ZGram - 11/15/2004 - "German POWs buried at Fort Benning are not forgotten"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

November 15, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

A distinct characteristic of the Europe we once knew was chivalry - 
honoring one's elders, honoring a woman, honoring a defeated enemy. 
I remember as a child how young people always stood up in a 
streetcar, offering a seat to an older person, how we were taught to 
offer carrying groceries, opening doors, treating our grandparents, 
and others' elders, with utmost courtesy and care. 

Similarly, there was a chivalry displayed in the presence of a woman 
that would not ever have allowed a filthy, sexually explicit word in 
her presence.  This was carried over even into South America where I 
grew up - largely a Spanish-flavored society of an amazing elegance 
and dignity.  It was simply unheard of that four letter words would 
be spoken with girls or women present - it would have been the height 
of boorishness.  Compare that to today's loose lips spewing filth, 
especially on the Net! 

Even more so was the dignity of fallen soldiers guarded - one's own 
and other soldiers'.  The idea of pouring buckets of filth onto the 
memory of former enemies was simply so alien to the Aryan soul that 
it was unknown to ever have happened, to my knowledge.  I know of no 
European equivalent to Schindler's List or Hogan's Heroes.  I know of 
young and not-so-young Germans who, to this day, regularly visit 
battlefields on the former Eastern front where so much blood was shed 
to stop the onslaught of the Communist menace  - to collect the bones 
of friend and foe to give them a decent burial and honor them that 
way.  Sixty years after all guns fell silent! 

The story below is of that genre - a quiet and poignant salute to the 
past, to battles fought - won and lost. 


[START]

November 13, 2004

  German POWs buried at Fort Benning are not  forgotten

  ELLIOTT MINOR

  Associated Press

  FORT BENNING, Ga. - Dignitaries will soon gather at the  Fort 
Benning  cemetery to honor former enemies - 44 German soldiers, 
including a  highly decorated  general, who died as World War II 
prisoners of war. Although  these soldiers are buried thousands of 
miles from home, they are  not  forgotten.

  German-born women, many of them wives of current or retired U.S. 
soldiers,  place colorful silk flowers in urns at each grave 
throughout the  year. And each November, Fort Benning's German Army 
liaison team hosts   "Volkstrauertag" - Germany's day of mourning - 
to honor the dead soldiers, most  of them  killed by illnesses or in 
accidents. For convenience, the memorial  service  will be held 
Wednesday - four days earlier than the official observances  in 
Germany.

  "The minimum you can do is honor these soldiers who sacrificed," 
said Lt.  Col. Herbert R. Sladek, the German liaison officer. "They 
were educated  in  another time period, with another political 
guideline. In their opinion, they also fought for freedom, liberty 
and for their fatherland. That's why these   people gave all they had 
- their own lives."

  Among the invited guests for the  ceremony are the German consul 
general in  Atlanta and Fort Benning's commander,  Brig. Gen. 
Benjamin C. Freakley. Others  will include members of Rolling 
Thunder,  a motorcycle club that focuses on  POW-MIA issues and "Klub 
Heimatland," the  German women's group that tends the  graves.

  "They are German soldiers and we  feel like we want to pay our 
respects to  them," said Inge Wills, the club's  president. "It means 
something for us to do  this for the families who cannot do  it."

  U.S. Army musicians will play the German equivalent of taps - "Ich 
hatt'   einen Kameraden," a 19th-century dirge about the loss of a 
buddy in  combat. The German graves and the graves of a few Italian 
POWs, are  surrounded by  the headstones of hundreds of U.S. soldiers 
and family  members. Lt. Gen. Willibald Borowietz, who was killed in 
an auto accident on  July 1,  1945, is the highest-ranking POW buried 
at Fort Benning. According to  his  headstone, he received the 
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves  -  the equivalent 
of the U.S. Medal of Honor.

  During World War II, especially  during the collapse of the Afrika 
Corps,  about 700 internment camps, including  466 in the South, were 
thrown up in the  United States to detain nearly a  half-million 
enemy soldiers. They arrived  sometimes at a rate of 30,000 a  month. 
About 860 of the German POWs are buried at 43 sites across the United 
States, according to the German War Graves Commission, a private 
charity based  in  Kassel, Germany, that registers, maintains and 
cares for the graves of the   country's war dead abroad. They died 
from illnesses, accidents and other  causes. The largest number, 108, 
are buried at the National Cemetery in  Chattanooga,  Tenn., which 
also has the graves of 78 World War I German POWs.  Other major 
burial sites are Fort Sam Houston, Texas, with 133, Fort Riley, 
Kan., with 63  and Fort Reno, Okla., with 62, including the grave of 
a POW who  was murdered  by six fellow prisoners. They were executed.

  With most of  America's able-bodied men overseas fighting the war, 
the German  POWs helped ease  a labor shortage by working on farms 
and in the forests. Georgia had 40 camps  with 11,800 prisoners at 
places like Fort Benning and  what is now Fort Stewart  near Savannah 
and Moody Air Force Base, near  Valdosta. There were many smaller 
camps in rural areas such as Fargo, on the edge of  the Okefenokee 
Swamp.

  "German POWs were treated very well," said Arnold Krammer, a Texas 
A&M  history professor who has written several books on German POWs. 
"In  some cases they were given wine and beer with every meal," he 
said. "Of  course,  prison is still prison. They were bored and 
unhappy." But thousands returned  to Germany fluent in English and 
"having a new love  and respect for the United  States," Krammer said.

  Many climbed into the hierarchy of the postwar  government, while 
others  became business executives, writers and artists, he  said. 
Farmers paid the government for the POWs' work and the government 
paid  the  POWs.

  "Each prisoner could take back several hundred dollars or more 
which helped  lubricate the German economy," Krammer said. "It was 
one of those  programs  that just worked out well for  everybody."   

[END]