Harry Wickart never took a day off. I don’t recall his ever being sick so when he asked the CO for a day off we were all surprised. When he came back the next day I asked if he had had a good day off. He said no and that he had spent the day interviewing a returning POW from Russia.
I had no idea that there were still German POW’s in Russia. Harry said that originally there were around 100,000 Germans being held by the Russians. He thought, based on interviews, that there were still between 5,000 and 10,000 Germans being held in Russia as late as 1960.
He said that the returning prisoners were usually released from the concentration camp and told to go home. Most were in very poor physical condition and many never made it back to Germany. Needless to say the Russian people weren’t friendly and didn’t help in their travels. Imagine being 500 to 1,000 miles from home, no money, rotten clothing, poor health and absolutely no help!
If they arrived home the ex POW’s were interviewed by people like Harry. Harry said that many still had their memories and had memorized all the names of the prisoners in their respective camps. Many had also memorized all those who had died in the camps.
Harry said that one person they had interviewed the previous year had memorized over 1,000 names. That would be 1960, 15 years after the end of WWII…
This is an amazing story but I'm not surprised. In 1962 I was a young E2 airman stationed at a remote Air Station in far northern Japan. Being adventurous I would often jump on my Honda bike and head down the road during my three day breaks. I stayed at quaint bathhouses and inns and somehow bridged the language barrier with most of the Japanese nationals. I would still, however, run into smoldering anger in the stares of many reminding me that memories of the wars of our fathers were still fresh in their minds. We were also told of Russian POW camps just 16 miles north of us on the Russian peninsula.
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