Herman C. Giersch

“I have many fond memories of my grandfather and most of them involve his passions for visiting the Adirondack mountains, performing choral music, or sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.”

– Jason Giersch ’12, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Herman C. Giersch, remembered by his grandson, Jason Giersch

Band leader Herman Giersch helped liberate the concentration camp at Dachau.

Herman C. Giersch was a member of the 42nd Infantry Division, which served in Europe during WWII. Members of the division had a band that he led.

He witnessed the liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau, but the only stories he ever told his grandchildren were about the night his vehicle nearly toppled over the edge of a bombed-out bridge, the time German soldiers applauded his band’s performance from opposite the valley where the Americans were positioned, and, of course, the time when he was still stateside and his commander gave him 48 hours leave to marry my grandmother.