How A Wyoming Soldier Incarcerated At Heart Mountain Rescued A Holocaust Survivor

In the final days of World War II, thousands of prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany and its subcamps were evacuated in the Dachau death march.

On May 2, 1945, after days of marching, prisoner Solly Ganor of Lithuania woke to discover there were no German SS guards watching him. He saw a dead horse and overturned cart on a rise near a field and made his way toward it.

He built a fire and using a knife he found, cut strips of meat from the horse and put them in a pot with potatoes and some snow.

Later as he ate his soup, Ganor heard vehicles approaching and assumed the SS guards were returning, but he didn't care. As the vehicles rounded the trees, he closed his eyes and waited to be shot.

“When I opened my eyes, four men in khaki uniforms were approaching,” he wrote later in his book “Light One Candle.”

“They looked unshaven and tired,” he recounted. “Their [Asian] features astonished me. … I stared at them, unable to grasp the situation. Japanese? I continued to sit and stir my soup. My throat constricted. I dared not think and could not speak.

“One of the men came up and knelt in front of me. He gently touched me on the shoulder and said, ‘You are free, boy. You’re free now,’ and then smiled.”

It was a life-changing moment for Ganor.

“That smile has been with me ever since. It wreathed his whole face and made his eyes nearly disappear,” he wrote. “When all I did was stare he removed a chocolate bar from his pocket. ‘That’s for you,’ he said kindly. I was groping for my English, actually wanting only to fall on my knees and kiss his feet.”

The man who helped young Ganor was Clarence Matsumura, a Japanese-American man who spent his early years in Wyoming and later returned when his family was incarcerated at Heart Mountain.

The story of the two men and how they reunited almost 50 years later will be shared by Matsumura’s great-niece Aura Sunada Newlin as one of the special programs taking place while the Americans and the Holocaust exhibit is on display at the Park County Library Cody branch from May 21 to July 1.

“Hearing the story really humanizes the experience, both of Dachau and Heart Mountain,” Newlin said. “Having a name, face and story to go along with these tragedies makes it feel more real to people.”

Americans And The Holocaust

Americans and the Holocaust is a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.

“It's Wyoming, so this isn't a topic that you get as much information on,” said Park County Library Director Karen Horner. “To have something here in our little northwest corner of Wyoming is pretty awesome. It’s definitely worth coming and seeing.”

Horner is excited to host the 1,100-square-foot exhibit, which examines various aspects of American society: the government, military, refugee aid organizations, media and general public.

It tells the stories of Americans who acted in response to Nazism, challenging the commonly held assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as the Holocaust unfolded. It provides a portrait of American society that shows how the Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism and antisemitism shaped responses to Nazism and the Holocaust.

“People are really blown away when they walk in and see it because it's huge,” she said. “It took a lot of rearranging on the part of the library, but people were stopping at every unit as we literally were setting it up. It's been very impactful and at the very end of the exhibit there's a reflection area where people can drop in notes with their comments.”

The story of Matsumura and Ganor is on display in an exhibit at the library as well.

Parallel barbed wire shares the parallels in their lives — forced removals from their homes, loss of property and being forced to live in camps on opposite ends of the world, Matsumura at Heart Mountain and Ganor at a subcamp of Dachau in Germany.

“Certainly, life at Heart Mountain was very different from life in the concentration camps, but there are broader themes that tie their stories together,” Newlin said. “Being rounded up and placed in confinement for no other reason but their heritage, basically.”

Life In Wyoming

Matsumura’s story began in the small Wyoming town of Bryan, which no longer exists but was then located in Sweetwater County.

His father Rokuzaemon “Roy” Matsumura arrived in the United States in 1906, seeking a better life. The Union Pacific Railroad recruited Roy and other Issei, or other Japanese-born immigrants, to help build rail lines in the West. He settled in southern Wyoming and his bride Takeko joined him in 1915.

Clarence was born in April 1921 in Bryan, one of six children. The family moved from one railroad town to the next before eventually settling in Granger, where he spent most of his childhood.

He recalled that life in a railroad town was fairly diverse and friendly, and that some of his fondest memories were from his Wyoming childhood. He was outside as much as possible and enjoyed riding horses, hunting and ice skating. He also trapped animals and sold pelts to make extra money.

“He attended a one-room schoolhouse in Granger,” Newlin said. “Then in the 1930s my great-grandparents moved the family to East Hollywood, California after living in Wyoming for almost 30 years.”

Moving West

Due to health issues, along with wanting his children to receive a good education, Roy moved the family to the West Coast and used their life savings to buy a grocery store aptly named the Wyoming Market.

It was a big change for the family, but it was particularly difficult for Clarence, who said that he never quite settled into life in L.A. He graduated from high school in 1939 and went to trade school to study radio mechanics and repair.

In 1940, he received his radio commercial license. He worked for both the Radio Product Sales Co. and United Radio Stores as a repairman so he could learn what it took to run a business.

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, life for Japanese Americans in the following months changed and was often filled with hostility and racism.

