Nettie Frances Eskridge
(October 1, 1921 - December 14, 2010)
Nettie Frances Eskridge, age 89, of Selma, died Tuesday December 14, 2010. She was survived by her sons, George Eskridge (Barbara) of Selma; grandchildren, Ame Marie Blackmon (Robert) and Evan Hardy Eskridge; great-grandsons, Zachary and William Blackmon and several nieces and nephews.
Services were held at 2:00 p.m. Friday December 17, 2010 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church with Reverend David Powell officiating and Lawrence Brown-Service Funeral Home directing and burial following in Old Live Oak Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers the family requested donations be made to the Christian Outreach Alliance, P.O. Box 688 Selma, AL 36701.
The following story written by Alvin Benn appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser, Sunday December 26, 2010
Nurse testified to horrors of Holocaust
SELMA -- She was a young Army nurse who never dreamed that one day she'd walk through the gates of hell.
They opened for her in early May of 1945. The place was Dachau, one of Nazi Germany's most notorious death camps.
Lt. Nettie Hardy Eskridge was surrounded by thousands of dead and dying men, many stacked on top of each other like cord wood.
The horrifying scenes unfolding in front of her never dimmed and would remain with her throughout the 65 years she had left to live.
When Nettie died this month at the age of 89, the minister who presided at her funeral lauded her military service as well as her anger over those who claimed the Holocaust never happened.
"I saw pictures of how Germans treated their prisoners, but I had to see it to believe it," she wrote in letters to relatives back in Alabama.
Nettie was a member of an Army nursing unit that arrived a couple of days after troops liberated Dachau. As part of the permanent staff, she carried a special pass allowing her to come and go "any time of day or night."
There wasn't much the nurses could do in the weeks that followed their arrival at Dachau. Many of the prisoners were about to die of starvation, typhus and other diseases. Some were saved, but their mental scars never healed.
Despite films, photographs and admissions of guilt by those who ran death camps such as Dachau, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald and many others, "Holocaust Deniers" insist to this day that it was, at most, an "exaggeration" of numbers.
The total generally agreed upon by historians is 11 million civilians -- Jews, gypsies, the physically and mentally handicapped, clergy and political opponents of the Nazis.
Nettie, who was 24 years old when her unit reached Dachau, often would step forward after the war to speak at events or to small groups. She wanted to tell as many as she could that what she saw at Dachau was real.
Before arriving at the concentration camp, she already had been with nursing units in the midst of the fighting and she helped tend to the troops.
"She shared with me her stories of being close enough to the front lines that she was constantly aware of the firefights, artillery and mortar barrages almost every minute of her days and nights," the Rev. Joe Knight of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Selma said in his eulogy at her funeral service.
Knight, a decorated combat Marine during the Korean War, said she never could erase from her mind "the constant screams of the wounded and dying." Then, she entered Dachau and all that had preceded her arrival paled by comparison.
"No one here today can possibly imagine the horror of living and administering care to hundreds of people who had been tortured and starved for years," he said. "That was one experience she couldn't share. It was just too horrible to talk about."
In her letters home, Nettie described in detail what she was going through.
In one, dated May 6, 1945, she wrote: "I want everybody to know that all that has been disclosed about Dachau just ain't propaganda."
When the war ended, she turned down an offer of a promotion to captain and a career in the Army. Instead, she came back to Alabama and resumed her civilian nursing career.
She married a professor, but it didn't last long. Instead, she continued working as a nurse and devoted herself to her son, George, who idolized her.
"Mama taught me to be responsible for my actions and to be as independent as possible," he said a few days ago. "She meant everything to me."
Nettie and retired Dallas County District Judge Miller Childers often would walk through Selma's "Old Town" district, but she rarely talked about her World War II experiences.
The memories were too painful for her as she got older. On occasion, though, she'd open up about Dachau and what she went through.
She and Childers' late wife, Hallie, had been best friends and when she became ill, Nettie looked after her until her death 10 years ago.
When the judge became ill one day, he called his friend and it didn't take her long to see that he needed to be in the hospital. She drove him there and he quickly recovered.
When they weren't walking through the neighborhood, they volunteered to help at the local food pantry to help poor and hungry people or at St. Paul's.
At her funeral, the minister called Nettie "an extraordinary woman." The judge used "remarkable" to describe her.
