WWII Veteran George Ciampa: Margot, a Jeep and Coming Home

What happens to a 19-year-old who has spent a year burying the dead when the war suddenly ends?

For George Ciampa, the answer was a circus. After the Battle of the Bulge, his graves registration company left the temporary American cemetery at Henri-Chapelle in Belgium and moved across Germany to Eisenach, in central Germany, where he celebrated the end of the war with two bottles of wine, one white and one red. Then the Army sent him to Mannheim in the army of occupation. Away from the dead for the first time in 11 months, he went to the circus Army Special Services put on for the troops, again and again, because of a young trapeze star named Margot.

In Episode 117, the third of five conversations, host Josh Lindsay and Christian Taylor sit down again with George Ciampa, then 95. The episode opens with news about Christian's film, The Girl Who Wore Freedom, before George picks up his story. He talks about the emotional cost of handling the dead every day, the jeep that nearly got him court-martialed, and the nightmares his sisters heard after he came home. He told us he never knew how he escaped what we now call PTSD. Decades later he went back to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day, and years after that, while making a film in the Netherlands, he adopted the grave of a Jewish American soldier his own age.

Most of all, he tells the story of Margot. Neither spoke the other's language, so George learned "You Are My Sunshine" in German and sang it to her. In December 1945, waiting at Bremerhaven for a ship home, he took a train about 350 miles to Frankfurt to spend Christmas with her family. He borrowed her father's overcoat, took her to an American movie, and said goodbye at the station. Did he ever see her again? George starts to answer, and his hosts stop him: that story waits for Part 4.

George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98. We are grateful he trusted us with his story.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What graves registration units did in Germany after the war ended
• How George met Margot, a trapeze star in an Army circus
• How George coped with burying the dead day after day
• How a jeep traded for a pair of paratrooper boots almost cost him a court-martial
• What George carried home from the war, and what he never could explain
• Why he adopted a soldier's grave in the Netherlands
• What happened between George and Margot at Christmas 1945

CHAPTERS

0:00 Release News for The Girl Who Wore Freedom

5:43 Leaving Henri-Chapelle for Germany

12:39 The Emotional Cost of Burying the Dead

17:20 A Flying Trapeze Artist in Mannheim

25:05 The Jeep That Almost Got Him Court-Martialed

27:27 Nightmares, Memory and Adopting a Grave

34:00 Christmas in Frankfurt With Margot

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What did graves registration units do after World War II ended in Europe?

The work didn't stop when the fighting did. The U.S. didn't want any American cemeteries left in Germany, so at Eisenach, George Ciampa says, the day after Memorial Day services, German prisoners dug up the temporary graves, and each soldier was re-identified by the dog tags on the cross and on the body before being shipped to temporary cemeteries in Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

How did George Ciampa cope with burying the dead?

George Ciampa says the job took an emotional toll, and his sisters heard his nightmares after he came home. He said he never knew how he avoided lasting PTSD. He returned to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day, and years later, while making a film in the Netherlands, adopted a soldier's grave there.

What was the army of occupation in Germany?

After Germany surrendered in May 1945, American troops stayed to occupy and govern the American zone of Germany. George Ciampa was stationed in Mannheim, where he worked in a salvage company collecting the gear of units going home. In his time off he went to the circus that Army Special Services put on for the troops, and there he met Margot, a trapeze performer.

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ABOUT THE GUEST

George Ciampa

World War II Veteran and Documentary Filmmaker

George Ciampa was born in Boston in 1925 and grew up in Southern California. He served in the 607th Graves Registration Company from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war, then spent seven months in the army of occupation in Germany. He later worked for the Los Angeles Times. At 81 he began making documentaries about the price of freedom through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring, including Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless and Let Freedom Ring: Memories of France, and shared his stories with students in the United States, France and Belgium. He received the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98.

Website: http://www.letfreedomringforall.org

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers from Ken Burns to first-time directors. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

THE GEORGE CIAMPA SERIES

• Part 1, D-Day and burying the dead in Normandy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBaBYOxWjg
• Part 2, the Battle of the Bulge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc5I8EbJd-A
• Part 4, Margot again and his life after the war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG_KeqThEro
• Part 5, his films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokgDr_iAGA
• Episode 215, our tribute to George after his passing, which re-airs Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kdCAStwcI

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• George Ciampa remembered (The Palm Springs Post, 2024): https://thepalmspringspost.com/life-of-wwii-veteran-and-filmmaker-george-ciampa-to-be-celebrated-in-private-ceremony-sunday-in-palm-springs/
• The Girl Who Wore Freedom: https://geni.us/TheGirlWhoWoreFreedom