Participated in maneuvers and then moved to camp breckenridge kentucky. Brigadier general robert became the Division Commander of the 83rd and stay there throughout the war. Division sales on april 6, 1944 landed in liverpool and went to wales for training. On august 16 1944 they boarded a ship, this time to normandy and into action. The 83rd would ,eek contact with the enemy five different campaigns, and liberating numerous towns and villages. Tom, the Brittany Campaign also surrendered at the citadel torturous and on september 16 saw the only surrender over german Major General with 20,000 enlisted officers to u. S. Troops. From there they went to the bulge with russia fort the Rhineland Campaign was in the canal area in the towns of ofvil stores devilsdorf. Central campaign general eisenhowers final offensive to cross the first goal to destroy the german army group, which helped in such critical and industrial areas. The 83rd would be crucial in the race to erect the truman bridge across the river. Days and ended up 45 miles southwest of berlin. The 83rdst drive earned another nickname. Europe, to ust in it was no circus. It looks like a summer Carnival Group entering a country town as we dashed along the highways and use everyere we conceivable means of transportation we encountered. They had a seemingly Endless Supply of green paint to paint every german vehicle they commandeered. 80the way to the river, the are deliberated the langdon nstein the lange concentration camp. The first goal was to extricate the hills and provide new types of jets and weapons. They worked in 12 hour shifts and under the blows of their guards. Life expectancy of the prisoners was six weeks. Liberation, attorneys continue to die at the rate of 25 through 30 per day. On 26march returns 1946. React evaded as readinessrd u. S. Army Training Center at fort knox. Major general robert make an robert megan to reaffirm faith and fundamental human rights and dignity and worth of the human people in equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much. I certainly appreciated. Incredible what these men went through. I would like to introduce the daughter of sergeant hall. She will speak on behalf of the family. I would like to read a brief expert. And appeared in the Stars Stripes newspaper on april 20, 1945. Down the road in the concentration cages were men who were not Strong Enough to lead. ,rench resistance members polish and political prisoners, jews. There had been two americans in the camp. They had died last month of malnutrition. Most of the rest had died. Death was there, even among the still living. In the hospital where those were about to die, there was one man potato been dealing peeling spirit he didnt have any flesh there anymore. Rest of the men in the hospital had dysentery. In their own excrement, too weak to move. Rest. N stronger than the , nooks no hips. Sergeant Donald J Hall rarely spoke to us about the war. Did it was he spoke of the truck he drove and how he once backed it into a and how he would be in his oversized uniform. But his only brief mentions of the flag were to my brothers, that had been made by concentration camp prisoners. He said nothing at all about it to his daughters, so it is no wonder that this piece of history has such a precarious time of it. Having made its way with the family from michigan to kentucky in 1959, being shifted from closet to cupboard, finally growing dusty in the attic and nearly being thrown out when we moved mom from the family home, but after researching its origins and pooling what little we could find, we siblings, and there are 10 of us, came to this flag must have been a painful reminder to dad, things he saw at langenstein and elsewhere, things that must have been cruel and heartbreaking, something that he certainly would not have with his small children and others in life. Here, they have done a wonderful going through the process of donating the flag. We know that dad would be very proud of what we do today, and he would agree that we have come full circle. What was once too painful or too awful for him to speak of now needs to be talked about. It needs to be shared, and needs to be remembered so that a nevery of this scope can happen again. On behalf of our father, hall, and onld behalf of the entire family, and could you please stand . Suzy, barbara, tom , and ourmily, justin sister nancy, who could not be with us today. Langensteinift the survivors and the United States of america. [applause] kyra seeing your sisters get emotional. I am one of the curators here at the Holocaust Memorial museum, and i certainly remember the day i got a phone call, a random phone call from a lovely woman in kentucky is said, hi, i have , and we have calls about a lot of flags, but they are not usually american flags, so we started wonderful emails and updates, and more people are coming, and i am absolutely thrilled that we have gotten to this point today, and it is more beautiful in person than the photos i saw before. Wean american institution, have a responsibility, not only to preserve the story of the survivors and the victims of of thoseecution but involved, the prosecutors back home, americans caught up in europe and who were held prisoner in the camp, and all of those stories, and people ask, why is there a United StatesHolocaust Museum . And i feel very strongly we have an obligation to collect these american stories, preserve them, and we have a Major Mission focusing on the holocaust, and our next exhibition opening in a few years will focus on that, so it is very exciting for us that we are able to tell such a wellrounded picture, and one of the things i say to people all of the time, every little thing, when you add it together, this is one of flag representing lan genstein those in the camp but also the liberators, and we put those with the photographs we have and the unit patches and the flag we have of stairs, and the testimony we have from the survivors, all of and tell agether bigger story. I was telling kathleen earlier there was film footage from a camp, and we met a survivor from that cap, and every time we need them when you as a connection with that camp, whether it be a town or a ghetto, it as more, so they will see this flag in our myection and will say, grandfather helped take that and putting it out there, that will help us, and all the little pieces come together to really help us learn more. Every day, i learn something new, which is one of the reasons why i love my job. Incredibley the most place to work, and it is an tosome responsibility for us be responsible for preserving these artifacts, not just for right now but for future generations, and preserving the physical story the physical materials, but also the story of the men and women behind them, so what i would like to ask you all to do, these siblings who are part of the official family dont ease donors, we would like you to come up. And i will add, this is your last chance to change her mind, because once you sign the paperwork, i can only send you photos. Ok. You can sign and date above your name. Find your name. And all of you will get a copy of the document along with a formal letter of acknowledgment. You will all have it for your records. So whattoday is august 20 7, 20. Signing, iou are will fill the time. So one thing i found, and i love working with veterans, but i found it is not unusual that they do not really talk about their experiences with their family. They want to protect their family members, so i think it is great that he spoke with your brothers, a little, so hopefully with scholarly knowledge and the role of nancy today will be played by we will work it out. Not a problem. I also had to ask what order you are signing in. Order that you gave it to me in, so i respected the original order. We are big on that. Archivists are big on that. What . Ok. Right there, yes. Andy. Ok. Right there, yes. Ok, last one. Ok. Ok. Yes. I just want to say this officially concludes the donation, part of our morning, so thank you all again for joining us today. And i know that the family would like to get pictures galore with the flag now that everybody is here, so thank you for joining us this morning, and colleagues, thank you for joining us, as well. Ok. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] watching you are American History tv. Follow us on twitter at cspan history to keep up with all of the latest history news. The opens upcoming visit to the u. S. , cspan has live coverage from washington, the first stop on the popes tour. Start with awill welcoming ceremony on the south lawn, followed by a meeting with president obama. Makesn thursday, the history, becoming the first pontiff to address both the house of representatives and the senate at a joint meeting. Follow all of cspans coverage of the pope visit live on tv or on cspan. Org. Announcer recently, American History tv was at the society of annual meeting in arlington, virginia. We spoke with professors, authors, and graduate students about their research. This interview is about 20 minutes. Host a postdoctoral student at cornell university, and your book, thank you very much for being with us on American History tv. This is a dissertation now turned into a book. What is the premise behind it . Guest it is that they expanded American Power into the polar region, and what that did for american geopolitical power and its place in the world, so prior to 1933 when roosevelt took office, they were not very accessible, so as a result of a number of factors, they become jewel put a gleason to the good, which changes their place in the world. Host why did fdr realize this was such an important part