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Hy Wakstein papers, 1943-1946, Date acquired: 07/11/2001

 

Summary

Creator:
Wakstein, Hy, 1922-2013
Extent:
1 folders
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Hy Wakstein papers, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_02_0409.

Background

Scope and content:

Hy Wakstein was a Jewish American serviceman who reached the rank of Staff Sergeant with the 778th Anti-Aircraft-Automatic Weapons Battalion, Self Propelled, (served 1943-46) and discusses his experiences as an Army communications officer in the European theater of World War II in this oral history transcript. Wakstein participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and his division advanced further east into Germany than any other American division.

Biographical / historical:

Hy Wakstein was born in 1922. He was drafted in February 1943 as a Jewish American serviceman from New Jersey. He trained at Camp Haan, California as a Communications (Radio Operations) Officer for the 778th Anti-Aircraft-Automatic Weapons Battalion, Self Propelled (778th AAA-AW [BN] SP). His unit served in the 3rd Army under General George S. Patton which fought through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. They were sent to save the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions that were surrounded at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and ended the war in Dresden, Germany. There, Mr. Wakstein met some Russian soldiers.

He went to "American University" in Shrivenham, England for a college semester of coursework, while he was still a part of his unit (they kept daily radio communications) while they were stationed in Munich, Germany as a part of the Army of Occupation. He shipped back home in March 1946 out of Bremerhaven, Germany, and was sent off by General Dwight Eisenhower. He also participated in the liberation of concentration camps like Buchenwald and interrogated some of the German officers in charge there. His unit shot down between 22 to 55 German planes during the war. Hy Wakstein passed away in 2013.

Acquisition information:

Hy Wakstein

Donation

Custodial history:

Transferred from the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience to FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives in July 2022.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to all researchers.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Hy Wakstein papers, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_02_0409.

Location of this collection:
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee
FL
32306-2047
USA