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Norm Neitzke
Band of Brothers
E Company, 506th Regiment
101st Airborne
From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle Nest
At Rest: December 8, 2008
June 5, 1944 - May 1945
Norm Neitzke 'Takes Five'
World War II veteran revisits stories told in 'Band of Brothers'
Posted: Nov. 9, 2006 by: Meg Jones
Norm Neitzke is a brother in a celebrated band of brothers. A member of Easy
Company in the Army's 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, Neitzke's unit was
featured in the Stephen Ambrose bestseller "Band of Brothers," which was turned
into a popular HBO series. Neitzke, 80, was a replacement sent to fill out the
unit, which suffered losses in the D-Day invasion and Battle of the Bulge,
joining the company in February 1945. He's mentioned on Page 261 of the book in
a passage where he and other soldiers decide to take a German ambulance, and he
appears twice in the HBO series. After returning home from the war, he became a
father of three, a grandfather of nine and an insurance salesman. He still sells
insurance part time. The Menomonee Falls man will appear at North Shore Bank's
new branch in Sussex from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday to talk about his World War
II experiences. Neitzke talked to Journal Sentinel reporter Meg Jones a few days
before Veterans Day.
Q. What did you think of the book and series "Band of Brothers"?
A. I thought it was very realistic. There were a few exaggerations, but I
think it was a true documentary and Stephen Ambrose did a really good job. There
were a couple things, like when the Germans were surrendering in the movie.
Actually, the Germans were going from east to west to get away from the
Russians, and we were going west to east. The Germans were on the other side of
the boulevard, and we were on one side, but in the movie, they showed them going
down the middle of the boulevard. It didn't happen that way.
Q. One of the more poignant scenes in the book and series is when your unit
enters a German concentration camp. What are your memories of the camp?
A. One of the duties was to pick up food for the concentration camp victims.
We found out later we were doing the wrong thing because they would eat
themselves to death. We had these big wheels of cheese almost as big as a tire.
So we had to take it away right after giving it to them. It kind of made you
think why I went to fight. We said, "Now we know," after seeing the
concentration camp victims. It was something we did not like to see. We got
stories from the free French people and the Dutch people. It was sure a terrible
thing the Germans were doing. It's kind of ironic, because my background is
German. My grandparents came over from Germany.
Q. Did you have any idea when you were going through the war that one day
your unit would become famous?
A. No, we didn't. We always felt there were a lot of other good units we met
up with. There are about 100 infantry companies, and all of them were very good.
It just so happened we were one of the units that Stephen Ambrose wrote about.
Q. Did you talk much about your experiences after the war, or did it take
awhile for you to open up about what you did and saw?
A. I didn't really talk much about it. Everyone wanted to know where I was.
Now we get together once a year and talk amongst ourselves, and with the "Band
of Brothers" on TV, there's a lot of talk about it. I want to tell my story now
to kids.
Q. Were you scared when you joined Easy Company not knowing what battle would
be like?
A. The first couple of days, not knowing what to expect, we took a long train
ride from Le Havre (in Normandy.) We got about 4 miles from the fighting, and
then we had to sleep over in a schoolhouse. We couldn't bring the trucks up,
because the Germans had really big guns and they would hear the trucks and fire
at us. We marched up to the front line, and, of course, as replacements, we
wanted to know what to expect. The Germans fired rounds over your head. It made
you awfully scared. One night, I was on guard duty in a house, I heard rainwater
on the roof, and then I heard some other noises. I gave the password that was
supposed to come back to me, and it didn't come back to me. I thought, "Oh, no.
Do I shoot these guys?" Fortunately, one of the guys fell into a hole and he
came out cussing in English, so it was a pretty good indication of who I was
facing.
Mrs. Norman Neitzke
W199 N9308 Wellington
Menomonee Falls WI 53051-1122
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Obituary: www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/35841804.html