Dondelinger remembers the brave that made his hometown free

The origins of Memorial Day can be traced back to the Civil War although it was not declared a national holiday until 1971. It honors soldiers who died serving the nation for their sacrifice. 

In light of this day of remembrance, Dr. Joseph Dondelinger, a resident of Hill City since 2019, took the opportunity to give a Memorial Day Remembrance Presentation at the Hill City Center. Numerous people attended, filling the small room at the center. 

The topic of the presentation was “Occupation, Liberation and the Battle of the Bulge: Luxembourg in World War II.” This topic is significant to Dondelinger because he grew up in Luxembourg in the town of Ettelbruck shortly after the war. 

Luxembourg is about a third of the size of the Black Hills and stretches 60 miles in length. Growing up there, Dondelinger would find ammunition in the woods and knew those who served a role in the war from his priest, to his grade school teacher, to his father. 

Additionally, some of the pictures taken around Ettelbruck at the time of the war feature or are close to familiar landmarks for Dondelinger like his dentist’s office and parents’ home. 

“I grew up in this town that had an annual remembrance day for the Americans who liberated the town,” said Dondelinger. 

Dondelinger’s father Will was very active in the organization of the remembrance day and served in the war himself. It took a long time for Will to share his story. However, Dondelinger and his brothers wanted to know, and Will eventually wrote down his story in a booklet that was published. Dondelinger shared part of this story in his presentation. 

Germans invaded Luxembourg May 10, 1940, and it became a key avenue of German armored divisions. Later in August of 1942, the Germans began force-drafting Luxembourg youth. 

“There were nearly 12,000 Luxembourg youth forced drafted into the German army,” said Dondelinger. “If you went in that group, you had a better than a one-in-four chance of not ever returning.”

The result was a strike, and Dondelinger said it was the first documented strike in occupied Europe by a small people. The Germans responded harshly, and Will’s best friend was executed. 

In July of 1944, Will was drafted into the German army six weeks before the town was liberated. 

Will ended up on the eastern front. In January of 1945, he was serving as a cable runner between the forward observer of an artillery battery and communications which gave him some unsupervised mobility. 

Thus, through “luck and some guile,” Will deserted in the middle of a major Soviet attack in the area Jan. 15, 1945. 

He knew that at several farms there were French prisoners of war who were working the farms of owners who were at the front or had died. Will spoke French and this saved his life. 

At one of the farms, Will burned his German uniform and ID and got civilian clothes from the French men. 

“The next really dangerous moment comes when the Russians, the Soviet army, hit the farm because they were killing anything in sight, anything that moved,” said Dondelinger. 

The men identified themselves as French and were sent to an assembly point where they would be rallied and put in touch with French councilor authorities. However, it was still a long journey home for Will. 

He arrived home in April of 1945. His parents had not heard from him in four months when he walked in the door and promptly came down with jaundice.  

“He was one of the very first forced draftees to return,” said Dondelinger. 

Luxembourg was liberated by General Lunsford Oliver, Cmdr. of the 5th Armored Division, Sept. 10, 1944. Dondelinger’s hometown of Ettelbruck was liberated the next day. 

Twenty years later Dondelinger had the privilege of meeting Lunsford’s son, Thomas Oliver, at the School of the Mines. Thomas has his own story from World War II that deals with the largest rescue of captured Allied airmen. 

Meanwhile, Thomas’ son, Rob Oliver, became the president of Augustana University where Dondelinger taught international relations and political science. 

“I end up working at the institution that would be headed by the grandson of the armored division commander who liberated my hometown,” said Dondelinger.

In another series of small world coincidences, Dondelinger said, “Ed (Bredbenner) was in the first battalion 318th coming up the river road, literally right past where my parent's house would be built in 1961-62.”

Bredbenner became an honorary citizen of Ettelbruck in later years, and Dondelinger became like a son to him. As a result, Dondelinger went with Bredbenner to the official luncheon ceremony hosted by the Belgium government Dec. 16, 1994. 

There Dondelinger sat between Bredbenner and Garfield Brown, whose memorial is now at Crazy Horse Memorial. 

Brown was a Lakota Code Talker from Pine Ridge who relayed coded coordinates between other code talkers. The Japanese and Germans were not capable of breaking the codes, but the Lakota Code Talkers did not even have to decode it. They could simply relay the information. 

Later Brown was quoted as saying, “If we lost the war, we’d all be dead or slaves. We are fighting over there so that we will not have to fight them over here.”

Dondelinger shared many more small world coincidences as well as some inaccuracies recorded in history books along with a large collection of photographs. Most of all though, his presentation reminded everyone that our land is free because of the brave.