James Crosby, 78, gift-shop owner; he probed Nazi atrocities during WWII
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James Crosby's humor and story-telling made him a hit with customers at the gift store he operated for decades on Mercer Island. Friends and family never tired of hearing about his youth in the Broadmoor area of Seattle, his travels around the globe, even his ordinary encounters on the street.
"With my dad, the truth was no obstacle to telling a good story," said his son, Matt Crosby, of Vashon Island.
But there was a chapter of his life he didn't share: Mr. Crosby investigated Nazi atrocities at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany and helped resettle refugees after World War II.
Until a reporter called after Mr. Crosby died Jan. 25, his son didn't know his father had investigated the Nazis.
"It's amazing I could know somebody so well and never know about this," said Matt Crosby, 46.
Mr. Crosby, of Seattle, died of pneumonia at age 78.
He was born Aug. 7, 1923, in Seattle and graduated from Garfield High School. He interrupted his studies at Whitman College to serve in the Army during the war. There he studied German and became a counterintelligence agent after serving in the infantry in France.
In April 1945, just weeks before the Nazis surrendered, he was part of a five-man team sent to investigate Nazi crimes at the Dachau camp, 12 miles north of Munich, the day after it was liberated by the U.S. 7th Army.
"We saw heaps of bodies, boxcars full of people killed by machine guns in the last hours," said Mario DeCapua, a team member who lives in Pinehurst, N.C.
"It was a shocking eye-opener, even though we'd both been on the front lines fighting across France. It was enough to reduce people to tears."
Of the 160,000 prisoners held in the main camp, at least 32,000 died because of malnutrition, disease, the gas chamber, firing squads or Nazi medical experiments.
The team interviewed prisoners and arrested high-ranking officers, including a Nazi doctor who had conducted germ experiments on prisoners, DeCapua said. The doctor was hanged the next year.
Mr. Crosby went on to study at the Institute of Economics in St. Gallen, Switzerland. In 1950, he went to work for the U.S. Displaced Persons Commission in Hamburg, Germany, working under DeCapua.
He screened refugees displaced by the war, ensuring they were not criminals or spies and were free of disease before they were resettled in Australia, Canada and other countries.
His job often forced him to make painful decisions, once having to keep a child with tuberculosis from resettling with his family, said Mr. Crosby's wife, Joyce.
Mr. Crosby rose to chief security officer for Europe. From 1952 to 1954, he was a Foreign Service officer of the U.S. Department of State in Frankfurt. He served as chief security officer for the Escapee Program, responsible for the security screening of Iron Curtain refugees.
While in Frankfurt he met Joyce, another State Department employee.
The two returned to the United States and in 1955 opened a gift shop in Mercer Island. The shop, called James Crosby Inc., became a retail institution on the island, and expanded to six shops around the Seattle area.
When he closed the business in 1980, Mercer Island's mayor declared it "James Crosby Day." The Mercer Island Reporter called the store "the hub of a wheel around which mercantile Mercer Island has spun."
Mr. Crosby worked 10 more years selling real estate on Mercer Island. He and his wife also traveled, visiting friends around the world.
"He made friends everywhere he went," said his son. "He had an ability more than anyone I've ever known to make connections with people."
Yet for all the friends he made, and the stories he told, he seldom shared stories of his war years, even with his wife. She didn't learn he had been at Dachau until well after they were married.
"I think he was a very modest man," said Joyce Crosby. "And I think like so many men who served in that war, that generation, they just don't talk about it."
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Crosby is survived by his daughter, Catherine McConnell of Seattle; and five grandchildren.
Memorial services were yesterday. Remembrances may be made to American Stroke Association at 4414 Woodland Park Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98103.