War Crimes Group Veteran Shielded His Family

by

John J. Dunphy

This is a revised version of a column that appeared in the 6/12–6/13/2023 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL.

Massachusetts resident Paul Dowd “almost fell out of my chair,” as he put it in a 2021 e-mail to me when he read my book Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials. Bill Kasich, a U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group veteran who provided me with much material for the book, gave me a photo that appears on page 31. It depicts four young members of the War Crimes Group at work in their office. Dowd told me that he and his family were certain that one of the young men was Walter C. Kirkland, his late father-in-law.

Dowd assured me the “photograph has made the entire family circuit” and “Everyone is in agreement that whoever took that photograph did in fact capture Walter at his work station.” According to Kirkland’s discharge paper, which Dowd shared with me, he had been a clerk-typist. He wished that his father-in-law “were alive today” because “I’m certain he would have enjoyed the small notoriety attached to seeing his Army unit portrayed in your fine book.”

Kirkland “was only a kid then, 18–19 years old,” Dowd noted. Kirkland’s youth made him the norm, not the exception. These men, many in their late teens and early twenties, had been delegated a task that would have intimidated many of their fellow Americans. The War Crimes Group investigated atrocities that had committed in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. They gathered evidence, interviewed witnesses, apprehended suspects and prosecuted defendants at trials held at Dachau, which Nazi Germany had used as a concentration camp.

I put Dowd in touch with Bill Kasich, who assured him that he remembered his father-in-law. Kasich told Dowd that Kirkland had been a member of the “Jury Boys,” which was the War Crimes Group’s baseball team. He sent Dowd a photo of the team in which Kirkland is clearly visible.

Kirkland never had a chance to read “Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials.” He died in 2010, nine years before the book’s publication. My first thought was regret that I hadn’t interviewed him so that I could have included his recollections in my book. Further dialogue with Dowd convinced me that there had been no lost opportunity, however. His father-in-law had little desire to share his experiences while serving with the War Crimes Group.

In an e-mail, Dowd wrote that “Papa didn’t talk much about his time in uniform. He did tell me he was part of the WCU but never got into any specifics. The most demonstrative Walter became in my presence was saying something like ‘I saw all those bastards up close,’ “ a reference to the defendants awaiting their trials. “Everything else concerning the WCU was ‘broad strokes.’ Looking back, clearly he did not want to talk nor think about those times.”

In another e-mail, Dowd told me his father-in-law had attended some of the war crimes trials. “He gave me a ticket — like a carnival ticket — that allowed admittance to one of the trials,” Dowd wrote. “I later donated it to the USS Salem Museum in nearby Quincy, Mass.”

When Kirkland shared memories of his army days, “it was mostly of the funnier things such as being a northerner taking basic training in the deep south; being ‘that guy’ who dropped the live hand grenade in the pit during practice; and being demoted from sergeant to corporal in Germany on the same day he was promoted because the inspecting officer pulled a loose thread off of his newly sewn sergeant chevrons,” Dowd stated.

n addition to providing Dowd with that photo of the baseball team, Kasich acquainted him with the work of the War Crimes Group. It helped him understand just why his father-in-law was so reluctant to discuss the subject. Members of the 7708 War Crimes Group “surely witnessed the fresh aftermath of more horror in the performance of their duties than any person should have to see in a hundred life-times,” Dowd concluded.

In addition to providing Dowd with that photo of the baseball team, Kasich acquainted him with the work of the War Crimes Group. It helped him understand just why his father-in-law was so reluctant to discuss the subject. Members of the 7708 War Crimes Group “surely witnessed the fresh aftermath of more horror in the performance of their duties than any person should have to see in a hundred life-times,” Dowd concluded.

Walter was a wonderful man kind and generous, with a fierce love of God, Country and Family,” Dowd assured me. Walter Kirkland’s love for his family surely reinforced his desire to spare them explicit knowledge of the horrors perpetrated by Nazi Germany.

John J. Dunphy’s other books include Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois. He owns The Second Reading Book Shop in Alton, IL.