Sol Lazinger was born in Harlem, New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. His family moved to New Jersey and after the war started, he joined the Army. He trained in Camp Blanding, near Jacksonville, Florida. He was sent around the country for training, and finally shipped out through New York. Growing up, Lazinger had three sisters. He grew up in a low-income family, so going into the Army offered him opportunity. Lazinger had a bed and clothes and did not have to worry about things. The Army had a system where a soldier could refuse his paycheck and the Army would double it and send it to the soldier's family. Lazinger did not have money to go places because he sent his money home. He would do other people's laundry so he could earn some money. Lazinger believes being an infantryman gave him the opportunity to live an informal life. He left the United States on the SS Argentina, a cruise ship converted to a troop carrier. Everyone wanted to be on the top bunk. After a 12 day voyage, he landed in Scotland, where he boarded a troop train that brought him to Somerset County, England [Annotator's Note: 23 February 1944]. After training, he was shifted from unit to unit, wherever he was needed. Lanzinger's specialty was in communications and infantry.

After the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] began, Sol Lazinger was placed in the 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division. After moving off the beach, Lazinger saw his first enemy soldier in Evreux [Annotator's Note: Évreux, France]. He participated in the Battle of Mortain [Annotator's Note: Operation Lüttich, German counterattack during Battle of Normandy, Mortain, France, 7 to 13 August 1944] and later crossed the Loire River. Every river crossing was bloody. The hardest part of being in France was being in the hedgerows. The Germans had been in France for years and had set up defensive lines all around Normandy. Lazinger was shot in the heel of his boot. He received a bandage and was sent back to the front lines. After the breakout at Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saint-Lô, France, 7 to 19 July 1944], the battle of the Falaise Gap [Annotator's Note: Falaise Pocket or Battle of the Falaise Pocket or Falaise-Argentan; Battle of Normandy, 12 to 21 August 1944] occurred. The American Air Corps [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces] had many targets to choose from. Lazinger remembers the smell was awful. Some Germans escaped because the English did not close their portion of the gap. During the chase, American soldiers were wounded and killed. At night, the Germans would fire artillery, wounding American soldiers. The wounded men would scream, but the medics could not find them. Lazinger remembers those screams. Many young men died before they could have a life. Every day he faced an enemy, Lazinger thought it would be his last. [Annotator's Note: Lazinger shows a map he kept from an issue of Stars and Stripes, military newspaper, showing his route through Europe.]

Sol Lazinger remembers one of his officers was marked as missing in action in every official Army record. Sixty years after the war, Lazinger retraced his tracks through Europe with his sons. On 4 October 1944, Lazinger was shot and sent to a hospital. He was later discharged as 100 percent disabled and had a hard time finding a job. His sons brought him to the town he was wounded in in Germany. He was able to find the street he was wounded on. While in the Netherlands, his sons found his officer's grave. The officer had put Lazinger in for a Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] but disappeared. Lazinger does not know if the paperwork was put through. One of his friends became a father while on the line. Later that day, while going through the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s], he was killed. Another of his comrades was carrying a flamethrower [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire; M1, M1A1, and M2 flamethrower] and it got caught in some barbed wire. Lazinger unhooked the man while under fire, which is why he was up for the Silver Star. The man was killed on 8 October 1944. Another soldier was wounded and brought to the rear. Lazinger believes a man that is wounded is not the same when he returned to the front line. When the soldier returned to the front line, he was killed and so was his brother. When Lazinger visited the cemetery in Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War II cemetery and memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France], a young man came up to him and asked if he had been in the 30th Division [Annotator's Note: 30th Infantry Division]. The young boy's grandfather was Lazinger's colonel. That young man became the commissioner of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission [Annotator's Note: ABMC].

After being wounded [Annotator's Note: on 4 October 1944], Sol Lazinger was given morphine and brought behind the lines. He was evacuated several times until he made it back to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] for an operation. He heard a doctor say his leg had to be amputated. Another doctor wanted to try and save the damaged leg. Lazinger was given penicillin, which saved the leg. For the next year, he was in and out of hospitals until he was finally discharged. He returned to his parent's farm and started trying to walk again. He was not given much money from the military. One day, Lazinger went to the VA [Annotator's Note: United States Department of Veterans Affairs; also referred to as the Veterans Administration]. Some doctors saw him limping down a hallway. He explained to them that he goes to the VA by hitchhiking and taking buses. The doctors told him they wanted to help him, but Lazinger did not believe them. Sometime later, he was summoned by the VA and the agency told him it would buy him a new car. He was given a voucher for a car, which he got in Trenton, New Jersey. The car was nice but did not come with a radio or heater. The dealer said the car cost over 200 dollars, but Lazinger could not pay it, so the dealership gave it to him for free. Lazinger went into real estate, married a Holocaust survivor, and had four children.

