Raymond Zager was born in December 1924 in Los Angeles, California. His father was out of work for a while but was able to make ends meet. A lot of people were out of work at the time. Zager was in high school when he found out about Pearl Harbor. He woke his father up that morning to tell him that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Zager graduated high school in 1942 and from there he joined the army. After he enlisted he was sent to California and then to Texas. In Texas, Zager completed his basic training. Zager wanted to be a pilot and through letters of recommendation he was sent to the Army Air Force. The Army Air Force decided that Zager needed a little bit more education so they sent him to Utah State University. Zager was there about three or four months, but he was sent back to the infantry. He trained with a jungle and mountain unit that only worked with mules. He was then transferred to a heavy division at Ft. Benning, Georgia. It was the most up to date division in the army. All of the equipment, uniforms, tanks etc. were up to date. A lot of the men were folded into the unit after training for another branch. This added to the overall intelligence of the entire division. After training for a few months the 25,000 men of the division went to New Jersey. This was in the winter of 1944. A convoy of over 200 ships took the men from New Jersey to France. During the trip a ship next to Zager’s was hit by a torpedo from a German u-boat. Once a day the men had to help scrape ice off of the boat because it was so cold. Zager landed in France and was sent to a training camp called Old Gold. All of the camps in France were named after cigarette brands. It rained most of the time they were in Old Gold. It rained so hard they had to dig irrigation trenches around their tents so they would not flood. One day General Eisenhower came and gave the troops a motivational pep talk. Zager was introduced to different kinds of German weapons during his training in France. They would routinely fire German weapons so that troops would become familiar to the sound.

They [Annotator's Note: Raymond Zager and his fellow soldiers of the 66th Infantry Regiment, 71st Infantry Division] were put in a convoy and sent to the front. The convoy stretched out for over 20 miles. Zager was a jeep driver and motor messenger. He received the vehicle in Belgium and trained with it at Old Gold. The man that Zager trained with was the only other Jewish person in the outfit with Zager. The entire division ended up at a place called Bitche, France. In Bitche the Germans were not far away, maybe two to three hundred yards away. They proceeded to hunker down in foxholes for the night. They had orders to stay in their foxholes. Their first casualty was a result of friendly fire. A soldier had to use the restroom in the middle of the night and walked forward of the line. They put quite a few bullets into him. Zager and his driving aid, a man named Stevenson, named their jeep Betsy. As the front kept moving it was hard to communicate initially because the rear echelon operations of stringing up wire and so forth took awhile. Zager and his band of jeep messengers were a critical link between headquarters and the front. When Zager would get a message there was a system of encoding it that would need to take place. As a message would go from headquarters to the front line and vice versa, it was important that it was encoded because Zager and the other messengers were shot at almost every day. One time Zager was in his jeep and three silver P-47's [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] came up behind him and strafed him. Zager had to bail out of the jeep to avoid being hit by machine gun fire. Near Bitche there were several hundred artillery pieces. As they moved out of Bitche the artillery pieces opened up against the Germans. Zager happened to be near the artillery when it opened up and experienced the power of the concussive blasts that echoed through the air. It caused one of his ears to bleed. They broke through the German lines eventually reached the Maginot line.

To Raymond Zager the Maginot line was easily conquered. They then came to the Siegfried Line. They advanced through these places and ended up at the Rhine River. They captured several towns along the way. The civilians had to forfeit weapons, telescopes, and anything else that could have military value and that could be used against the Allies. All of these items were put into a big pile and burned, usually in the center of town. Right before they got to the Rhine River, a segment of Patton's Third Army was knocked out completely by a well placed unit of German 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88 millimeter antiaircraft and antitank guns] gunners. This was about three or four miles from the Rhine. When the Rhine was crossed it was tough because the Germans had pre-sighted the Rhine [Annotators Note: German troops in the area had previously sighted in their artillery pieces]. Zager had tanks attached to his battalion. The tanks were driven by an outfit of African-American tankers. When they were attempting to cross the Rhine, one of the spotters on the tank noticed two men in a church steeple across the river who appeared to be German artillery spotters. The tank fired a shell at the church steeple, knocking it down and presumably killing the occupants. Zager was hit nearly at the same time by a German artillery shell, it was a glancing blow on the top of his shoe. The 71st Infantry Division made a name for itself and was eventually requested by Patton himself to join the Third Army. Engineers from Pattton's Third Army put down two pontoon bridges to cross the Rhine.