An American flag draped her casket and taps was played as the ceremony ended. Then the flag was folded and given to Nettie's son.
Of all the events she experienced during her long life, the nine weeks she spent at Dachau easily led the list.
That's because she came home an eyewitness to a mammoth crime against humanity and she wasn't afraid to stand up to those who doubted the validity of the Holocaust.
Alvin Benn writes about people and places in central and south Alabama. If you have suggestions for a story, contact him at 875-3249 or e-mail him at [email protected].
From the Selma Times Journal November 12, 2007, By Coy O'Neal
Nettie Eskridge, Army
This Veterans Day, former Veteran of the Month Nettie Eskridge will be remembering the past and reflecting on the needs of a current generation.
I'm no hero,she says often. I was just doing my job.
Eskridge said her parents were patriotic, until it came to their own children. &8220;who wants to send their children off to fight. Eskridge said. But I was always strong-willed, willing to take chances. I did think about it for a while, but I always did what I wanted to do, not what someone else wanted me to do.
This aspect of Eskridge's personality became apparent when Eskridge, despite her parents' disapproval, joined the Army Nurse Corps at the age of 18.
Eskridge served for two years, including time spent overseas. She wanted to be a flight nurse initially, but was too tall to stand completely in the C-47 transport planes that carried the wounded back to the States.
She was a little over 5-foot, 6 inches, but the requirements for the nurses was to be 5-foot , 4 inches or less.
Eskridge entered as a 2ndLieutenant, and received a promotion to 1st Lieutenant while in the field in Europe at the beginning of her second year. Back then, there was no separation between the Army and what is now known as the Air Force, then called the Army Air Corps.
Being under one command, persons could transfer within the units. Eskridge said they were called the &8220;Brown Shoes&8221; for the brown shoes corps members wore with their brown uniforms.
Eskridge was part of the 127th Evacuation Hospital, composed of 40 doctors and nurses each, and numerous medical personnel. She spent nine weeks in Dachau, one of the most notorious concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
Eskridge said her real dream was to attend college. Despite being offered a promotion to captain due to her strong performance while in the service, Eskridge left the Army Nurse Corps and enrolled at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
By this point, the war was already over, Eskridge said. It was there she met and later married Paul Eskridge.
They adopted a son, George. Son George has now adopted a little one, Evan, aged 4, who loves M&Ms and Goldfish and already knows how to read.
Saying farewell to a fellow patriot
Published in The Selma Times Journal, Saturday, December 18, 2010
Dear editor,
Sometimes words are just inadequate to express the emptiness felt by the death of a friend. Words do not come easy or fluid to comfort the family and friends. However, the task is to celebrate a life that meant so much and contributed so much to those around them and to the world. Such was the life of Nettie Hardy Eskridge, World War II Army Nurses Corps.
My first encounter with Nettie was writing tributes to our World War II heroes. She certainly qualified as one of those heroes without contradiction.
Her life was one of service to others. Deciding to become a nurse after graduation from Selma High on Tremont Street, Class of 1939, at the dismay of her parents. They wanted something better for their child, but Nettie wouldn't be denied her chosen profession. When her family withdrew their support, she sold her five cows she had nurtured from one given as a present from her mother as a child. The money was used to pay tuition at Hillman Hospital, now UAB, in Birmingham and nurses school.
After graduating as a Registered Nurse, Nettie was challenged to a higher calling, one of serving her country and caring for wounded and dying soldiers. Entering the Army Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant, she was assigned to the 127th Evacuation Hospital and sent to Europe.
It was with this unit she eventually ended up treating the wretched surviving souls at Dachau Concentration Camp. The 127th arrived only a day or two after the camp was liberated. Nettie and her fellow nurses were first to start treating the starving, diseased and lice infested prisoners. Some were so near death they had to be fed small portions at a time to prevent killing them. The camp was so infested with lice and disease nurses and service personnel were dusted down with DDT upon entering and exiting the compound area and before eating a meal.
Nettie Eskridge performed at a high level of competence and valor. She rendered to God and country service above and beyond the call of duty.
Later in life she rendered her talent and skills to Craig Air Force Base until its closure and then to the Dallas County Health Department. She never relinquished her desire to help and comfort humanity.
Rest in Peace fellow patriot, job well done.
