96 Year Old Anti Fascist Fighter Goes Into Hiding in Fear of Being Labeled a Terrorist
Photo by Duncan Kidd on Unsplash
In a Bold Move, Bob Thorp, 96, of Hays Kansas has gone into hiding after hearing that anti-fascists could be labeled terrorists and arrested. Mr. Thorp was a member of 5th Ranger Battalion, who scaled the cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc in France on June 6th, 1944 (known as D-Day).
Mr. Thorp left a letter for his family before heading out of town in his 1972 Dodge Polara. In the letter he stated:
Dear Family,
I am sorry I had to flee like this without saying goodbye, but I know federal agents will be coming for me. As you know from stories I have told you repeatedly, I was a soldier in the US Army during WWII. I was one of many anti-fascists that went to war against the fascist lead governments in Germany, Italy, and Japan. It was a very different time then. President Roosevelt believed that authoritarian leadership was bad, words of hate were divisive and that demonizing people and rounding them up because of their skin color or religious beliefs was morally repugnant. (excluding Japanese Americans who were rounded up and placed in in internment camps) On June 6th, 1944, we killed a lot of fascists. Two days after D-Day, I beat to death a German SS captain with an entrenching tool because we found him torturing a french female partisan in a small country farmhouse. We went way beyond the petty things I see demonstrators do on the news today. The demonstrations I see on the news now remind me of those that I saw in Gdańsk Poland in 1980 and Hungary in 1956. When I saw tear gas and flash grenades used on peaceful civilians by a president looking for a photo-op this week, I became scared. It is my understanding that many senior military leaders are scared too.
I am old and frail now. I saw how the police knocked down and injured an old man for holding a sign in Buffalo. I cannot imagine what they would do to me if they found out what I did to those fascists on D-Day. I did not know that standing up to fascism and authoritarianism would become a bad thing. I am so sorry for the embarrassment I have brought all of you and hope I have not harmed you.
Love, Grandpa
PS: Please throw my medals down the well and burn my uniform. I don’t want them to come after you too.
Fact Checker: Thank you to all D-Day veterans that are still alive today and the 6,603 American soldiers that died on the beaches in France 76 years ago. May we someday have a president who does not make a mockery of the sacrifices you have made.