Raymond Zager crossed the Rhine River into Austria. The Third Army had laid down a blanket of fog to cover the convoy. Some men were killed while they crossed the Rhine. Zager rode with the spearheading Third Army across the Rhine and into Austria. Zager references a book entitled The History of the 71st Division [Annotator's Note: Zager shows the book to the camera]. Zager came across a farm in Austria that had a secret compartment in one of its barns that held men. In the compartment were 20 Polish men whose job it was to maintain the farm. When they were not working, they were forced into their compartments. One of the parents begged Zager and his men to take their child, bring him to America and have him educated. That is exactly what Zager did, they found a uniform suitable for the kid to wear. Zager’s lieutenant proclaimed that if he had any god damn guts he would burn the town down. Zager volunteered to do it because he was a private and had nothing to lose. Zager started the firing of the town and that was all he heard about it. Every night was a struggle in terms of finding a place to sleep. One time he and his men had to sleep on the side of the road in snow and ice in nothing but a sleeping bag. Sometimes it was hard for Zager because he had to make sure he did not run people over. As a messenger who was constantly up on the front line he had to be mindful of soldiers in foxholes.

One night they [Annotators Note: Raymond Zager and some of his fellow soldiers of the 66th Infantry Regiment, 71st Infantry Division] were going to stay in one of Hermann Goering's [Annotator's Note: Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was the Commander of German Air Force, or Luftwaffe] mansions. It was rainy and muddy. There were about 40 or so people who were trying to stay in this place. The men pulled the big red window curtains off of the walls and used them as blankets. Zager sat down at Göring's desk and opened up a compartment that had not been opened by previous looters. It contained a cigar box with silver commemorative coins in it. The next day the soldiers took off from Göring's mansion. They continued their push against a division of the Wehrmacht [Annotator's Note: Germany Military] soldiers who were commanded by SS officers. After crossing the Rhine they ended up crossing the Danube River. Zager was driving one day when someone put a bullet through his windshield. He stopped the car, got out, loaded his M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 rifle, also referred to as an M1 Garand] and fired at where the shot came from. He went to the other side of a tree where he had fired into and a dead Hungarian officer was laying on the other side. One night when Zager was returning back to the lines, one of the sentries informed him that there were a lot of his countrymen walking down the road that he was guarding [Annotators Note: by countrymen, Zager is referring to people of Jewish background]. The sentry informed Zager that they may be near a concentration camp. There were people walking down the side of the road who looked to be in miserable shape. He came upon a sorry sight. There were people obviously still locked inside the camp who could not get out. Zager was able to accelerate his jeep to about 30 miles per hour and knock the gate down.

Raymond Zager drove into the compound [Annotator's Note: Gunskirchen Lager Concentration Camp in Austria]. There were thousands of people there. They automatically assumed that Zager was part of the English army because of the words on the side of his jeep. The people in the camp had no idea that the Americans were in the war. Zager was immediately surrounded by the people in the camp and showered with hugs and kisses. A couple of the people spoke English. The camp was about the size of two football fields. He immediately feared the worst for the people at the camp because he smelled death as soon as he walked into the camp. He found hundreds of dead bodies. One sticks out in his mind because of the sheer sadness of the situation. Zager witnessed a baby suckling on its dead mother. The Nazi guards had already taken off before Zager got there. They knew that the American army was closing in fast. He realized quickly that the men in the camp needed food and medical attention. Zager drove one of the English speaking prisoners back to his company commander. Upon hearing the situation the company commander organized some people with supplies and they headed back out to the camp. This was all on 1 May 1945, seven days before the war would be officially over. Zager and his men were in the dark about V-E Day, they were still chasing after a German division of about 20,000 to 30,000 men. Eventually they caught up to the division and the Wehrmacht [Annotator's Note: German Military] men began to surrender. They threw down their weapons. The SS men did not surrender right away. Zager and another jeep driver decided that they were going to get some souvenirs, particularly pistols such as the Lugers, Walters, and P-38's. They acquired roughly 100 German pistols. On their way back to base, Zager and the pistol looting crew ran into an American airmen who was limping back to American lines. He was captured by the Germans and was being marched around with the surrendered German division. The airmen brought it to Zager's company commander's attention that there were three more airmen walking around with the Germans and that they needed to go back to save them.

