Re: Nurse-POW Saw the World on Her Terms

Date: May 27, 2004

"Scottdale woman recounts life as World War II Army nurse
By: Patty Shultz , Herald-Standard

SCOTTDALE - Mimi Finnerty is the first to say she loves an adventure, and if it requires her getting on an airplane or freighter, all the better.

"I've never been one to stay in one place too long," she says as she sits on her living room couch recalling her days as a U.S. Army nurse. "You never turn down an opportunity."

The eldest of seven children, Finnerty cast off her high school graduation cap and gown in 1938 and headed to Fredricksburg, Md., where she had planned to earn a college degree.

After only a year, though, with the Great Depression affecting her family's finances, Finnerty returned home.

Not to be deterred, however, in 1940 she headed to Washington, D.C., and Georgetown University, where she would complete the school's nursing program.

"That was the cheapest place to go, and you knew you would get a job," said Finnerty. "Of course, at the time, nursing wasn't a reputable profession. Nice ladies didn't go into nursing."

But then, she said, it was not her desire at the time to stay at home, find a suitable young man and have children.

As Finnerty and her classmates studied, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States declared war. And, at the urging of an instructor and after receiving her nursing degree, she traded in her cap and gown for a military uniform.

"She (the instructor) was a former World War I nurse, and she really talked how great the military was, and we believed her," said Finnerty. "A lot of us took her advice and enlisted."

As the United States prepares to unveil the national World War II Memorial this weekend, Finnerty, who does not plan to attend the dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C., talked about her experiences during the war.

Finnerty initially signed on with the U.S. Air Force with hopes of becoming a flight nurse, but without perfect eyesight, she was grounded.

The turn of events did not deter her, however, and instead, she joined the U.S. Army and reported for basic training.

"I loved every minute of it," she said. "It was another adventure."

At Fort Dix, N.J., Finnerty and other nurses and doctors from throughout the country became a part of the 130th Evacuation Hospital unit bound for Europe.

On a cold December day in 1944, a convoy of ships carrying the medical personnel and equipment departed from New York and headed for England. After brief stints in southern Wales and Sedan, France, the hospital unit was moved to Moosburg, Germany.

It was here, said Finnerty, that she was introduced to the savagery inflicted by the Third Reich.

The 14th Armored Division, which had moved through earlier, had uncovered a large German prisoner of war camp, Stalag VII B, in Moosberg, that had held many American and Allied military personnel in urgent need of medical care.

"That was a bit traumatic," said Finnerty. "Most of our patients were Air Force pilots that had been shot down, captured and put in the prisoner of war camps."

With the war drawing to an end, Finnerty said, the unit did not see fighting, but occasionally spotted bomber aircraft in the German skies.

Shortly after the liberation of the German war camp in Mauthausen, Austria, by the U.S. 11th Armored Division, Finnerty's medical unit was transferred to care for the thousands that had been interred in the camp.

"It was one of the worst camps," she said. "It was very, very bad."

Mauthausen was classified as a category three camp, which meant that those kept as prisoners were never to be released alive.

"(The prison) had a gas chamber that they would shove the prisoners into and turn the gas on," Finnerty said.

In addition to the gas chamber deaths, prisoners fell victim while working in the camp's Wiener Graben stone quarry. Finnerty said prisoners would be required to carry slabs of granite up 186 steps to the top of the quarry, only to be pushed backward into the pits by their captors.

An estimated 150,000 died at the Mauthausen camp, but the U.S. forces found thousands who had been mistreated and starved by their captors.

"It was sad," said Finnerty. "Those that had been starved would hoard everything.

"We would give them sugar packets, and they would hide them under their pillows for a later time because they didn't believe we would give them more."

While at Mauthausen, Finnerty worked alongside German nurses who were required to attend to all those hospitalized, including the Jewish patients.

"The patients would say 'das ist gut' (that is good), just tickled to death that the Germans had to wait on them," she said.

Because of the language barriers, Finnerty said, it was difficult to communicate with most patients, but she cared for all of them while at the camp.

Her adventures, as she refers to them, netted her few mementos other than the memories, but Finnerty did obtain a reel of film that when developed showed various German locations and Adolf Hitler.

The film was lodged between two seats on a train on which she was traveling in Europe.

"I had no idea what it was at the time," she said. "Unfortunately, I have not been able to determine the locations.

Eventually, she returned to Scottdale as a first lieutenant and resigned from the military, but after only a year she re-enlisted and headed to Alaska for a second tour of duty.

"I couldn't stand it," she said. "I wanted to see the world and I did."

©The Herald Standard 2004"