Talk:Anthony Acevedo

Link
This page should be linked in List of Holocaust survivors. Yoninah (talk) 00:06, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Unexplained discrepancy in dates
The article states the following:


 * "Instead, he was re-assigned to Company B of the 70th Infantry Division which was also at Camp Adair. This division was deployed to Marseilles in December 1944, crossing the ocean on the USS West Point, arriving January 18, 1945. ...


 * "... Acevedo was captured during the Battle of the Bulge on January 6, 1945."

Obviously, he couldn't have been captured before his division arrived in France. I assume the error is in the division's arrival date (it should have taken no more than a week for their transport to cross the Atlantic), but I can't check the cited source.

--Colin Douglas Howell (talk) 01:19, 29 March 2018 (UTC)
 * great catch! Indeed, the sources give those conflicting dates.  I have removed the "arrival date", because the capture date comes from his diary, while the apparently erroneous "arrival" date comes from an interview conducted much later.  I appreciate your further input.   78.26  (spin me / revolutions) 13:49, 29 March 2018 (UTC)


 * The following might help. From the 70th Infantry Division article:


 * "The three infantry regiments of the 70th Infantry Division, the 274th, 275th and 276th, landed at Marseille, France, 10–15 December 1944, and were formed into Task Force Herren under command of deputy division commander, Thomas W. Herren, before the arrival of the remainder of the division on 18 January 1945. Task Force Herren took over defensive positions along the west bank of the Rhine, 28 December 1944, in the vicinity of Bischwiller, south of Haguenau Forest. Elements took part in the fight to stop the German Operation Nordwind, and struck at the enemy at Philippsbourg and at Wingen between Bitche and Hagenau."


 * So the date of 18 January 1945 was for the arrival of the rest of the division. However, it turns out Acevedo was with the division's 275th Infantry Regiment, so he would have arrived on 15 December 1944 and been part of Task Force Herren when it moved to the Rhine's west bank on 28 December 1944.


 * Here's my source for Anthony Acevedo being in the 275th Infantry Regiment. The 70th Infantry Division has a members' association whose website includes an account by Anthony Acevedo which states:


 * "I was a Medic for the 275th Infantry Regiment of the 70th Infantry Division and assigned to Company B. My story begins with the events leading to interment in a Nazi German prison camp, January 6, 1945."


 * You can find a lot more details of the history and activities of the regiment (and other 70th Infantry Division forces) on the association's website to fill in further details, if you like. Look around, there's lots of stuff there.


 * Another possible source is the collection of Anthony Acevedo papers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, available online through that link. Colin Douglas Howell (talk) 17:10, 30 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Oh, one more point. When you identify which military unit Acevedo was with, "Company B of the 70th Infantry Division" is ambiguous. A division is a very large unit, while a company is a small one. In this case, the company's letter label "B" only distinguishes it within the specific regiment it belongs to. To be unambiguous, you need to include the regiment, so "Company B of the 275th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division". --Colin Douglas Howell (talk) 17:30, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

More sources?
Are there more sources available that aren't obituaries? Obits tend to be less reliable, given the circumstances of their writing. --Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 17:07, 29 March 2018 (UTC)