Then Executive Order 9066 was issued in February 1942, authorizing the forced removal and internment of Japanese Americans from the West Coast to "relocation centers" during World War II.

At the beginning of May, 120,000 people of Japanese descent were given six days to pack their belongings in two suitcases each. They had to sell anything they could not carry, often for pennies on the dollar.

Roy sold the Wyoming Market for $300, but gained no profit for the transaction as the realtor who helped with the sale asked for a $300 finder’s fee.

“When Pearl Harbor was bombed, they lost the store, lost everything and were ironically sent back to Wyoming to be incarcerated at Heart Mountain,” Newlin said.

Returning to Wyoming

More than 14,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center over the next three years.

The Matsumuras arrived Aug. 26, 1942, two weeks after the camp had opened. Clarence missed Wyoming and had hoped to someday return. However, being forced from his home and incarcerated behind barbed wire was not how he imagined his homecoming.

His education with radio and electronics helped him get hired as the recreation leader and chief technician of the service department inside the camp. He was the youngest supervisor in Heart Mountain, running a crew of 10 that worked nearly around the clock to ensure that all the technical equipment was working. He ran the camp public announcement system and hosted movie nights.

While he did much for the community inside the camp, Clarence detested being there and wanted out as soon as possible.

He submitted a leave application Feb. 17, 1943, just five and a half months after the Matsumuras arrived. In September 1943, his application was approved to leave the camp indefinitely.

He went to work for the Northern Pacific Railroad in Idaho and Washington for about five months before temporarily returning to Heart Mountain. Clarence then left for the University of Cincinnati in January 1944 to continue his studies in radio and electronics, but a short time later he was drafted.

Joining The War

Clarence trained for combat and technical duties throughout the spring and summer of 1944. He eventually headed to Europe to serve in the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, which had a reputation as one of the most accomplished artillery units in the European Theater of Operations, known for its speed and efficiency according to the National Education Center.

The 522nd was attached to the Seventh Army to assault the Siegfried Line and invade the German homeland. Clarence, then 24, was assigned to field communications of the HQ battery. In pursuit of the fleeing Nazi army, they eventually encountered the Dachau death march.

“As part of their service, they came across the Dachau death march toward the end of the war,” Newlin said. “The Germans knew that the war was coming to an end, and they marched all of the prisoners from the subcamps of Dachau.”

Life In Lithuania

Solly Ganor was born May 18, 1928, in Lithuania to Chaim and Rebecca Genkind (he later changed his last name). He was the youngest of three children.

They moved west to Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1934, which had a thriving Jewish community of about 30,000 people.

Ganor wrote how he enjoyed swimming in the river in the summer and staying at his family’s vacation home in the forest. In the winter he went sledding and ice skating.

By the late 1930s there was no escaping antisemitism.

The Genkinds had obtained exit visas to the United States, but were hesitant to leave until they sold their restaurant supply business. When Germany invaded Lithuania on June 15, 1940, it was too late and the Genkinds were forced to remain in the country.

They eventually were forced to move to the Kovno ghetto on Aug. 15, 1941.

Moving To Kovno Ghetto

Solly escaped death multiple times, first during the Great Action in October 1941. SS officers sent people to the left or right — to live or die. When the Genkinds’ turn came, most of the family was sent to the left, selected for life. Solly was sent to the right for death. But when the guards were distracted, he snuck back to his family.

Over the next few years, things in the ghetto were fairly quiet, then March 27, 1944, trucks were brought in to round up children and the elderly, Solly wrote. About 2,500 people were taken during the “Children’s Action,” and sent to Auschwitz for execution.

Solly escaped by posing as an SS officer’s messenger and hiding under a garden shed behind the office.

Moving to Camp

The final evacuation of the ghetto began in July 1944, and the Genkind family was sent to Stutthof concentration camp in Poland.

Solly and his father later ended up in a subcamp of Dachau called Lager 10. Solly worked in the kitchen brigade until spring 1945, when he and all the other workers were moved to war production as the Allied army neared.

Then on the morning of April 25, 1945, the prisoners were given meager rations of coffee and bread and told they would be marching out. Death marches were common practice when Allied forces were approaching.

Prisoners were forced to walk for days at a time with no food, water or rest, often in rain or snow. Besides the elements, guards would vent their frustration and fear on the prisoners, beating, shooting or even allowing their dogs to maul those who may have looked them in the eyes.

They arrived at Dachau on April 26 and the following day they continued their march, he wrote.

Five days later, Solly woke under a blanket of fresh snow and realized there were no SS guards.

Two Men Meet

As the 522nd came upon some prisoners, Clarence looked up on a hill and saw someone sitting by a fire and an overturned horse cart. He made his way up and discovered a young man.

“There was some confusion because they looked Japanese, but when they heard them speaking English, they realized that the American soldiers were there to save them,” Newlin said. “And Solly remembers Clarence personally giving him a Hershey's chocolate bar and literally saving him from death.”

