Private Anthony Dominick Benedetto, later known as Tony Bennett: A World War II veteran's legacy

Last year, we lost one of our national treasures. This year on Veterans Day, we can remember him by thanking Tony Bennett for his military service.

Bennett was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in 1926 in Queens, New York. He grew up in poverty, listening to jazz during the Depression.

Soon after Bennett turned 18 in 1944, he received his draft notice from his Uncle Sam, better known as the United States Army. In basic training, he ran afoul of a sergeant from the South who disliked him because he was Italian and from New York, so he suffered heavy doses of KP duty.

Bennett was deployed to Europe later in 1944. He was first sent to Le Havre, France as part of replacement forces for Americans lost in the Battle of the Bulge. The Americans suffered some 75,000 casualties in that battle.

In his autobiography, The Good Life, he recalled waking up at 4 a.m. to the shouts of General George S. Patton himself: "Now listen up! Forget your mothers and everything else you've ever known! You're going up to the line."

Bennett wrote that his unit fought its way to northern France and then across Germany. The 63rd Infantry Division earned seven Presidential Unit Citations and captured more than 21,000 enemy soldiers during three days in April 1945.

On the line

The 63rd Infantry Division, known as the "Blood and Fire" division, was created in 1943. Its nickname commemorates British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's statement at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 that "the enemy would bleed and burn in expiation of their crimes against humanity." The 63rd landed in southern France in December 1944. In heavy snow and freezing temperatures while trudging through minefields, the division advanced northward until it finally crossed into Germany in early February 1945.

Bennett, an infantry rifleman, wrote that on his first night on the line, he was nearly killed by German artillery fire and narrowly escaped death several times thereafter. He described being on the line as a "front row seat in hell." His unit fought Germans town by town for months. They saw fierce fighting flushing out Germans.

The 63rd lived on C rations for months. The troops called them C Rats. They consisted of precooked, canned wet foods like meat and vegetables, often including a side like a chocolate bar, biscuits, and cigarettes. They were typically packaged in 12-ounce cans and could be eaten cold but tasted better when heated up. Bennett wrote in his book that "you can't imagine how good fresh fruit and vegetables taste after months of Army food."

Bennett's unit liberated a concentration camp

Kaufering concentration camp was one of more than 44,000 camps and incarceration sites where the Nazis imposed forced labor and committed murder of prisoners. Kaufering was a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp network. Dachau was about 30 miles away.

Prisoners were housed in earthen huts that were partially submerged in the soil and covered with earth to disguise them from the air. Kaufering was divided into 11 separate camps, each containing several thousand prisoners. The vast majority of the prisoners were Jews.

As U.S. armed forces approached Kaufering in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on a death march in the direction of Dachau. Bennett was among those who liberated Kaufering. That liberation was the last official mission of his regiment. They discovered hundreds of charred corpses at Kaufering, and the local townspeople were ordered to bury them.

Bennett wrote in his autobiography that the experience stayed in his mind for the rest of his life. He said he could never forget the empty stares of the prisoners as they wandered aimlessly around the grounds. Many of the prisoners were from the ghettos of Poland and were found in advanced stages of malnutrition, typhus, diarrhea, skin diseases, boils, abscesses and mental and emotional illness after torture and starvation.

Postwar Germany

On May 8, 1945, World War II in Europe ended when Germany surrendered. Bennett, still Benedetto, was sent to Mannheim as part of the Allied occupation force of postwar Germany.

He had seen Bob Hope perform at a USO show and that sparked Bennett's desire to go into show business. It was in Mannheim that Bennett first sang with Army band units. The stage name he used in the Army was Joe Bari. He sang with the 314th Army Special Services Band.

Bennett was demoted

Bennett was demoted from corporal to private. Why was Tony Bennett demoted? Well, he was caught dining with an old high school friend from New York, a Black soldier named Frank Smith, on Thanksgiving Day. An Army captain walked into a hotel restaurant, saw the two together, and ripped off Bennett's stripes, spat on them and threw them on the floor. Since the Army was still segregated at that time, it was against regulations to fraternize with Blacks. Bennett was placed on gravedigging detail.

A week later, a colonel learned about the incident. Bennett was sent back to Special Services with an orchestra.

That experience also stayed with Bennett for the rest of his life. In his book, he remarked about "the degree of prejudice that was so widespread in the Army during World War II." He also noted that Black soldiers were seldom given credit for their contributions during the war.

Conclusion

After he was discharged from the Army in 1946, Bennett used his GI Bill benefits to finance singing classes at the American Theater Wing.

His day job was operating an elevator. At night, he sang in New York City night clubs, using his Army stage name, Joe Bari. One night, Pearl Bailey saw his act. She asked him to open for her at the Greenwich Village Inn.

While opening for Pearl Bailey, Bob Hope caught his act. Hope asked him to perform with him, but said his name was a problem.

The night he first performed with Bob Hope, Hope went out on the stage and announced: "And here's a new singer, Tony Bennett." Bennett later said that Hope had to introduce him twice, explaining, "I didn't know who he was talking about."

In his autobiography, Bennett wrote that war made him realize how much he opposed war, stating: "Although I understand why this war was fought, it was a terrifying, demoralizing experience for me. Life can never be the same once you've been through combat." He added that anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one, and that serving in World War II shaped the rest of his life.