Sid Shafner helped liberate Dachau

Shafner, 93, is reading the newspaper alone at a corner table at Brookdale Mountain View. Sitting in a wheelchair, he blends into the crowd. No one would suspect that 70 years ago he was one of the first US soldiers to liberate Dachau. Sid, who received two Bronze Stars for bravery in WW II, has a sweet disposition that dismisses sentimentality. He enlisted in the army at 18, fought in France and Germany, and lived to tell the tale. Although Sid has spoken about the war to family, friends, veterans, reporters and students, he realized the heroism of an entire generation was fading away. Then Regis University repaid its former student by fulfilling a dream that waited seven decades to see the sun. Sid, forced […]