Jessie E. McIntyre Collection
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Oral history interview with Jessie Watts McIntyre
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Primarily documents Jessie McIntyre's service in the Army Nurse Corps, including liberating the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, during World War II. McIntyre provides an overview of her childhood, including her education, living through the Depression, and her reasons for attending nursing school. Topics from her studies there include: the daily routine; changes in the program after the attack on Pearl Harbor; and meeting her husband. She discusses her marriage while at Fort Dix, New Jersey. " McIntyre describes signing up for the Army Nurse Corps after her husband left for the service; being trained as an operating room nurse; the differences between the army and nurse school; and her overseas training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Topics from her time in the United Kingdom include: traveling to Scotland on the RMS Queen Elizabeth; uniforms; buzz bombs; keeping in touch with her husband; interactions with citizens; and her brother being on the beach on D-Day. Of her time in the European theatre, McIntyre describes the Battle of the Bulge, following the front, receiving booklets on what to do if captured, and meeting up with her husband in Becherbach, Germany. Other topics from Bercherbach include treating casualties and the death of President Roosevelt. " McIntyre talks in detail about the liberation of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria in May 1945. She discusses setting up a hospital in the camp; treating patients suffering from disease and starvation; the high death rate; and how nurses protected themselves from disease. She describes the structure of the camp and the ways people were worked and killed by the Nazis. She shares the story of Franz Ziereis, the commandment of the camp, who fled to the nearby mountains; his capture by US troops; his confession; his death from a gunshot wound; and the camp victims' capture of his body. She also describes the Russian army taking over command of the camp, and the return of victims to their home countries. Later in the interview, she discusses the importance of the Holocaust Museums and education about the holocaust, as well as meeting holocaust survivors and sharing their stories. " McIntyre goes on to discuss returning to the US and receiving her discharge because of pregnancy. Other post-war topics include working for the Foreign Service with her husband,and his career.
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Portrait of Jessie E. McIntyre
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Portrait of army nurse Jessie E. McIntyre, circa 1944. She probably wears the ANC blue service uniform with purse and gloves; the 2nd service command patch clearly visible on her left shoulder.