James G. Smith
Selma
(October 1, 1921 - December 14, 2010)
Nettie Frances Eskridge, age 89, of Selma, died Tuesday December 14, 2010. She was survived by her sons, George Eskridge (Barbara) of Selma; grandchildren, Ame Marie Blackmon (Robert) and Evan Hardy Eskridge; great-grandsons, Zachary and William Blackmon and several nieces and nephews.
Services were held at 2:00 p.m. Friday December 17, 2010 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church with Reverend David Powell officiating and Lawrence Brown-Service Funeral Home directing and burial following in Old Live Oak Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers the family requested donations be made to the Christian Outreach Alliance, P.O. Box 688 Selma, AL 36701.
The following story written by Alvin Benn appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser, Sunday December 26, 2010
Nurse testified to horrors of Holocaust
SELMA -- She was a young Army nurse who never dreamed that one day she'd walk through the gates of hell.
They opened for her in early May of 1945. The place was Dachau, one of Nazi Germany's most notorious death camps.
Lt. Nettie Hardy Eskridge was surrounded by thousands of dead and dying men, many stacked on top of each other like cord wood.
The horrifying scenes unfolding in front of her never dimmed and would remain with her throughout the 65 years she had left to live.
When Nettie died this month at the age of 89, the minister who presided at her funeral lauded her military service as well as her anger over those who claimed the Holocaust never happened.
"I saw pictures of how Germans treated their prisoners, but I had to see it to believe it," she wrote in letters to relatives back in Alabama.
Nettie was a member of an Army nursing unit that arrived a couple of days after troops liberated Dachau. As part of the permanent staff, she carried a special pass allowing her to come and go "any time of day or night."
There wasn't much the nurses could do in the weeks that followed their arrival at Dachau. Many of the prisoners were about to die of starvation, typhus and other diseases. Some were saved, but their mental scars never healed.
Despite films, photographs and admissions of guilt by those who ran death camps such as Dachau, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald and many others, "Holocaust Deniers" insist to this day that it was, at most, an "exaggeration" of numbers.
The total generally agreed upon by historians is 11 million civilians -- Jews, gypsies, the physically and mentally handicapped, clergy and political opponents of the Nazis.
Nettie, who was 24 years old when her unit reached Dachau, often would step forward after the war to speak at events or to small groups. She wanted to tell as many as she could that what she saw at Dachau was real.
Before arriving at the concentration camp, she already had been with nursing units in the midst of the fighting and she helped tend to the troops.
"She shared with me her stories of being close enough to the front lines that she was constantly aware of the firefights, artillery and mortar barrages almost every minute of her days and nights," the Rev. Joe Knight of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Selma said in his eulogy at her funeral service.
Knight, a decorated combat Marine during the Korean War, said she never could erase from her mind "the constant screams of the wounded and dying." Then, she entered Dachau and all that had preceded her arrival paled by comparison.
"No one here today can possibly imagine the horror of living and administering care to hundreds of people who had been tortured and starved for years," he said. "That was one experience she couldn't share. It was just too horrible to talk about."
In her letters home, Nettie described in detail what she was going through.
In one, dated May 6, 1945, she wrote: "I want everybody to know that all that has been disclosed about Dachau just ain't propaganda."
When the war ended, she turned down an offer of a promotion to captain and a career in the Army. Instead, she came back to Alabama and resumed her civilian nursing career.
She married a professor, but it didn't last long. Instead, she continued working as a nurse and devoted herself to her son, George, who idolized her.
"Mama taught me to be responsible for my actions and to be as independent as possible," he said a few days ago. "She meant everything to me."
Nettie and retired Dallas County District Judge Miller Childers often would walk through Selma's "Old Town" district, but she rarely talked about her World War II experiences.
The memories were too painful for her as she got older. On occasion, though, she'd open up about Dachau and what she went through.
She and Childers' late wife, Hallie, had been best friends and when she became ill, Nettie looked after her until her death 10 years ago.
When the judge became ill one day, he called his friend and it didn't take her long to see that he needed to be in the hospital. She drove him there and he quickly recovered.
When they weren't walking through the neighborhood, they volunteered to help at the local food pantry to help poor and hungry people or at St. Paul's.
At her funeral, the minister called Nettie "an extraordinary woman." The judge used "remarkable" to describe her.
