Jarring memories

Andrew Glazer

FAIRGROUNDS -- The swastikas and Iron Crosses displayed in neat

rows are jarring, especially next to doll collections and Elvis

memorabilia.

Nearly everyone visiting the Collections Corner at the Orange County

Fair stop and stare at the glass case holding the boldly designed Nazi

symbols of one of the world’s most notorious regimes.

For Eugene Rasmussen, 75, owner of the collection, the medals

represent painful but complex memories of his time at sea in World War

II.

“In a lot of ways, the German soldiers were like us,” said Rasmussen,

who has the same square shoulders and strong jaw he had when went to war

55 years ago. “They were very young. They weren’t all Nazis. Many, like

us, didn’t want to fight. But if they didn’t, they knew what the Gestapo

would do. They were petrified.”

Rasmussen came face-to-face with his German counterparts several times

during the later stages of the war.

For months, Rasmussen was aboard one of two ships holding roughly 800

U.S. Army soldiers charged with blockading the English Channel from

German U-boats. He was 19 years old.

On Christmas Eve, 1944, the Germans torpedoed the other ship. As

British warships rushed to the aid of the sinking ship, soldiers began to

jump into the choppy 47-degree water. Many drowned. Others froze. Some

attempting to reach the rescue vessels were crushed between the ships.

“There was nothing you could do,” said Rasmussen, who said it took

decades before he could celebrate on Christmas Eve. “We just stood on the

deck of the ship for 14 hours.”

Five months later, 50,000 Germans sailing U-boats in the English

Channel surrendered. They looked as young, confused, frightened and

relieved the war was over as Rasmussen’s American comrades. Many

willingly handed over their hats and medals.

“They were happy to get rid of them,” Rasmussen said. “It meant they

were free to come to the surface and go back home.”

As he sat carving an American eagle into a swatch of leather in the

fair’s Home and Hobbies Building on Wednesday, Rasmussen said he doesn’t

often talk about his World War II experiences.

“You live with it,” he said. “Unless you meet other people who were

there, there’s not much use in talking about it much. Not many people

understand what it was like.”