My name is Wallace Eugene Snelson, and I was born on March 28, 1923. My friends call me Pete, and it has been my nick-name for many years. My hometown is Grandfalls, Texas, where I went to public school prior to going to the Texas College of Mines at El Paso. My parents were involved in ranching and farming for many years. There were six boys in my family, and five served in WWII and one in the Korean War. We all got back home safely from different parts of the world. I enjoyed my time at the Grandfalls school where I participated in events such as the establishment of a newspaper published by our school body. It got me interested in becoming a newspaper reporter. Therefore I enrolled to study journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso. While studying, I got an opportunity to achieve my dream of becoming a sports editor for the El Paso Times.
When WWII started, the spirit of love for the country bubbled up in the U.S. and it made me decide that I wanted to defend my country. In 1943 I joined the U.S. Army and enlisted in the Reserve Corps which was specifically for students. Serving in the Army Reserve enabled students to continue studies until they are needed in the service. However, we were all called up to active duty in May of 1943. After completing my basic training, I was sent to the University of Nebraska to study the German language in order to become professional in the language and to learn as much as I could about the culture and history of the country.
After completing my work there, I was assigned to the 44th Infantry Division within the New Jersey Army National Guard. I completed my training in Camp Phillips, near Salina, Kansas, before going to Europe. In May 1944, we were dispatched to Normandy and we were the first group of soldiers to land directly at Normandy from the United States. We entered combat by relieving another division which had been on the defensive position at the frontline. I'll never forget our first night on the frontline, it was on a Saturday and the Germans had a tank moving across the frontline broadcasting messages such as, "Welcome to combat!" Their major purpose was to encourage us to surrender, have fun and play games instead of fighting back. Certainly this wasn't something any of the soldiers would be willing to do at any point. But it was an interesting technique that the Germans used.
On the second night we were informed that some Germans wanted to surrender, and it was my turn to go to the borderline to welcome these Germans. However, none came that night when I reached the border, but two days later we had a few Germans who surrendered. On November 13, 1943 we were on active duty in a town where Germans attacked us, the result of which a soldier friend of mine was killed. I also got wounded in the same attack in that town which was close to the Vosges Mountains near Sarrebourg. I was taken immediately to the field hospital and then shifted to the General Hospital AmeriCorps France where I spent almost three months recuperating from my wounds.
I was then assigned a replacement and was interviewed to join Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). I was selected as a Special Agent for the 307th CIC detachment at the 7th Army Headquarters to serve in Germany. Our main responsibility was to de-Nazify the Germans and we had various assignments to protect the security of our forces. We had developed a lead on Josef Spacil, who organized the German Hitler Youth that consisted of young men between 17-18 years of age. Therefore we knew the Germans would try to harass the American forces.
In order for us to find out the details about this there was a young German man who volunteered to assist us in trying to prevent future violence and to prevent the path of further destruction. We named him "Mouse," and it was a code name for him. He followed the leads and was very helpful in providing us with useful information to prevent violence. Eventually we got him a U.S. passport in appreciation for what he had done for us. Later, I came to know that this person "Mouse" had also served as a professor at Northwestern University, but he never disclosed his identity to anyone in the U.S. Anyway, we came across a lot of different people in Germany who had been guilty of war crimes. We encountered all kinds of stories and excuses for the war crimes. But most of all it was so sad and terrible to see the things we saw in the concentration camps.
I was assigned to a camp in Dachau in 1945, and after reaching there I was in great shock! I thought to myself how ironic it was that hundreds of human lives were perishing there in the camp. It is hard to describe in words but it was as cruel as anyone could imagine. I didn't get a chance to interact with any of the prisoners, but we had a team who did interrogations about what had been happening in the camp. I also had an opportunity to meet Dr. Klaus Schilling, who was famous for his research on malaria by experimenting on humans in concentration camps. My duty was to bring back Dr. Schilling who was the head of medical research in Dachau. He told me that he was able to find a cure for malaria but he wasn't able to record the cure in his book. He also asked us to go by his house and bring some books, which we did. He was a man who could think of anything gross as he used thousands of prisoners as guinea pigs to test his malaria cure. We took him to Augsburg where our interrogation headquarter was located. In 1945, Dr. Schilling was tried for his criminal activities and executed in 1946.
Therefore I was in Augsburg when the war ended. After the war, I remained in Germany for six months participating in denazification programs. At that time, there was a great deal of interest in locating any valuables such as artwork which might have been displaced during the war. As a result of that, everyone was on the search for any documents that could be of historical value. One of our agents had an informant who indicated that he had some important information about such documents. He told our agents that there was a trunk containing a lot of these documents supposedly buried, and we found it with his help. This trunk contained a lot of valuables, which was worth probably a million dollars, including Hitler's uniform when he got wounded in July, as well as a sterling set of silver, photograph albums, stamp albums and other valuables. The photo albums contained photos of Hitler and Eva Braun. There were also a lot of photographs of a child, and the speculation was that it was Hitler's kid.
We felt a need to preserve those albums for the future. I had the trunk with me for a few weeks until we decided to send it to Frankfurt to our headquarters. In December 1945 we all came back to the U.S. feeling victorious. I went back to my hometown in January of 1946. I worked as a history teacher at Grandfalls High School, as it was too late for me to take admission at that time of the semester to complete my remaining degree. It was an interesting experience being in a classroom with young people. I was discharged from active duty in March 1946, but I remained active in the Reserve Corps. I was named a commander of the Counter Intelligence Corps at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
After teaching History for a semester, I completed my degree at the Texas College of Mines and decided to continue my career in education. I got my journalism degree in September 1946. I was then employed by the college in El Paso to become a director of sports activities. In 1948, I enrolled in the masters of journalism program at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. After receiving my master's, I chose to enter the advertising agency field, and continued for the next 30 years. At the same time, I started becoming active in political affairs at the state and national level. As a result of which, I was selected to be elected as the state representative for West Texas. Four years later I was elected as a member of the Texas Senate where I stayed as a senator for about 20 years. I had the opportunity to participate in various major activities of the Texas legislature. I am proud of my service in political affairs. At the same time, I am proud of the opportunity I had to serve in World War II.