Sol Lazinger received many awards for his military service. While on a patrol, he was crawling in a beet field near the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s]. When he returned 60 years later, it was still a beet field. He could not believe how similar everything was from when he was there. When he returned, he was given an award from the French government. He does not feel like the people of Europe are very friendly towards the United States, despite how many Americans died to free Europe. He does not understand why that is. He does not like all the Americans that died in Iraq [Annotator's Note: Iraq War, 2003 to 2011]. The soldiers Lazinger knew were like him. They were all new to the military, but no matter how afraid they were, he never saw them scared. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] always told the soldiers to not fear the Germans, but they were professional soldiers. Lazinger believes the tenacity of the American soldiers is why they beat the Germans. He was in the hospital when the war ended. Lazinger thinks the United States was more humane because its soldiers did not kill prisoners like the Germans did. He thinks the Germans were less human. Lazinger was speaking to a 23-year-old man that did not know anything about World War 2. He thinks The National D-Day Museum [Annotator's Note: now The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important for everyone.

Sol Lazinger saw his first dead American on Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France] in the water. His next dead body belonged to a German. Bodies were everywhere because there was no time to bury them. Lazinger would not have invited the Germans to the 60th anniversary of D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He thinks about the young men that gave their lives and were not recognized for their actions. He thinks there are many men that did not receive the recognition they deserved. Lazinger feels lucky to have gotten back home alive. He thinks the country served him and his family well. He crossed the Channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel] on an English destroyer. It was a rough passage. The English gave him lime water, which did not help him much. When he returned with his sons, he crossed the Channel again, but that time the water was calm. He landed on Omaha Beach in a landing craft. He thinks the English destroyer crew did wonderful job getting the soldiers close to shore. Lazinger believes the Americans prevailed because of superior numbers. He went ashore with an M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand], a bayonet, and all of his equipment. Many soldiers drowned because the water was rough, and they sank. Bodies were floating in the water for weeks after the invasion. Lazinger saw many vehicles but was never able to ride one. He walked from Omaha Beach to Ubach, Germany. He did not always know if the Americans were winning because his shoes were falling apart, and he did not always have food. When he dug a foxhole, he would put doors and hay over the hole to keep it dry. He was sent to a first aid station because he had a fever. Lazinger was given an aspirin and sent back to the front line. Lazinger cannot believe he was there.

Sol Lazinger and his comrades took turns going on patrols. Occasionally people would disappear in the night. While chasing the Germans during the Battle of the Falaise Gap [Annotator's Note: Falaise Pocket or Battle of the Falaise Pocket or Falaise-Argentan; Battle of Normandy, 12 to 21 August 1944], Lazinger was told he would go through Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. However, his unit [Annotator's Note: 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division] was diverted around the city so French soldiers could march through instead. There was no down time. By the time Lazinger crossed the Seine River, he had marched 124 miles. He stayed in a chateau and saw a show featuring Dinah Shore [Annotator's Note: Fannye Rose Shore; American singer and entertainer]. On 4 September 1944, Lazinger chased the Germans into Belgium. His division was the first American unit to enter Belgium. He bivouacked [Annotator's Note: temporary camp without tents or cover] in the Waterloo [Annotator's Note: Waterloo, Belgium] battlefield. He then moved 65 miles towards Liege [Annotator's Note: Liege, Belgium] and crossed the Albert Canal. After that, Lazinger crossed into Germany. When he arrived in Germany, he went on two patrols and was able to see pillboxes. Another morning, he went on patrol and a hot kitchen moved into position behind the line, indicating an emanate attack. The following day, Lazinger attacked the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s]. His company took over five pillboxes. A German officer pretended to surrender but killed an American. One of his friends was shot in a trench. Lazinger found out there was a gun at the end of the trench, so he tried to warn his comrades not to enter it. There was a trapdoor on one of the pillboxes. One of Lazinger's comrades pulled the door open far enough to fit a grenade inside. The explosion knocked the door off the pillbox, and it hit the soldier, knocking him out. From that time on, his friends started disappearing from the line. When Lazinger entered Ubach [Annotator's Note: Übach-Palenberg, Germany], he was doing urban fighting. He was wounded and fell into a cellar, which is where a doctor found him. A medic gave him morphine. Some bones broke and were sticking out of his leg. His sons told him he might have been killed later had he not been wounded.

