By Jessica Moore

Staff Writer

"Everyone has a story to tell, and I have a lot of chapters in my story," said Jimmy Gentry, 88, of Franklin, as he began talking to the U.S. History and A.P. U.S. History classes at Marshall County High School this week.

Gentry's story begins in Franklin. When he was just 12 years old, in 1937 during the Great Depression, his father died, leaving his mother to care for seven children on her own.

Gentry, like his brothers and sisters, went to school, worked, trapped, and fished to help support their family. Gentry was very good at trapping, especially when it came to minks and muskrats, both of which brought a pretty penny during the Great Depression. Gentry made his money selling the furs to Martin Turner, one of the three Jewish men living in Franklin during that time. He also worked at Willow Plunge, the swimming pool in Franklin. Just after Sunday school on Dec. 7, 1941, he and some friends were drinking a Coke at the local drugstore and heard the radio reporting the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and the U.S. was entering World War II.

"It was a war that changed everything, and I mean everything," Gentry said. "That was the first time women stepped out of the house, some even wore long pants," he continued.

Gentry went on to explain that patriotism was at its highest during that time. His brother, David, who was only 17, so badly wanted to join the army, that he tried to sign up every day. Finally, they told him to take some paperwork home to his mother and they would agree to take him early.

"That was the last time we ever saw my brother," said Gentry. Back then when families had sons off to war they would put a blue star in the window, and according to Gentry there were blue stars everywhere. One family had five blue stars in their window. As time went on, gold stars began to replace some of the blue. A gold star represented someone who died serving their country. His mother took down David's blue star, and replaced it with a gold one. It wasn't too long after that it was Gentry's time to go. He also enlisted at 17. Next to the gold star in his mother's window, she added a blue star. Gentry originally wanted to join the Air Force. He wanted to fly. Unfortunately for him, that was not possible. He was told he was colorblind. So, still wanting to join, they told him to try the army. He became a foot soldier in the infantry. They were supposed to train for 16 weeks, but their training stopped after 12 weeks because they were shipping out. They headed north to New York, then on to sea.

"On the ocean, you can see the earth is round. Man can't do this, only God can," said Gentry admiringly. They first arrived in England, then went on to France. From there they traveled by night. They finally found out why they left a month early: foot soldiers were needed for the Battle of the Bulge. They traveled and fought and traveled and fought. They made memories, saw Europe, but still it was war.

"One minute your friend was right beside you, the next minute they were gone, this was war," said Gentry.

On April 29, 1945, Gentry and the rest of his crew arrived at a camp. There were train tracks leading into the walls of the camp and tracks leading out. The smell was terrible, "like one you have never smelled before." This was a holocaust camp in Germany known as Dachau. The inmates were so thankful to be freed. After liberating the camp, the American soldiers had to burn their clothes and take a bath because they had been exposed to typhus fever.

"After that, I went to a field nearby, got down on my knees, and thanked God for taking care of me. I had asked him to take care of me when I left for war," explained Gentry.

Fast forward almost 60 years. On Sept. 26, 2010, a little boy and his mother were at Gentry's pumpkin farm in Franklin. The little boy was looking at a few items that were available for purchase. One just happened to be a DVD with a picture of a camp on it. He asked his mother what camp was shown in the picture. Then a man answered and said it was a concentration camp in Germany. The mother asked "And what camp would that be?" Gentry replied, "Dachau." After finding out that Gentry was a liberator of Dachau, the visitor went on to tell him that her father, Oleks Rudenko, had been a Ukrainian citizen and slave laborer and was at Dachau when the camp was liberated.

Larissa O. Rudenko Wright, the daughter of Oleks Rudenko, was also at MCHS and shared her father's story with the classes. She explained not everyone being held captive by the Nazis was Jewish. Her father was a Christian living in the Ukraine. His family dealt with quite a bit since they were not Communist sympathizers. His father warned him not to go to town, and to come straight home when leaving school. One day, the Nazis, after getting the rosters from the schools, decided to round up the students and take them away. When speaking to his parents for what he thought might be the last time, his mother told Oleks, no matter where he was in the world they would always share the same moon. His father told him, "If you can, go to a Democracy; you see what it's like here."

That is when Rudenko knew he had to survive. During his time at Dachau he had been isolated, tortured, and nearly starved, but he did what he could to survive. Upon liberation, he finished school in Germany. Then decided he would go to America; he arrived in New York, but chose to settle in California. There was a large Ukrainian community there. He worked five jobs and went to college. He became fluent in five languages, and a professor at a university. He came from nothing, but his hard work paid off. He met Larissa's mother, they married, and Larissa was born in Oklahoma. Some time later, in Middle Tennessee. Gentry and Oleks Rudenko were sitting on the same panel for an event. They were not introduced. Later they knew why. After Gentry spoke, it was Rudenko's turn. He came behind him and hugged him and said, "Thank you for saving my life."

What a small world it is.