The Bridgeville Area Historical Society completed its 2025/2026 program series with an interesting presentation by Richard Murphy dealing with the veterans of World War II who witnessed the horror of the Nazi concentration camps when they were liberated at the end of the war. Mr. Murphy is a resident of Carnegie with a deep commitment to honoring members of “The Greatest Generation” and to keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust.
The speaker is a fourth generation Army combat veteran who has spent most of his life in public service. He enlisted in the Army at the age of eighteen and served eight years as a paratrooper, including deployment in Operation Desert Storm. Back in civilian life, he worked as a police officer until 2003 when he joined the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Upon retirement he enrolled at Arizona State University where he earned a Master’s Degree with a certificate in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He currently is dedicated to acquiring and archiving personal information from veterans on their experiences of World War II and the Holocaust, for the specific benefit of future generations.
He spoke without notes, utilizing slides to illustrate the points he was making. The slides were used effectively to show photographs that dramatically enhanced his presentation. Unfortunately, many of the slides included textual information which the combination of font size and contrast made illegible for the audience in the Chartiers Room. My brother commented that his dynamic speaking style was reminiscent of a that of a drill sergeant in a World War II movie or of the television series Gomer Pyle. The most descriptive adjective for the style would be “enthusiastic”.
The format of his presentation was the narration of the story of two local Army veterans who participated in the action in northern Europe following D-Day at Normandy and culminating in the last days of the war when Allied troops finally were able to liberate the survivors of the concentration camps. In his words, these men went through Hell twice, the first time by experiencing many months of combat and the second time by first-hand witnessing the horror of life and death in the camps. He emphasized the fact that the Allied High Command, from General Eisenhower on down, insisted that all our troops visit the camps and see for themselves firsthand the atrocities that had been committed there. This had two very different consequences. It served to expose everyone to the unacceptable behavior one group of humans was capable of imposing on another (allegedly inferior) group of humans in the hope that it would influence our behavior in the future. It also reinforced our own propaganda that we are good and our enemies are subhuman. The embarrassing practices our society has tolerated in the eight decades since World War II and continue to tolerate today suggest that the latter consequence was the most successful.
His two protagonists were both Pittsburgh area men – Morris McGarland (Mr. Murphy’s father-in-law) and Glenn Wible. Their military careers are well documented by divisional histories; McGarland, the 8th(Pathfinder) Infantry Division, and Wible, the 83rd (Thunderbolt) Infantry Division. Their experiences were parallel – basic training followed by combat infantry training in “the States” followed by additional training in North Ireland. Both Divisions went into action in Normandy a few days after D-Day and were heavily engaged for the next ten months before the war ended. Both men were wounded; McGarland, twice. Wible was involved in two hundred days of combat.
At the end of the war McGarland’s Division liberated the Wobberlin work camp where he was appalled at the condition of its five thousand inmates. Wible’s experience was similar, at Langenstein where two thousand of its seven thousand inmates had recently died. Mr. Murphy’s depiction of the twin horrors these two men experienced was vivid, enhanced by numerous descriptive photographs. It is indeed difficult to determine which was worse – two hundred days in and out of foxholes with your life at stake, or realizing that “civilized” humans could subject their enslaved “inferiors” to such atrocities. One must commend him for his efforts to document this horrible chapter in the evolution of Western society.
Mr. Murphy’s work in the Veterans Administration exposed him to many recent veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He discussed the fact that this syndrome had not been identified at the time of World War II, wondering how many of the Greatest Generation veterans suffered from it “in silence” and how that may have affected their lives. Most of the WWII veterans whom I knew were indeed reluctant to discuss their specific experiences but presented a demeanor that suggested that something had radically influenced their approach to life. My neighbor and close friend Mickey McDermott limited his “war stories” to the statement that he had walked all the way from Normandy to mid-Germany. Conversely, he was passionate in his opposition to racism, apparently because of the things he witnessed while liberating one of the worst concentration camps. Mr. Murphy believes that it is constructive for veterans to openly discuss their experiences as a form of therapy, and that these discussions are beneficial for the rest of us as we try to understand social interactions.
We are grateful to the Historical Society for another excellent season of programs; kudos to Program Chairperson Leesa Shady! There will be a recess in July and August. Programs will resume on September 29, 2026, in the Chartiers Room of the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department when Kathy Grant will discuss the Duncan & Miller Glass Museum in Washington, Pa. Although her presentation will focus on Duncan & Miller glass, she is well acquainted with our collection of John B Higbee glass and prepared to discuss it as well. It promises to be an excellent kickoff for the 2026/2027 season. Thanks again to the Society for providing the best program series in our region.