Felix L. Sparks
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Lt. Colonel Felix Sparks (born August 2, 1917, San Antonio, Texas) was the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion of the 157th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division of the United States Army which was the first Allied force to enter Dachau concentration camp and liberate its prisoners.
Sparks grew up in Miami, Arizona, where his father worked for a copper mining company. In 1935, after unsuccessfully seeking jobs in the shipyards of Corpus Christi, Texas and San Francisco, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.
After leaving the army, Sparks graduated from the University of Colorado Law School in 1947. He practiced law in Delta, Colorado and was elected district attorney there. He lost his bid for reelection in 1952, but Governor Ed Johnson appointed him to fill an unexpired term on the Colorado Supreme Court. At the end of that term, he returned to his law practice in Delta.
Sparks subsequently joined the United States National Guard, serving during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and retired in 1979 having attained the rank of Brigadier General.
[edit] External links
- "An Oral History: Felix L. Sparks", The Colorado Lawyer, October 1998
- Personal account by Felix L. Sparks Brigadier General of the liberation of Dachau
- www.45thinfantrydivision.com
- Clips from the 1990 documentary "The Liberation of KZ Dachau"; includes interview of Felix Sparks
- Thomas Farragher, "Vengeance at Dachau", Boston Globe, July 2, 2001
[edit] References
Emajean Jordan Beuchner, Sparks. Metairie, LA: Thunderbird Press, Inc., 1991.
