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A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald: The Joe Moser Story
On August 13, 1944, during his 44th combat mission, Joe Moser's P-38 Lightning was shot down. Captured by Nazi forces, he and his fellow group of Allied fliers were scheduled for execution as “terrorfliegers” and shipped in overcrowded cattle cars to Buchenwald—the infamous work camp where tens of thousands died of cruelty, medical experiments, and starvation. Once a simple farm boy focused on sports and his dream to fly the fastest, meanest fighter plane, Moser now faced some of the worst of Hitler’s ghastly system. From the harrowing and sometimes hilarious experiences of flight training to the dehumanization at the hands of Hitler’s SS, this is a story of quiet, steady courage sustained by faith, family, and the commitment to freedom and liberty in even the most desperate of circumstances.
205 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 3, 2009
This was an amazing book and I highly recommend it for everyone. The author, Joe Moser lives in our neighborhood and came to our book club meeting. He is a true hero and tells his amazing story very well.
April 27, 2024
Amazing story of survival and an amazing human being. Joe Moser was one hell of a guy. Great read.
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May 28, 2021 Fighter pilot in Buchenwald is about a pilot named Joseph F. Moser who was captured by the german army and was taken to the concentration camp Buchenwald. He was flying over France when he suddenly loses sight of his squadron and now alone he is attacked by german flak guns and is hit by one and is going down. He eventually crashes into a farm and the french farmers try to hide him but the Germans find him and take him to a cellar where he is stuck for many days. Eventually the Germans take him out and bring him to a train that takes him to buchenwald. There the conditions are horrible and they barely get any food and they have no shoes and no toilets, instead it's a hole in the ground that leads to a plumbing system that is meant for 10,000 people but there are over 100,000 there. He is stuck there for 2 months until he is saved, not by the allies but by the german luftwaffe which is the german air force and the only reason he is able to leave is because he is a fighter pilot and the luftwaffe respect all fighter pilots and so he is taken to camp that is not good but a lot better than buchenwald. He was stuck in this camp for about 2-3 months until the morning of april 29 at 9pm when the U.S army attacked and pushed the germans out of the camp and he was finally saved. Many months went by before he could get on a ship to go home and when he did the ship he was had so much food that he gained 60 pounds in a month and when he got back to america he was a lot bigger and no one believed him when he said he was a prisoner at buchenwald. Not until they had a reunion and there was a writer there who asked for a story and so he finally told his story about what happened to him over in europe.
I believe that the theme of this book is hope. Hope that he will one day go home. Hope that he will get enough food to survive the rest of the day. Hope that he will get enough water to survive another day. And hope that he would never be killed by the german concentration camp that he lived in for many months. Because he has hope he tells himself he will live, he will get out of this and he is rescued and only because he kept hope in himself and that the allied armies would save him.
I Think this is a really good book, and if you like history this is a book for you to read because it's a different take on what happened in the concentration camps during WW2. The book is never confusing , you should be able to completely understand everything that is happening and why. It is a very easy book to read but it is a little longer but that shouldn't affect how good the book is.It also tells a story that you usually don't hear because we don't usually think about american soldiers being in camps it's mostly about the jews and what happened so it's interesting to learn about what happened to the american soldiers if they were captured. So if you are interested in world war 2 and mostly about the concentration camps then this is the perfect book for you, i rate it a 7/10. THAT'S ALL FOLKS
I believe that the theme of this book is hope. Hope that he will one day go home. Hope that he will get enough food to survive the rest of the day. Hope that he will get enough water to survive another day. And hope that he would never be killed by the german concentration camp that he lived in for many months. Because he has hope he tells himself he will live, he will get out of this and he is rescued and only because he kept hope in himself and that the allied armies would save him.
I Think this is a really good book, and if you like history this is a book for you to read because it's a different take on what happened in the concentration camps during WW2. The book is never confusing , you should be able to completely understand everything that is happening and why. It is a very easy book to read but it is a little longer but that shouldn't affect how good the book is.It also tells a story that you usually don't hear because we don't usually think about american soldiers being in camps it's mostly about the jews and what happened so it's interesting to learn about what happened to the american soldiers if they were captured. So if you are interested in world war 2 and mostly about the concentration camps then this is the perfect book for you, i rate it a 7/10. THAT'S ALL FOLKS
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2019
The book I read was called A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald. The author is Joseph F. Moser. The story is about Joe Moser a farm boy from Ferndale, Washington. During WW2 he became a fighter pilot flying the P-38 Lightning. During one flight mission over France, he was shot down and captured by the Nazis. He was taken to Buchenwald instead of a POW camp. He tells his story of how it was in Buchenwald and the POW camps he goes to later.
