Staff Sergeant T. N. Phillips, 42nd Rainbow Division

My father, T. N. Phillips, told me of a German WWII concentration camp and the horrors inflicted on the people that he helped free as a member of the 42nd Rainbow Division of the U.S. Army. He served as a Staff Sergeant and helped to liberate the Dachau camp.

Dad moved from Alabama to Beaumont, TX, in 1948 with my mother. They drove a dump truck with all of the family's things in the truck bed and made a new home for the rest of his and mom's life. I was born in 1954, the only child.

Dad was a Mason and mother was an Eastern Star. In Beaumont, they were put into the grocery business by a Jewish family, the Adlers. They were very good to us out of respect for my Dad's testimony to anyone who dared to deny the Holocaust being real.

My father was a good man who carried many emotions inside his entire remaining days. He experienced what we call PTSD now. The story of the families who visited my family for years just to talk with him to get a honest account of someone who could prove it happened is incredible. I saw tattooed numbers on arms, pictures of lost family members, and saw people weep as they searched for any way to connect with lost relatives.

The story of a soldier and family meeting and building new lives in Texas is what my own home is built on. May God bless Texas and all the people who call it home.

Editors note: More information about the 42nd Rainbow Division and Texas liberators of German WWII concentration camps is available here:

• Map of the 42nd Infantry Division's route through Germany during WWII.
• Interviews with Texas liberators of German WWII concentration camps

Posted July 05, 2018

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