Clarence Benjamin

The “Benjamin Photo:

Since the very earliest days of this project, our team has sought more information about Major Clarence L. Benjamin, a pivotal figure in the saga. It was he who said, to the tankers under his command in the 743rd Tank Battalion, “Let’s check out the weird reports of something on the tracks over there.” It was he who lifted his camera when he saw the people at the train — resulting in the photograph all the world now knows.

But bizarrely, since we associate him so strongly with a powerful photograph, what we haven’t been able to find was a picture of him.

But leave it to the alert folks in the 743rd Battalion Facebook group to produce several, after we’ve believed for years there were none!

And our researcher Barbara Walsh is finding more and more facts and images. We’ll keep sharing them here as they come in.

So, our thanks to Barbara and so everyone else who has come to our aid. Now at last we know what this handsome fella looked like. And in our film, we’ll be able to show his face when we talk about him!

Major Clarence L. Benjamin. We're told that scarf is made from a Nazi flag!
The officers of the 743rd. Benjamin is on the front row, fourth from the left.

From Barbara Walsh:

Clarence Lester Benjamin, born July 1, 1912, to David and Blanche Bowman Benjamin, in Alameda County, California.  In high school, he was a member of R.O.T.C.  He attended UC Berkeley, graduating in May 1934.  He was one of about 200 graduating with honors (his, in military science) and received a commission in the Officers Reserve Corps, U.S. Army, at graduation.
 
According to the 1940 census, he was living in Oakland with his wife Peggy and his mother.  He was a clerk for an oil company.  (He and Margaret “Peggy” Lahargoue, at some point divorced … she remarried and became Margaret Violette, dying in 1992.  Her obituary listed no children.)
 
Following the war, in May 1947, he and David Lane became directors of Alpha Photo Products. 

He married a second time, in February 1948, to Jean Enright of San Francisco; she was nineteen, and he was 35.
 
Clarence Benjamin died on July 12, 1989, in  Alameda County. 
 

And we have recently learned that he may have taken MORE PHOTOS at the liberation site. More on this when we learn more!

 
 

Read more about “A Train Near Magdeburg” on Matthew Rozell’s renowned blog “Teaching History Matters”…