An American flag draped her casket and taps was played as the ceremony ended. Then the flag was folded and given to Nettie's son.
Of all the events she experienced during her long life, the nine weeks she spent at Dachau easily led the list.
That's because she came home an eyewitness to a mammoth crime against humanity and she wasn't afraid to stand up to those who doubted the validity of the Holocaust.
Alvin Benn writes about people and places in central and south Alabama. If you have suggestions for a story, contact him at 875-3249 or e-mail him at [email protected].
From the Selma Times Journal November 12, 2007, By Coy O'Neal
Nettie Eskridge, Army
This Veterans Day, former Veteran of the Month Nettie Eskridge will be remembering the past and reflecting on the needs of a current generation.
I'm no hero,she says often. I was just doing my job.
Eskridge said her parents were patriotic, until it came to their own children. &8220;who wants to send their children off to fight. Eskridge said. But I was always strong-willed, willing to take chances. I did think about it for a while, but I always did what I wanted to do, not what someone else wanted me to do.
This aspect of Eskridge's personality became apparent when Eskridge, despite her parents' disapproval, joined the Army Nurse Corps at the age of 18.
Eskridge served for two years, including time spent overseas. She wanted to be a flight nurse initially, but was too tall to stand completely in the C-47 transport planes that carried the wounded back to the States.
She was a little over 5-foot, 6 inches, but the requirements for the nurses was to be 5-foot , 4 inches or less.
Eskridge entered as a 2ndLieutenant, and received a promotion to 1st Lieutenant while in the field in Europe at the beginning of her second year. Back then, there was no separation between the Army and what is now known as the Air Force, then called the Army Air Corps.
Being under one command, persons could transfer within the units. Eskridge said they were called the &8220;Brown Shoes&8221; for the brown shoes corps members wore with their brown uniforms.
Eskridge was part of the 127th Evacuation Hospital, composed of 40 doctors and nurses each, and numerous medical personnel. She spent nine weeks in Dachau, one of the most notorious concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
Eskridge said her real dream was to attend college. Despite being offered a promotion to captain due to her strong performance while in the service, Eskridge left the Army Nurse Corps and enrolled at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
By this point, the war was already over, Eskridge said. It was there she met and later married Paul Eskridge.
They adopted a son, George. Son George has now adopted a little one, Evan, aged 4, who loves M&Ms and Goldfish and already knows how to read.
Saying farewell to a fellow patriot
Published in The Selma Times Journal, Saturday, December 18, 2010
Dear editor,
Sometimes words are just inadequate to express the emptiness felt by the death of a friend. Words do not come easy or fluid to comfort the family and friends. However, the task is to celebrate a life that meant so much and contributed so much to those around them and to the world. Such was the life of Nettie Hardy Eskridge, World War II Army Nurses Corps.
My first encounter with Nettie was writing tributes to our World War II heroes. She certainly qualified as one of those heroes without contradiction.
Her life was one of service to others. Deciding to become a nurse after graduation from Selma High on Tremont Street, Class of 1939, at the dismay of her parents. They wanted something better for their child, but Nettie wouldn't be denied her chosen profession. When her family withdrew their support, she sold her five cows she had nurtured from one given as a present from her mother as a child. The money was used to pay tuition at Hillman Hospital, now UAB, in Birmingham and nurses school.
After graduating as a Registered Nurse, Nettie was challenged to a higher calling, one of serving her country and caring for wounded and dying soldiers. Entering the Army Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant, she was assigned to the 127th Evacuation Hospital and sent to Europe.
It was with this unit she eventually ended up treating the wretched surviving souls at Dachau Concentration Camp. The 127th arrived only a day or two after the camp was liberated. Nettie and her fellow nurses were first to start treating the starving, diseased and lice infested prisoners. Some were so near death they had to be fed small portions at a time to prevent killing them. The camp was so infested with lice and disease nurses and service personnel were dusted down with DDT upon entering and exiting the compound area and before eating a meal.
Nettie Eskridge performed at a high level of competence and valor. She rendered to God and country service above and beyond the call of duty.
Later in life she rendered her talent and skills to Craig Air Force Base until its closure and then to the Dallas County Health Department. She never relinquished her desire to help and comfort humanity.
Rest in Peace fellow patriot, job well done.
