Top Photo: Medal of Honor Recipient Ryan Pitts shakes hands with WWII veteran Norman Bussel at the November 2023 grand opening of The National WWII Museum's Liberation Pavilion in New Orleans. 

The National WWII Museum mourns the loss of WWII veteran and dear friend Norman Bussel, who passed away Tuesday. He was 102 years old.

Born on October 2, 1923, Bussel grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, as the son of a WWI veteran. After graduating high school in June 1941, Bussel briefly worked at the Fisher Body plant in Memphis assembling North American B-25 Mitchell bombers before being drafted into the US military.

After completing training, Bussel was assigned as a radio operator and gunner for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses with the 708th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group in the Eighth Air Force stationed near Rattlesden in the United Kingdom.

In April 1944, during a mission to Berlin, Bussel’s B-17, Mississippi Lady, was hit by German flak and fighters.

“At that point, it was like somebody was taking pot shots at us. There were little pieces of shrapnel coming through the plane everywhere, and holes appearing,” he said in an oral history recorded with The National WWII Museum.

Service-era photo of Norman Bussel. Courtesy of the Norman Bussel family.

Bussel recalled the moments after an oxygen tank on the plane exploded.

“I could see the aluminum skin of the plane melting,” he said. “And I’m watching my plane dripping away right before my eyes.”

Bussel decided to check if anyone on the plane needed help and did not hear the order to bail out. He discovered that four of his crew members were dead and everyone else had bailed out. Wounded by shrapnel and with his clothes on fire, Bussel jumped out of his burning plane at 23,000 feet. Seven seconds later, he watched the Mississippi Lady explode.

As he parachuted to the ground, Bussel discarded his dog tags, which had been stamped with “H” for Hebrew to denote his Jewish faith. After landing on his wounded leg, he was swarmed by German civilians who beat and tried to kill him before a German soldier intervened.

Bussel said his captivity began with solitary confinement in a cramped, dark cell at an interrogation center in Frankfurt. The experience left him with lifelong claustrophobia. He was eventually moved to Stalag Luft IV, where he lost 70 pounds.

In February 1945, with the threat of advancing Soviet troops, the Germans moved Bussel and other POWs by boxcar to a different camp at Nuremberg before eventually being moved to Moosburg in Bavaria. On April 29, 1945, exactly one year after his plane was shot down, the camp was liberated by General George S. Patton’s Third Army.

Bussel suffered from what later became known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and survivor's guilt following World War II, which he treated with alcohol for many years. After Bussel got sober and began therapy, he and his wife, Melanie, became staunch advocates for veterans and former POWs with PTSD. They worked with the Veterans Administration and the American Ex-Prisoners of War organization to assist these veterans and their families with accessing government benefits. In 2007, Bussel published a memoir, My Private War: Liberated Body, Captive Mind: A World War II POW's Journey, about his struggles with PTSD and spoke widely about his experiences—including to members of the US Congress.

Bussel’s WWII awards include the Purple Heart and French Legion of Honor.

We are proud to have Bussel's oral history featured in Liberation Pavilion's Cost of Victory gallery, where Museum visitors can hear about his experiences in his own words. We are grateful for Mr. Bussel's service, and our thoughts are with his family.