Oral history interview with Jesse Oxendine

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Oral history interview with Jesse Oxendine

2006

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn607953

Jesse Oxendine, born July 20, 1926 in Pembroke, NC, describes being drafted by the army on September 15, 1944; his three brothers also serving in the army (one brother flew 25 missions) and all returned home safely; attending Native American schools through high school in Pembroke; growing up Native American; being put in charge of a platoon of 48 men; his regiment coming across the labor camp in Wobbelin, Germany in May 1945; how he and his regiment had never heard of concentration camps; seeing the condition of the prisoners; taking the few German guards left as prisoners; going to Ludwigslust, Germany; the local towns people being made to dig graves for the dead prisoners; he and his brothers not sharing their war experiences much with their parents; a cousin of his who was killed in Normandy, France; visiting Ludwigslust in 1994; how he and his friend Henry Hirschmann, a Jewish Holocaust survivor also from Charlotte, visit and share their past experiences with high school students and church groups; learning about the scope of the Holocaust years after the war; his thoughts about war; and lessons he has learned.

eng, Latn

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SNAC Resource ID: 11658479

Related Entities

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Oxendine, Jesse E., 1926-2017

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xf1sfd (person)

Jesse Edward Oxendine, born in Pembroke, N.C., on July 20, 1926, died February 10, 2017. Oxendine grew up in Pembroke, N.C. and was a long-time resident of Charlotte, N.C. A member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, he was the first licensed Native American pharmacist in North Carolina. As a youth, Oxendine was active in scouting. He graduated from Pembroke High School in 1944 and was drafted into the military the same year. A member of the 82nd Airborne Division, 325th Glider Infantry, h...