James G. Smith
Selma
Nettie Frances Eskridge
(October 1, 1921 - December 14, 2010)
Nettie Frances Eskridge, age 89, of Selma, died Tuesday December 14, 2010. She was survived by her sons, George Eskridge (Barbara) of Selma; grandchildren, Ame Marie Blackmon (Robert) and Evan Hardy Eskridge; great-grandsons, Zachary and William Blackmon and several nieces and nephews.
Services were held at 2:00 p.m. Friday December 17, 2010 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church with Reverend David Powell officiating and Lawrence Brown-Service Funeral Home directing and burial following in Old Live Oak Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers the family requested donations be made to the Christian Outreach Alliance, P.O. Box 688 Selma, AL 36701.
The following story written by Alvin Benn appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser, Sunday December 26, 2010
Nurse testified to horrors of Holocaust
SELMA -- She was a young Army nurse who never dreamed that one day she'd walk through the gates of hell.
They opened for her in early May of 1945. The place was Dachau, one of Nazi Germany's most notorious death camps.
Lt. Nettie Hardy Eskridge was surrounded by thousands of dead and dying men, many stacked on top of each other like cord wood.
The horrifying scenes unfolding in front of her never dimmed and would remain with her throughout the 65 years she had left to live.
When Nettie died this month at the age of 89, the minister who presided at her funeral lauded her military service as well as her anger over those who claimed the Holocaust never happened.
"I saw pictures of how Germans treated their prisoners, but I had to see it to believe it," she wrote in letters to relatives back in Alabama.
Nettie was a member of an Army nursing unit that arrived a couple of days after troops liberated Dachau. As part of the permanent staff, she carried a special pass allowing her to come and go "any time of day or night."
There wasn't much the nurses could do in the weeks that followed their arrival at Dachau. Many of the prisoners were about to die of starvation, typhus and other diseases. Some were saved, but their mental scars never healed.
Despite films, photographs and admissions of guilt by those who ran death camps such as Dachau, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald and many others, "Holocaust Deniers" insist to this day that it was, at most, an "exaggeration" of numbers.
The total generally agreed upon by historians is 11 million civilians -- Jews, gypsies, the physically and mentally handicapped, clergy and political opponents of the Nazis.
Nettie, who was 24 years old when her unit reached Dachau, often would step forward after the war to speak at events or to small groups. She wanted to tell as many as she could that what she saw at Dachau was real.
Before arriving at the concentration camp, she already had been with nursing units in the midst of the fighting and she helped tend to the troops.
"She shared with me her stories of being close enough to the front lines that she was constantly aware of the firefights, artillery and mortar barrages almost every minute of her days and nights," the Rev. Joe Knight of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Selma said in his eulogy at her funeral service.
Knight, a decorated combat Marine during the Korean War, said she never could erase from her mind "the constant screams of the wounded and dying." Then, she entered Dachau and all that had preceded her arrival paled by comparison.
"No one here today can possibly imagine the horror of living and administering care to hundreds of people who had been tortured and starved for years," he said. "That was one experience she couldn't share. It was just too horrible to talk about."
In her letters home, Nettie described in detail what she was going through.
In one, dated May 6, 1945, she wrote: "I want everybody to know that all that has been disclosed about Dachau just ain't propaganda."
When the war ended, she turned down an offer of a promotion to captain and a career in the Army. Instead, she came back to Alabama and resumed her civilian nursing career.
She married a professor, but it didn't last long. Instead, she continued working as a nurse and devoted herself to her son, George, who idolized her.
"Mama taught me to be responsible for my actions and to be as independent as possible," he said a few days ago. "She meant everything to me."
Nettie and retired Dallas County District Judge Miller Childers often would walk through Selma's "Old Town" district, but she rarely talked about her World War II experiences.
The memories were too painful for her as she got older. On occasion, though, she'd open up about Dachau and what she went through.
She and Childers' late wife, Hallie, had been best friends and when she became ill, Nettie looked after her until her death 10 years ago.
When the judge became ill one day, he called his friend and it didn't take her long to see that he needed to be in the hospital. She drove him there and he quickly recovered.
When they weren't walking through the neighborhood, they volunteered to help at the local food pantry to help poor and hungry people or at St. Paul's.
At her funeral, the minister called Nettie "an extraordinary woman." The judge used "remarkable" to describe her.