One thing that Joe mentions in the book when he comes back to America. He mentions how he looks differently on America and freedom. He says on page 187 after the Americans liberated the camp and rose the American flag, “How sad it is to me and that beautiful flag today and so little appreciation for freedom and its costs. When we saw those stars and stripes rise into the blue sky of that late April day… it carried with it the meaning of almost all that is precious in life --- family, security, and most of all freedom. The war has changed his life. On his return home, he felt very differently about his country. He felt pride and appreciation for freedom after he has been in captivity for almost a year. I don’t think everyone in America realizes how lucky we are to have this kind of freedom for so long and I think that's what Joe Moser was trying to tell us when he wrote this story.
I really did like this book. It was really interesting on him talking about how things were in concentration camps and even in POW camps as well. The book took a while to read just because the letters were so small and it was a decent sized book but it was definitely worth the read. I highly suggest it, it gives such a different perspective on what it was like for all these people sent to POW and concentration camps. He also talked about what it was like to be a pilot during WW2. He told us stories of missions he did and the sad reality of fallen soldiers. That was what I think of A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald. I highly recommend it.
One thing that Joe mentions in the book when he comes back to America. He mentions how he looks differently on America and freedom. He says on page 187 after the Americans liberated the camp and rose the American flag, “How sad it is to me and that beautiful flag today and so little appreciation for freedom and its costs. When we saw those stars and stripes rise into the blue sky of that late April day… it carried with it the meaning of almost all that is precious in life --- family, security, and most of all freedom. The war has changed his life. On his return home, he felt very differently about his country. He felt pride and appreciation for freedom after he has been in captivity for almost a year. I don’t think everyone in America realizes how lucky we are to have this kind of freedom for so long and I think that's what Joe Moser was trying to tell us when he wrote this story.
I really did like this book. It was really interesting on him talking about how things were in concentration camps and even in POW camps as well. The book took a while to read just because the letters were so small and it was a decent sized book but it was definitely worth the read. I highly suggest it, it gives such a different perspective on what it was like for all these people sent to POW and concentration camps. He also talked about what it was like to be a pilot during WW2. He told us stories of missions he did and the sad reality of fallen soldiers. That was what I think of A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald. I highly recommend it.
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October 28, 2022Once a farm boy in a small town focussed on sports joins the air force to be a fighter pilot. One day joe moser gets shot down in his p-38 lightning and captured by nazi fources were he was put in crowded train cars to buchenwald a work camp where people died of cruelty and were put to medical expeiriments when he gets out he settels and fixes furneces.
he idea of this book is a fighter pilot that gets shot down and captured and sent to Buchenwald, a concentration camp the book states “I feel a tremendous shudder as a 37 millimeter shell ripped into my left engine.” his plane gets shot and is on one engine just before he gets captured he hears a motor its germans they investigate him almost away as he was saying he was deaf but he thought he had hidden everything but “dog tags! He reached under my shirt, and jerked them over my head. He looked at me and laughed’ he gets captured.
The book was kinda hard to read as it jumped in the time period and didnt have really one strict idea to focus on but other than that it was a good book, very fun and kept you on your toes i believed the book and the ending was pretty good.
he idea of this book is a fighter pilot that gets shot down and captured and sent to Buchenwald, a concentration camp the book states “I feel a tremendous shudder as a 37 millimeter shell ripped into my left engine.” his plane gets shot and is on one engine just before he gets captured he hears a motor its germans they investigate him almost away as he was saying he was deaf but he thought he had hidden everything but “dog tags! He reached under my shirt, and jerked them over my head. He looked at me and laughed’ he gets captured.
The book was kinda hard to read as it jumped in the time period and didnt have really one strict idea to focus on but other than that it was a good book, very fun and kept you on your toes i believed the book and the ending was pretty good.
December 4, 2015
This is my favorite book, growing up in the town Ferndale, Joe was a town hero. He was great man! This is his story of his life during WWII, it is simply amazing to read what he when through. This book shows what Joe went through, and how he survived. I met Joe through school Veteran Days events and I was honor to meet him. He was the cutest little old man. Joe passed away Dec. 2, 2015 at the age of 94. He was model of mine and will always we a hero and he will never be forgotten! RIP Joe
June 27, 2017
Joe Moser lives in Ferndale just up the road from where I work. The book is not exactly literature but it's the true story of a farm boy from Ferndale who was captured by the Germans in World War II and ended up not in a POW camp but in a Concentration Camp.
February 28, 2011
Who knew? Americans in Buchenwald. Joe Moser was there two months, before being transferred into a Stalag, prison camp for pilots. Interesting story, of life before, during and after World War II.
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September 29, 2011This book was written by a fellow prisoner of my father-in-law while they were held in Buchenwald during WWII.
May 21, 2012
Amazing memoir from an amazing man in little Ferndale. Be thankful for what you have.
December 8, 2012
The story is very interesting and Joe Moser is a real American hero.
September 29, 2014
I personally know Joe and never had I known his story until I was told he wrote a book. Great work Joe, your story is an amazing one.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews