Leon Bass — Fighting Two Wars at Once
Leon Bass grew up in a family that had already survived the harshest parts of America’s racist past. His parents fled South Carolina for Philadelphia, determined to give their children a future rooted in dignity, education, and hard work. Leon absorbed that message — you are somebody, but you’ll have to fight for it.
When he entered the Army in 1943, segregation hit him immediately. Black soldiers went one way, white soldiers another. Leon joined the 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion — 600 Black soldiers commanded entirely by white officers — and trained across the Deep South, where simple bus rides came with humiliation and danger. Even in uniform, he was treated as less than.
Overseas, everything changed and didn’t change at the same time. The British welcomed them. The U.S. Army hesitated to arm them. Leon knew exactly what was happening: “I’m fighting two wars — one here, one at home.”
His unit was sent into the Battle of the Bulge, building a critical bridge under freezing weather, constant shelling, and blackout conditions. That bridge allowed tanks, ammunition, and reinforcements to reach Bastogne — a turning point in the battle. It was the first time Leon felt unquestionably “good enough.”
But nothing prepared him for what came next.
In April 1945, Leon’s unit was ordered into Buchenwald.
He walked through the open gate into a world of starvation, torture, medical experimentation, and mass murder. He saw skeletal prisoners struggling to stand, overcrowded barracks reeking of death, jars filled with human body parts, children’s clothing piled against a wall with no children left alive. He saw the crematorium, the gas chambers, and the bodies stacked outside.
Leon had survived racism, segregation, and combat — but this was different. “I was not the same anymore,” he said. “Something happened to me that day.”
After the war, Leon used the GI Bill to become a teacher. When schools refused to hire him because he was Black, he didn’t quit. He joined civil rights efforts, worked with Jewish organizations, and spoke out about Buchenwald — determined to prevent hatred from repeating itself.
His message became simple:
Killing and hating are not the answer. Love is. Treat people with respect, no matter who they are.