On 2 October 1944, Sol Lazinger was looking for soldiers in his squad after a battle. He crossed the Wurm River [Annotator's Note: Würm River, Germany], which was narrow but deep. The Germans started shelling the area the Americans were coming from. The engineers created a bridge over the Wurm River during the attack. When they arrived in Ubach [Annotator's Note: Übach-Palenberg, Germany], the soldiers tried to regroup. There was fighting in the streets. Lazinger was wounded after being hit low by a hidden machine gun. He fell down and crawled into a basement. He started checking his body but did not know he was hit in the legs because the bullet cut his nerve. A medic found him in the basement. He lost a bunch of blood and kept passing out. He heard Germans talking, then Americans. The Americans were throwing grenades into the basements, but Lazinger was found by a medic. He was put on a stretcher and a jeep brought him to an aid station. When he was in an ambulance, Lazinger started vomiting from the smell of burnt soldiers. He was flown from Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] to a general hospital in England. After some time, he was sent home on the USS Richardson [Annotator's Note: USS General W.P. Richardson (APA-118)], arriving in Staten Island [Annotator's Note: Staten Island is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York], where he was put into a hospital. He asked a nurse to call his parents to tell them where he was. He used to write them letters with general locations in them. Lazinger knew there would be a telegram sent to them from the War Department. The letter the nurse wrote arrived a day or two before the War Department telegram. He was sent to various hospitals after that. Lazinger was taken care of in the Army hospitals. He lost a lot of weight between being wounded and returning to the United States. A machine gun bullet went through one of his ankles, paralyzing his foot. The hardest part for him was getting his foot in and out of a shoe. He does not have a joint in that ankle. He was given a surgery that gave him some feeling back in his foot. Lazinger had a foxhole buddy. Lazinger would raid bakeries when he entered towns. He shared his findings with his foxhole buddy. Lazinger had a lieutenant that was all business. He did not socialize with the enlisted men. Lazinger does not know if his family knew what happened to him after he died. Some parents of the men that died in Lazinger's unit [Annotator's Note: 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division] would visit him to find out how their loved ones died. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer, Lazinger and his family discuss the Saint Louis depository fire at the National Personnel Records Center on 12 July 1973.]

Sol Lazinger was in the Bronx [Annotator's Note: the Bronx is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York], New York, when he heard about the attack at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Most people he talked to did not know Pearl Harbor was a Navy base. Soldiers that survived the war in Europe started wondering if they would be sent to the Pacific to fight. When he heard about Pearl Harbor, Lazinger immediately wanted to enlist. People did not think much of the fighting capabilities of the Japanese. He was 16 years old when the attack happened. Lazinger knew he would be drafted. He made his way to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: Fort Dix, New Jersey] for training. The fort was in disrepair. Lazinger had a folding bed at home, so he did not mind sleeping on one in the Army. He grew up in a rough neighborhood, which he thinks helped him later in the war. He was able to take abuse from the Army. At Fort Blanding, Florida, soldiers would quit partially through hikes and would be sent back to start the hike again. He did other soldiers' laundry to make some extra cash. The Army sent his parents his paychecks, which helped them pay their mortgage. He was not able to go out with people because he never had money. The USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] had activities near his base. One time, Lazinger was told to leave Florida to go to Indiana. First, he was redirected to New Jersey for ten days. His father was in a car accident with three drunk Marines. His parents had a shipment of baby chickens that needed to be cared for, but his father was in the hospital. Lazinger decided to go AWOL [Annotator's Note: absent without leave] for a couple of days to take care of the chickens for his parents. He knew it was wrong, but he needed to take care of his family. He managed to make it to Indianapolis [Annotator's Note: Indianapolis, Indiana] by train and was taken in by military police. Lazinger's commanding officer was mad and made Lazinger his servant. His record of going AWOL kept him from being promoted, even though he did everything he was told to do and was awarded several medals. While in Europe, he remained a PFC. While Lazinger was his officer's servant, he was forced to do everything the officer told him to do. When Lazinger refused to clean the officer's spit, the officer hit him.

Sol Lazinger did not have a girlfriend while he was in the service. He did enjoy one nurse while he was in a hospital after being wounded. He decided to go home and work on the family farm until he started his business. He met his wife when he returned to Europe. He met her through her brother. She had been in a concentration camp in Europe. They raised successful children. She was young when her family was arrested and put into the camp. She saw people getting beaten and killed. Her family was left in a railroad car to die, but the remains of Lazinger's unit [Annotator's Note: 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division] came across the train car and liberated her. She was in Bergen-Belsen [Annotator's Note: Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Bergen, Germany] concentration camp. She was from Poland. They both had their struggles from the war but managed to have good lives. He is grateful to God for letting him come home and giving him the life he had after the war. He cries for the men that did not come home. [Annotator's Note: Lazinger's son describes his mother's liberation.]