An American flag draped her casket and taps was played as the ceremony ended. Then the flag was folded and given to Nettie's son.
Of all the events she experienced during her long life, the nine weeks she spent at Dachau easily led the list.
That's because she came home an eyewitness to a mammoth crime against humanity and she wasn't afraid to stand up to those who doubted the validity of the Holocaust.
Alvin Benn writes about people and places in central and south Alabama. If you have suggestions for a story, contact him at 875-3249 or e-mail him at [email protected].
From the Selma Times Journal November 12, 2007, By Coy O'Neal
Nettie Eskridge, Army
This Veterans Day, former Veteran of the Month Nettie Eskridge will be remembering the past and reflecting on the needs of a current generation.
I'm no hero,she says often. I was just doing my job.
Eskridge said her parents were patriotic, until it came to their own children. &8220;who wants to send their children off to fight. Eskridge said. But I was always strong-willed, willing to take chances. I did think about it for a while, but I always did what I wanted to do, not what someone else wanted me to do.
This aspect of Eskridge's personality became apparent when Eskridge, despite her parents' disapproval, joined the Army Nurse Corps at the age of 18.
Eskridge served for two years, including time spent overseas. She wanted to be a flight nurse initially, but was too tall to stand completely in the C-47 transport planes that carried the wounded back to the States.
She was a little over 5-foot, 6 inches, but the requirements for the nurses was to be 5-foot , 4 inches or less.
Eskridge entered as a 2ndLieutenant, and received a promotion to 1st Lieutenant while in the field in Europe at the beginning of her second year. Back then, there was no separation between the Army and what is now known as the Air Force, then called the Army Air Corps.
Being under one command, persons could transfer within the units. Eskridge said they were called the &8220;Brown Shoes&8221; for the brown shoes corps members wore with their brown uniforms.
Eskridge was part of the 127th Evacuation Hospital, composed of 40 doctors and nurses each, and numerous medical personnel. She spent nine weeks in Dachau, one of the most notorious concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
Eskridge said her real dream was to attend college. Despite being offered a promotion to captain due to her strong performance while in the service, Eskridge left the Army Nurse Corps and enrolled at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
By this point, the war was already over, Eskridge said. It was there she met and later married Paul Eskridge.
They adopted a son, George. Son George has now adopted a little one, Evan, aged 4, who loves M&Ms and Goldfish and already knows how to read.
Saying farewell to a fellow patriot
Published in The Selma Times Journal, Saturday, December 18, 2010
Dear editor,
Sometimes words are just inadequate to express the emptiness felt by the death of a friend. Words do not come easy or fluid to comfort the family and friends. However, the task is to celebrate a life that meant so much and contributed so much to those around them and to the world. Such was the life of Nettie Hardy Eskridge, World War II Army Nurses Corps.
My first encounter with Nettie was writing tributes to our World War II heroes. She certainly qualified as one of those heroes without contradiction.
Her life was one of service to others. Deciding to become a nurse after graduation from Selma High on Tremont Street, Class of 1939, at the dismay of her parents. They wanted something better for their child, but Nettie wouldn't be denied her chosen profession. When her family withdrew their support, she sold her five cows she had nurtured from one given as a present from her mother as a child. The money was used to pay tuition at Hillman Hospital, now UAB, in Birmingham and nurses school.
After graduating as a Registered Nurse, Nettie was challenged to a higher calling, one of serving her country and caring for wounded and dying soldiers. Entering the Army Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant, she was assigned to the 127th Evacuation Hospital and sent to Europe.
It was with this unit she eventually ended up treating the wretched surviving souls at Dachau Concentration Camp. The 127th arrived only a day or two after the camp was liberated. Nettie and her fellow nurses were first to start treating the starving, diseased and lice infested prisoners. Some were so near death they had to be fed small portions at a time to prevent killing them. The camp was so infested with lice and disease nurses and service personnel were dusted down with DDT upon entering and exiting the compound area and before eating a meal.
Nettie Eskridge performed at a high level of competence and valor. She rendered to God and country service above and beyond the call of duty.
Later in life she rendered her talent and skills to Craig Air Force Base until its closure and then to the Dallas County Health Department. She never relinquished her desire to help and comfort humanity.
Rest in Peace fellow patriot, job well done.
