(CNN) -- Two U.S. lawmakers have urged U.S. Army Secretary Peter Geren to recognize 350 American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II, saying "these heroes have not received the recognition and honor they deserve." Bernard "Jack" Vogel died in a Nazi slave camp in the arms of a fellow U.S. soldier, Anthony Acevedo, in 1945. "As Anthony Acevedo, one of the soldiers chosen, recently described to CNN, the Nazis picked those soldiers who looked Jewish, had a Jewish name or were considered 'undesirable,' " Reps. Joe Baca, D-California, and Spencer Bachus, R-Alabama, said in a letter sent to Geren last week.
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350 U.S. soldiers were held as slaves at camp in Germany during World War II
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CNN recently reported on the captivity of one soldier held at Berga an der Elster
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Congressmen urge Army secretary to honor the "sacrifices made by those detained"
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"As proud Americans, we wish to recognize and honor them for their service"
"At Berga, captured soldiers were forced to endure inhumane conditions and suffer from the @placeholder policy of physical destruction through labor," Baca and Bachus said in their letter to Geren.