World War II Honoree

Curtis Anderson Nye

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

Pender, Nebraska

Honored By

Sharon Nye Roffman, Rachel Nye Halonen, Steve Nye

Relationship

Daughter, Daughter, Son

Curtis served as a machine gunner in the US Army 410th Regiment of the 103rd Cactus Division, 7th Army. The 103rd is officially recognized as one of the American Liberating Divisions by the The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the US Army's Center of Military History, who have worked together to define, recognize, and honor all the US Army divisions that took part in the liberation of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps and other sites of incarceration. The 103rd is listed as having been at Kaufering, a system of eleven subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp. We know that Curtis moved on the front lines throughout France and Germany. He once shared with his family that he saw a lone German soldier, and stepped out from behind a protective wall to shoot him, when his gun suddenly jammed. Not yet seen, he moved back behind the wall to fix his gun, only to see many more Germans emerge and join the single soldier. Had his gun not jammed, he felt sure that he would have been discovered and that would have been his last day. Interestingly, he lost a bible and his Nebraska drivers license dated 1942 in Neiderbroun, France, during battle strife in the winter offensive of 1944, when he was 19 years old, that was later returned to him by the family that kept it, when he was living in Omaha in 1979. He married Marjorie Ferguson in 1949. He participated in WWII reunions with other members of his division up until the early 2000's, and included his children and grandchildren in the reunions. He lived from February 13, 1925 to November 20, 2008. He rests in West Point, Nebraska.