James G. Smith
Selma
(October 1, 1921 - December 14, 2010)
Nettie Frances Eskridge, age 89, of Selma, died Tuesday December 14, 2010. She was survived by her sons, George Eskridge (Barbara) of Selma; grandchildren, Ame Marie Blackmon (Robert) and Evan Hardy Eskridge; great-grandsons, Zachary and William Blackmon and several nieces and nephews.
Services were held at 2:00 p.m. Friday December 17, 2010 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church with Reverend David Powell officiating and Lawrence Brown-Service Funeral Home directing and burial following in Old Live Oak Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers the family requested donations be made to the Christian Outreach Alliance, P.O. Box 688 Selma, AL 36701.
The following story written by Alvin Benn appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser, Sunday December 26, 2010
Nurse testified to horrors of Holocaust
SELMA -- She was a young Army nurse who never dreamed that one day she'd walk through the gates of hell.
They opened for her in early May of 1945. The place was Dachau, one of Nazi Germany's most notorious death camps.
Lt. Nettie Hardy Eskridge was surrounded by thousands of dead and dying men, many stacked on top of each other like cord wood.
The horrifying scenes unfolding in front of her never dimmed and would remain with her throughout the 65 years she had left to live.
When Nettie died this month at the age of 89, the minister who presided at her funeral lauded her military service as well as her anger over those who claimed the Holocaust never happened.
"I saw pictures of how Germans treated their prisoners, but I had to see it to believe it," she wrote in letters to relatives back in Alabama.
Nettie was a member of an Army nursing unit that arrived a couple of days after troops liberated Dachau. As part of the permanent staff, she carried a special pass allowing her to come and go "any time of day or night."
There wasn't much the nurses could do in the weeks that followed their arrival at Dachau. Many of the prisoners were about to die of starvation, typhus and other diseases. Some were saved, but their mental scars never healed.
Despite films, photographs and admissions of guilt by those who ran death camps such as Dachau, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald and many others, "Holocaust Deniers" insist to this day that it was, at most, an "exaggeration" of numbers.
The total generally agreed upon by historians is 11 million civilians -- Jews, gypsies, the physically and mentally handicapped, clergy and political opponents of the Nazis.
Nettie, who was 24 years old when her unit reached Dachau, often would step forward after the war to speak at events or to small groups. She wanted to tell as many as she could that what she saw at Dachau was real.
Before arriving at the concentration camp, she already had been with nursing units in the midst of the fighting and she helped tend to the troops.
"She shared with me her stories of being close enough to the front lines that she was constantly aware of the firefights, artillery and mortar barrages almost every minute of her days and nights," the Rev. Joe Knight of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Selma said in his eulogy at her funeral service.
Knight, a decorated combat Marine during the Korean War, said she never could erase from her mind "the constant screams of the wounded and dying." Then, she entered Dachau and all that had preceded her arrival paled by comparison.
"No one here today can possibly imagine the horror of living and administering care to hundreds of people who had been tortured and starved for years," he said. "That was one experience she couldn't share. It was just too horrible to talk about."
In her letters home, Nettie described in detail what she was going through.
In one, dated May 6, 1945, she wrote: "I want everybody to know that all that has been disclosed about Dachau just ain't propaganda."
When the war ended, she turned down an offer of a promotion to captain and a career in the Army. Instead, she came back to Alabama and resumed her civilian nursing career.
She married a professor, but it didn't last long. Instead, she continued working as a nurse and devoted herself to her son, George, who idolized her.
"Mama taught me to be responsible for my actions and to be as independent as possible," he said a few days ago. "She meant everything to me."
Nettie and retired Dallas County District Judge Miller Childers often would walk through Selma's "Old Town" district, but she rarely talked about her World War II experiences.
The memories were too painful for her as she got older. On occasion, though, she'd open up about Dachau and what she went through.
She and Childers' late wife, Hallie, had been best friends and when she became ill, Nettie looked after her until her death 10 years ago.
When the judge became ill one day, he called his friend and it didn't take her long to see that he needed to be in the hospital. She drove him there and he quickly recovered.
When they weren't walking through the neighborhood, they volunteered to help at the local food pantry to help poor and hungry people or at St. Paul's.
At her funeral, the minister called Nettie "an extraordinary woman." The judge used "remarkable" to describe her.
