CNN | June 08, 2009: Slave soldiers honored, called 'national treasures'

ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Hobbled with age, weathered with time, the World War II veterans stood at attention. One by one, a two-star general delivered flags flown over the Pentagon in their honor. He looked them in their eyes and snapped his right hand in salute.

Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles salutes Berga survivor Edward Slotkin, 84, at an event in Orlando Saturday.

"National treasures," Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles said Saturday evening.

It marked the first time in history the U.S. Army recognized 350 soldiers held as slaves inside Nazi Germany. The men were beaten, starved and forced to work in tunnels at Berga an der Elster where the Nazi government had a hidden V-2 rocket factory. Berga was a subcamp of the notorious concentration camp Buchenwald.

"These men were abused and put under some of the most horrific conditions," the general told a private gathering of Berga survivors. "It wasn't a prison camp. It was a slave labor camp." No ranking Army official had ever uttered the words "slave labor camp" in reference to the men's captivity at Berga. Boles knew the gravity of his statement -- that he was setting the historical record straight after 64 years. Watch general set record straight after six decades »

"That's why I'm here. That's why the Army sent me here: To look them in the eye and tell them that."

It's a rare moment to witness history, even more rare when it pertains to America's greatest generation six decades later. But that's what happened at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, first in a private meeting and then in the larger ceremony to honor them. "It's humbling," Boles said.

It was a bittersweet moment. More than 100 of the Berga soldiers died at the slave camp or on a forced death march of more than 200 miles in April 1945. About 80 of the 350 soldiers had been singled out for being Jewish by the Nazis.

Dozens more survived captivity but died as the years passed. There are 22 known Berga survivors still alive, but only a handful made the trip here. "He used that term slave labor camp. That was never used by anyone before," said survivor Samuel Fahrer. "It was a long time coming."

The six Berga survivors present -- Fahrer, 86; Morton Brooks, 83; Sidney Lipson, 85; Peter Iosso, 83; Wallace Carden, 84; and Edward Slotkin, 84 -- looked on stoically as Boles spoke privately with them.

The men's faces hid decades of pain from what they endured in the waning months of World War II in 1945. They'd given up decades ago that the Army would recognize them. "It means a great deal -- that it's being recognized and understood," Brooks told the general.

Boles recited a soldier's war ethos: I will always place the mission first; I will never quit; I will never accept defeat and I will never leave a fallen comrade.

He looked at each of the weathered war heroes and said, "Just as they never left their fallen comrades, we will never leave them."

"You were good soldiers and you were there for your nation." Boles added, "They're looking around and they're thanking me for coming. And I'm the one thanking them because I get to bask in the character of these great heroes."