had been gouged out and was hanging on his cheek. It was a horrible sight. When Dorris looked through the gate, he saw 200 to 300 prisoners standing in formation looking at him. A man came to the fence and asked him for a cigarette. He had a few packs, but not enough for everyone and worried a riot would start if he only gave out a few, so he said no. Dorris thought he must be in hell and asked God to get him out of the place. The man who asked for a cigarette left and came back with a tin can inside of which was a used cigarette butt, which he offered to Dorris in thanks for rescuing them. Where Dorris had been despairing at the sight of the camp, the kindness shown by the man who offered the cigarette butt that he had been saving for a long time and thanking him made Dorris feel that he was really helping the people and his whole attitude changed. He took the butt and shook the man’s hand and waved to the other prisoners who waved back and smiled. Dorris was relieved by someone else and went to the guards’ old barracks. [Annotator’s Note: Ambulance sirens in the background.] That is where they slept that night, and Dorris wondered who had slept there the night before. All the guards had taken off.

James F. Dorris, Jr. could not believe how cruel the Germans could be to other humans [Annotator's Note: when his unit, Company A, 1st Battalion, 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division, arrived to liberate Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany in early May 1945]. There was a reunion of men of the Rainbow Division [Annotator’s Note: nickname of the 42nd Infantry Division] and surviving prisoners of the camp. Dorris met one survivor named Danny Fischer [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling; unable to confirm identity] who told him his story. When he was around 15, his father warned him something terrible might happen to he gave him 3000 American dollars and told him to hide it. Some of Dorris’ fellow soldiers were so angry at what they saw that they began shooting the German guards. Dorris was sick at seeing what some people could do to other people, but he did not partake in shooting unarmed guards. When he got home, no one wanted to talk about the war. He did not even tell his parents about what he had seen. It was not until 30 years later that he could start talking about it. He just wanted to forget it. [Annotator’s Note: There is a break in the interview to change tapes at 00:54:10.] Dorris tried his best to forget it. He did not have nightmares. He was able to go back to university and when he graduated, he went to Rochester [Annotator’s Note: Rochester, New York] to get married. He had too many things to think about to think about the war. They had seven children. Dorris was happy to be able to do whatever good he did at the concentration camp. He was so happy that they could stop what the prisoners had been going through. When he began talking what he saw at Dachau, it brought back a lot of memories and it was difficult. But over time, it was okay. He wrote down his wartime experiences, like his great-grandfather had done [Annotator's Note: he had served in the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865]. His wartime experiences makes him unable to stand people mistreating other people. He believes that we should continue to teach the about war to avoid it happening again. We will always have wars, but it might stop things like the concentration camps.

James F. Dorris, Jr. met a man named Daniel Fischer [Annotator’s Note: unsure of spelling; unable to confirm identity] who he had taken part in liberating [Annotator’s Note: Dorris’ unit of the 42nd Infantry Division took part in liberating the Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany in early May 1945]. They met at a reunion of the Rainbow Division [Annotator’s Note: nickname of the 42nd Infantry Division]. Fischer was 13 when he was put into Dachau, and 16 at the time of liberation. During his imprisonment, he was made to work in a quarry but was given barely any food. He got so weak that he could not pick up the stones anymore. He was lined up with 600 other prisoners in the same condition outside of the gas chambers. They had to wait while the previous group of gassed people were removed. The dead people’s clothes were given to other prisoners. When the guards were not looking, Danny took his clothes off and laid down with the dead bodies. He laid there all day until it was dark, got up, put his clothes back on and went back to the barracks. He knew he would be found out eventually, but the 42nd liberated the camp the following day. Fischer returned to his father’s store in Hungary, but it had been emptied. He found the 3000 dollars that he had hidden [Annotator’s Note: his father gave him 3000 American dollars to hide before they were taken to Dachau]. He paid a local place five dollars a week to feed himself and his cousin each meal every day, but one day someone saw him hiding the money and stole it. Fischer had an uncle in the United States who told him that if he could get to Paris, he would pay for him to come to America. They had to cross seven borders to reach Paris, but was able to make it to the United States when he was 18 years old. He and his cousin both went to medical school and became doctors. Fischer was a practicing doctor in Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts] for 50 years. On his 90th birthday, Fischer called Dorris to thank him because he felt he would have died had it not been for Dorris. They remain in touch and call each other regularly.