An American flag draped her casket and taps was played as the ceremony ended. Then the flag was folded and given to Nettie's son.
Of all the events she experienced during her long life, the nine weeks she spent at Dachau easily led the list.
That's because she came home an eyewitness to a mammoth crime against humanity and she wasn't afraid to stand up to those who doubted the validity of the Holocaust.
Alvin Benn writes about people and places in central and south Alabama. If you have suggestions for a story, contact him at 875-3249 or e-mail him at [email protected].
From the Selma Times Journal November 12, 2007, By Coy O'Neal
Nettie Eskridge, Army
This Veterans Day, former Veteran of the Month Nettie Eskridge will be remembering the past and reflecting on the needs of a current generation.
I'm no hero,she says often. I was just doing my job.
Eskridge said her parents were patriotic, until it came to their own children. &8220;who wants to send their children off to fight. Eskridge said. But I was always strong-willed, willing to take chances. I did think about it for a while, but I always did what I wanted to do, not what someone else wanted me to do.
This aspect of Eskridge's personality became apparent when Eskridge, despite her parents' disapproval, joined the Army Nurse Corps at the age of 18.
Eskridge served for two years, including time spent overseas. She wanted to be a flight nurse initially, but was too tall to stand completely in the C-47 transport planes that carried the wounded back to the States.
She was a little over 5-foot, 6 inches, but the requirements for the nurses was to be 5-foot , 4 inches or less.
Eskridge entered as a 2ndLieutenant, and received a promotion to 1st Lieutenant while in the field in Europe at the beginning of her second year. Back then, there was no separation between the Army and what is now known as the Air Force, then called the Army Air Corps.
Being under one command, persons could transfer within the units. Eskridge said they were called the &8220;Brown Shoes&8221; for the brown shoes corps members wore with their brown uniforms.
Eskridge was part of the 127th Evacuation Hospital, composed of 40 doctors and nurses each, and numerous medical personnel. She spent nine weeks in Dachau, one of the most notorious concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
Eskridge said her real dream was to attend college. Despite being offered a promotion to captain due to her strong performance while in the service, Eskridge left the Army Nurse Corps and enrolled at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
By this point, the war was already over, Eskridge said. It was there she met and later married Paul Eskridge.
They adopted a son, George. Son George has now adopted a little one, Evan, aged 4, who loves M&Ms and Goldfish and already knows how to read.
Saying farewell to a fellow patriot
Published in The Selma Times Journal, Saturday, December 18, 2010
Dear editor,
Sometimes words are just inadequate to express the emptiness felt by the death of a friend. Words do not come easy or fluid to comfort the family and friends. However, the task is to celebrate a life that meant so much and contributed so much to those around them and to the world. Such was the life of Nettie Hardy Eskridge, World War II Army Nurses Corps.
My first encounter with Nettie was writing tributes to our World War II heroes. She certainly qualified as one of those heroes without contradiction.
Her life was one of service to others. Deciding to become a nurse after graduation from Selma High on Tremont Street, Class of 1939, at the dismay of her parents. They wanted something better for their child, but Nettie wouldn't be denied her chosen profession. When her family withdrew their support, she sold her five cows she had nurtured from one given as a present from her mother as a child. The money was used to pay tuition at Hillman Hospital, now UAB, in Birmingham and nurses school.
After graduating as a Registered Nurse, Nettie was challenged to a higher calling, one of serving her country and caring for wounded and dying soldiers. Entering the Army Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant, she was assigned to the 127th Evacuation Hospital and sent to Europe.
It was with this unit she eventually ended up treating the wretched surviving souls at Dachau Concentration Camp. The 127th arrived only a day or two after the camp was liberated. Nettie and her fellow nurses were first to start treating the starving, diseased and lice infested prisoners. Some were so near death they had to be fed small portions at a time to prevent killing them. The camp was so infested with lice and disease nurses and service personnel were dusted down with DDT upon entering and exiting the compound area and before eating a meal.
Nettie Eskridge performed at a high level of competence and valor. She rendered to God and country service above and beyond the call of duty.
Later in life she rendered her talent and skills to Craig Air Force Base until its closure and then to the Dallas County Health Department. She never relinquished her desire to help and comfort humanity.
Rest in Peace fellow patriot, job well done.
James G. Smith
Selma
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