Major Julian S. Perry collection

Consists of one anonymous typed poem, circa spring 1945, describing the liberation of Buchenwald from the point of view of a liberated prisoner. The poem was given to (or typed by) Major Julian S. Perry while he was serving in the European Theater as part of the 516th Quartermaster Truck Battalion. Also includes correspondence, photographs, and narrative documenting Perry's experiences during World War II. Julian Scott Perry was born on May 6, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois. Before World War II, he trained as a lawyer, studying at the De Paul University College of Law and took the bar exam on July 8, 1942. The next day, July 9, 1942, he entered the United States Army. He was commissioned in June 1943 as a First Lieutenant. Shipped to Iran, he served as a pool officer in the 3390th QM Truck Company, 516th Quartermaster Truck Battalion, leading African American troops stationed in The Persian Gulf Command. By December 1944, he was in France. His trucks, carrying gas and ammunition to the front, followed the route of the famed Red Ball Express. He crossed the Rhine in April 1945, returning from Eisenach with German prisoners destined for the POW Camp at Andernach. On 3 May, he was reassigned as Detachment CO and appointed adjutant in the 516 QM Group Headquarters in Antwerp, Belgium where he supervised the administrative details of three battalions and fourteen truck companies until group was deactivated. He was honorably discharged in February 1946. He returned to Chicago working as a Title Officer at Chicago Title and Trust and as an attorney in private practice. He retired from the Army with the rank of Major on May 6, 1974 having served in the Army Reserves during the Korean War. He passed away on November 11, 1998 leaving a wife, Helen, nee Kralka, and a daughter, Susan Perry Ferguson.