Survivor speaks for those who cannot

Ocean waters bloodied by soldiers shot dead moments after their boat ramp lowered. Mortally wounded comrade Clarence Roberson kneeling and praying the rosary on Omaha Beach until machine gun fire literally cut him in two.

These are some of former Army private and rifleman Harold Baumgarten's D-Day memories that he didn't talk about until 44 years later, after his first return visit to Normandy in 1988.

On that trip with other survivors from the 29th Infantry Division, Baumgarten stood before the grave of 1st Lt. Harold Donaldson, "my lieutenant, who didn't make it out of the boat."

With wife, Rita, at his side, Baumgarten surveyed the grave and the more than 9,000 crosses and Stars of David at the Normandy American Cemetery "with tears in my eyes."

He had dedicated his civilian life to helping people, first as a teacher and assistant football coach at Palm Beach High School and later as a physician specializing in family practice and industrial surgery. After revisiting Normandy, Baumgarten took on a new mission, this one for D-Day's dead.

Baumgarten concluded that "somebody has to be their spokesman. I've got the memory and the ability to speak."

This conviction stemmed from his Jewish faith. Before the invasion, he had drawn the Star of David and his home borough of the Bronx, N.Y., on his field jacket. Of his own survival after being wounded five times in less than two days in Normandy, he says, "I thought it was more than luck."

So Baumgarten spoke, giving scores of newspaper, radio and TV interviews. He's talked about his dead comrades, "the real D-Day heroes," to gatherings at Rotary Clubs, at houses of worship, in libraries, at police departments, and even about cruise ships.

Baumgarten, who says he's both "blessed and cursed" with a photographic memory, has written three books. He has shared his wartime recollections with historian Stephen Ambrose and for an audio recording that's in the collection of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

When he met Steven Spielberg at the museum's opening in 2000, Baumgarten says, the famed director confirmed his hunch that parts of the beach combat scenes in 1998's Saving Private Ryan drew upon recollections on that recording that Ambrose had shared with him. Pictures of Spielberg and Saving Private Ryan star Tom Hanks with Baumgarten are in his den, dubbed "the war room."

Baumgarten retired from practicing medicine in 1998. He and Rita will mark their 65th anniversary in June. They have three children and six grandkids.

In June, Baumgarten will return to Normandy with other members of the 29th Infantry Division. A World War II Museum group of about 300 scholars and a handful of D-Day vets also will travel there to mark the invasion's 70th anniversary, says Stephen Watson, museum vice president.

The visit should be very poignant, Watson says. With the youngest survivors, such as Baumgarten, in their late 80s and the oldest in their 90s, "a lot of them know it will be the last time."

A new monument is going up at Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach, which is where Baumgarten's Company B landed. He thinks he'll be asked to speak.

Watson says that when D-Day survivors gather at the once-bloodied Omaha Beach, "they get recognition, and rightly so. But for them, it's about their buddies, making sure that those who didn't get back are remembered."

Ruane also reports for The News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla.