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FROM! PAGE A1Saturday marks the 70th anniversary of Ithe day the verdicts were handed down In the Nuremberg trial.Sharp, now 92 and living in Manhattan, will speak about his experiences at 7 p:in. Thursday in t. a Visitors Centeo auditorium at the Eisenhower Presidfential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home.Shatp has written two books, “Sgt. of the Guard at Nuremberg” and Diary of a Combat Infantryman.” After his presentation, he will autograph copie«Of both books, which will be for sale in the Presidential Gift Shop.Sharp grew up on a farm in Morris County. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944, even though he had an agricultural deferment.A lot of people I knew were overseas, rpy two brothers were in the service,” he said. “I was still at home, and I didn't want any of that. I wantedto go and help.”After training at Fort McClellan in Alabama, Sharp was deployed in February 1944 to France as a member of “B” Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, 18th Infantry.Fought in Battle of the BulgeIn .January 1945, he was involved in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II the Battle of the Bulge in the heavily forested Ardennes region of easterrt Belgium and northern Luxembourg. Fought during one of the worst European winters on record, American troops suffered 640,000 casualties, a third caused by frostbite.I was introduced to war there, and that wasenough to last a lifetime,”Sharp said.After Germany surrendered in May 1945, Sharp's unit became military policemen, hunting down and arrestingCourtesy photoJim Sharp, 22, waits for daily inspection before going on guard duty during the Nuremberg trial in 1946. During World War II, Sharp had been a combat infantryman with “B” Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, 18th Infantry before being assigned to guard Nazi defendants at the trial.Nazi leaders and SS troops.When Sharp was assigned to guard duty at Nuremberg in early 1916. he was assured it would last just three months.“At the end of three months, thetrial was just getting started,” he said Although guards weren’t supposed to converse with the defendants,Sharp remembered a brief conversa tion he had with Goering, who could speak English well. He asked Sharp about his family and if he knew of the great American aviator Charles Lindbergh and the car manufacturer Henry Ford.They had honored Lindbergh and Ford with the Iron Cross at two different ceremonies Lindbergh for aviation and Ford for mass produc tion,” Sharp said. “Goering was a good orator and a thorn in the side of the prosecuting attorney. He talked about war crimes the U.S., Britain, France and Russia had committed. He had to be reminded that he was the one on trial, not them.”Sharp didn’t stay until the end of the seven month trial. He wanted to start college in the fall at Kansas State University and put in for a discharge.Soon after, Sharp entered college, working on a degree in business administration, 12 Nazi defendants at Nuremberg were given the death penalty. Goering committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill.In 1986, Sharp retired from Kansas Farm Bureau as manager of information systems and started his own management consulting business.Sharp said he’ll never forget his time at Nuremberg and what he learned from his experience.It was hard to get my mind around all that the (Nazis) did, but when you see war up close, you realize that all of us were following orders from up above,” he said. “The winners are the ones who write the history.”Reporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by email at tide muth nsalina.com.
Newspaper Details
Salina Journal
Salina, Kansas, US
Mon, Sep 26, 2016
Page 6
Full Page
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USA 21 Apr 2019
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