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Foreword
- Texas A&M University Press
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Foreword WITHIN THE LAST DECADES I had the opportunity to talk with American tourists and visitors in Germany as well as American citizens when I visited the United States in , , and . Some of these people were surprised when they heard that I had spent nearly three years as a prisoner of war (POW) in Texas. They did not know that nearly , German prisoners of war lived in American POW camps at the end of the World War II. I thus think it was a very good idea that Michael R. Waters and his colleagues write a book about the history of Camp Hearne in order to preserve this part of American history for coming generations. I am grateful both to God and the Americans who stood guard at Camp Hearne during those terrible last two years of the war. I am especially glad to see this book published because of the information about the camp’s history it contains , including a number of things I did not know about before reading it. Lone Star Stalag is based on a thorough study of documents found in archives, newspapers, and interviews with still-living former POWs, guards, citizens of Hearne, and local farmers. The combination of facts with the memories expressed by the many interviewed persons as well as the results of archeological excavations make the book exciting reading matter. The Geneva Convention states that captured officers and noncommissioned officers are not obliged to work. Our captors minded the rules as long as the war lasted and we were impressed by the tolerance shown by the American officers, guards, and farmers. It all was somewhat unusual for us. I took the opportunity to learn in the camp’s school instead of working somewhere. This was very important for me because just six months after my repatriation in I started studying in a bank academy. Partly owing to the training I received at Camp Hearne I was successful at the academy and thus fulfilled one of the requirements needed to attain important positions. For more than twenty years I have been a member of the board and for the last ten years the chairman of a bank. The educational activities at Camp Hearne were one of the foundation stones of my long and successful professional life. This is one of the reasons why I never forget the time I spent there. Of course, it was hard for a young man to be a prisoner far from his mother country and divided from his dear ones at home. It seemed at times that our repatriation would not occur until far in the future. I spent four long years as a POW, three in the United States and another in the United Kingdom. Looking back, I am convinced that the time I spent at Camp Hearne was the best. I am so glad that Michael Waters came to Germany to interview us. Despite the difference in our ages, he became a good friend to a number of former POWs. He took care of us when we came to a reunion and brought us together with some of our former guards. This reunion trip was the beginning of friendships which will last as long as I live. The grandchildren of one former guard became pen-pals with three of my grandchildren. Two grandsons flew to America without their parents and spent two weeks of their vacation as guests of the family of one guard’s daughter. Now we are looking forward to the promised visit of the boys and their whole family. All of this serves as proof of the lasting validity of the motto of the veterans of the German Afrika Korps:“Former enemies became friends.” I am sure that we, our children, and our grandchildren will be friends forever. I write this foreword as a representative for the comrades and former POWs who came to a reunion at Hearne in : Werner Kritzler, Walter Fricke, Heino Erichsen, Alfred Jasper, and Erich Spix. All of them took advantage of the varied activities at the camp and all returned healthy and were successful in their professions. Fritz Haus, one of the former POWs, wrote that his American friend, Chaplain G. A. Zoch was hopeful we prisoners would reject Hitler’s tyrannical and oppressive rule by force and work for a new democratic Germany that will rise from the ashes after the war. This hope has been realized and I am sure that the...