Captain Cochran [Annotators Note: Raymond Zager’s company commander] ordered a crew of four jeeps to head back and pick up the American airmen who were left behind. Zager and the convoy found the American flyers. The flyers told him that they were kept away from the SS men so that they were not killed. The flyers hopped in the jeep. They were supposed to continue on to Vienna to meet the Russians but decided against it because it was night. All four jeeps with the American flyers turned around to head back. At that point Zager's back rear tire went flat. They got out to fix the flat and as they did a Tiger tank [Annotators Note: German Mark VI tank, referred to as a Tiger] with SS officers near it came up to them. As they were walking up, Zager hinted to his men to take off their gun belts so as not to portray any sign of aggression to the SS men. Also they took their jackets and covered up the stash of pistols in the back of the Jeep. The first SS man and Zager spoke for a few moments after which Zager continued down the mountain and finally reached their lines with the airmen. Zager gave each of the flyers the pistol of their choice from the stash of stolen pistols. The German men were about to be turned over to the Russians but they feared what the Russians would do to them so they expressed their desire to be captured by the Americans. The Wehrmacht men were separated from the SS men. A lot of the American men were rough on the SS men, most likely because it was known at this point of the atrocities they were committing. Zager had been extremely tired towards the end of the war. One day, shortly after the end of the war Zager was taking a nap when he was approached by his company commander and told to wash his jeep. Zager cursed out his commander then a fist fight started. Eventually Zager was sent to a rest camp because his men knew he just needed rest. He went to the camp in the Alps and came back rested. The rest of the war for Zager consisted mainly of occupation duty.

Raymond Zager ended up joining an army chorus group to stay busy during his occupation duty. He travelled around and performed for soldiers all over Europe. He met General Patton after performing one night. Patton noticed that Zager had his .38 caliber revolver on his hip and asked to see it. Zager noticed that Patton had his infamous two pearl-handled revolvers on his side and asked to see his. They talked for quite a bit and looked at each other’s revolvers. That was the only time Zager ever met or talked to Patton. Zager believed that there were too many women in Germany so he was given the option of being stationed somewhere else in Europe. He decided to go to Rome. As a jeep driver, Zager did not accumulate a lot of points, mostly because of his age. Zager ended up staying in Europe for about a year after the war's end. After that year was up, he got on a Victory ship and headed back home. The troop ship made port in New York City. Zager then took an army train of about six cars to El Paso, Texas. On their way to El Paso they ran head on into another train and two men were killed. Much of the train caught fire and many important records were burned. This resulted in Zager having to sign an affidavit to be released from the army. Zager was about 20 years old when he walked into the concentration camp [Annotator's Note: the Gunskirchen Lager Concentration Camp in Austria]. He felt as if he was pretty tough in terms of seeing things since he had been in combat for months, however when he saw the dead strewn around it really had a profound effect on him. Zager feels that he was not emotional about it at the time. If anything, he felt pity, anger and frustration. Looking back now, knowing what he knows about the entire event, it makes him very emotional. A couple of years later Zager actually met a couple at a party and the man had been at the camp that Zager had been a part of liberating.

Raymond Zager remembers all of the people greeting him at the gate of the concentration camp [Annotator's Note: Gunskirchen Lager Concentration Camp in Austria] and thanking him for saving their lives. The couple that he met later in life thanked him for saving their lives. Zager told them that someone else would have been along to save them and that they would have been fine. The man replied that it was Zager who came and opened the gate. Zager believes that the war changed him. Seeing some of the things that he saw definitely helped to change and sculpt his world view for the rest of his life. He realized it then and now that it was good to get rid of the Nazis. Zager went back to England in 1981. He went to St. Paul's Cathedral. They have a book with the name of every American who died in Europe. Zager believes that The National World War II Museum is important because people will remember their stories. Zager believes it is important to preserve the millions of stories that came about as a result of World War 2. World War 2 was the most exciting time of Zager's life. He is also not proud of some of the things he did, including killing people.