The soldiers helped Solly to a Jeep where Clarence sat beside him as they drove into the American camp.

“I was taken to a barn and given a German army blanket,” Ganor wrote in his book. “The soldiers kept moving in and out, bringing in more and more prisoners from the road. Toward evening, Clarence appeared again and knelt down at my side.

“’We have to go now,’ he said, clasping both my hands in his. ‘Thank you, thank you,’ I whispered, clinging to his hands. Then he was gone.”

Trying to Move On

After the war, Solly moved to Israel to fight in the Arab-Israeli war. He stayed after the war ended and made a life for himself.

He also changed his last name to Ganor, which means “garden of light” in Hebrew.

Clarence returned to the U.S. in 1946 and reunited with his parents in Minneapolis. He remained in the Army Reserve and worked for a wholesale electronics company, trying to rebuild his life after the upheaval of the incarceration and war.

In 1949, Clarence moved back to L.A. He returned to active duty when the Korean War broke out in 1950, but was stationed stateside as a radio and electronics instructor.

Due in part to his traumatic experiences during World War II, Clarence admitted that he struggled with interpersonal relationships.

Reunited

On May 7, 1981, Clarence attended an opening at San Francisco’s Presidio Army Museum for an exhibit about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, curated by Eric Saul.

After the ceremony, Clarence approached Saul and asked why he didn’t mention the liberation of Dachau’s subcamps and death march by the 522nd. Saul admitted he never heard about it and invited Clarence to share his story.

He told what it felt like to liberate Jewish prisoners from Europe’s concentration camps and expressed a wish to meet those he helped.

Saul helped arrange for 25 Nisei veterans to go to Jerusalem where they were honored as liberators and got to meet some of the men they had rescued. Solly also was invited and agreed to attend.

“So, the beautiful part of the story is that many years later, there hadn't been recognition by the United States that it was Japanese American soldiers who were there for the liberation,” Newlin said. “That's how Solly and Clarence were reunited because Clarence went to Europe to the survivors gathering.”

On May 2, 1992, Solly entered the Ramada Renaissance hotel in Jerusalem and searched for the kind face that handed him a bar of chocolate 47 years earlier outside Waakirchen.

He began to tell his story in a corner of the lobby, while veterans from the 522nd stood and listened. Then a thin man with glasses and graying hair joined the group. Looking into his eyes Solly knew it was the man who offered him a chocolate bar and a smile.

“As soon as they saw each other, they recognized each other and they wept, pretty much for the first time since the 1940s,” Newlin said. “So it was this incredible moment to find each other again.”

The two formed a friendship that would sadly only last a few years.

Clarence died in May 1995 from cancer. Fulfilling his lifelong dream, his ashes were spread in Wyoming.

Solly went on to write his memoir “Light One Candle” and tour the world telling the story of his family and the Japanese American men he called angels. He died in August 2020.

Time for Healing

Newlin only met her great-uncle once before he died, but said Solly’s book and working as the director of the Heart Mountain Foundation has given her the opportunity to reconnect with some extended family from California.

“Just last year I got to meet Clarence's daughter for the first time,” she said. “It's been really healing for all of us to reconnect.”

In 2022, Solly’s son and daughter-in-law Danny and Naomi Ganor came to Heart Mountain, where they met Newlin, as well as her parents Sheila and Doug, who live in Riverton. Then the following year Newlin’s sister Lena Newlin of Laramie visited Dachau and interviewed Abba Naor, one of Solly's friends who was also liberated by the 522nd.

“Clarence and Solly were set on this path, and they could never have foreseen how their paths would intersect,” Newlin said. “They shaped each other's lives in really powerful ways, and it was wonderful that my parents and I were able to continue that connection with Solly's kids.”

Tying Everything Together

When Assistant Library Director Nicholle Gerharter began planning the additional programming to go along with the Americans and the Holocaust exhibit it wasn’t easy, as each had to meet specific criteria from the Holocaust Museum. One of those is having a local tie to the community if possible.

“So, tying in with the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center seemed to be a good fit,” Gerharter said.

She also reached out to the Laramie County Library in Cheyenne, which hosted the exhibit during its first run in 2021-2023, to find out who had been invited as speakers and reached out to some of those.

Newlin will give her presentation at the Cody Library at 6 p.m. Thursday. She said she hopes that people who hear the story realize that as a society “we are always going to be at risk of something like this happening again if we're not careful.”

“That happened a long time ago, but there are lessons of what we as a society should not do to other people, but also lessons about friendship and hope,” she added. “So, part of what I like to do is just reveal those connections, and it's a way to make new friends. There's a very hopeful side of it to me. It doesn't feel like just dwelling on these terrible things of the past. It's more about making connections with people in the present.”

Other upcoming events include a film screening of “Woman in Gold,” and author Steven Pressman recounting the true story of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, who rescued fifty Jewish children from Nazi-controlled Vienna and Berlin in 1939.

“We didn't think he would say yes, honestly, but he was absolutely willing to come and talk about that very interesting story,” Gerharter said of Pressman.