Today is Veterans Day, 2023 which made me think about the fear and uncertainty that must have faced those who have served our country in war times. It is certainly hard to fathom. Growing up, my father did not discuss many details of his experience serving in the US Army during WWII and it was not until the 50th anniversary of D-Day that he really opened up and shared many unbelievable things he had seen and done. One experience was for him, more hopeful and positive, and I am posting this story copied from a handwritten note by my father, Howard Ryden Nord about a cigarette case he was given by a Serbian POW in WWII:
"I was Division Headquarters Commandant of the 14th Armed Division. In the spring of 1945, our division was advancing a few miles east of Frankfort, Germany. During the operations we liberated a large prison camp and training headquarters at Hammelburg. There were many thousands of prisoners in the camp, and when they were freed (French, British, Polish, American) almost all the prisoners burst out of their compounds and started roaming over the area. However, one group remained in their area, under what appeared to be strict military discipline. I was impressed by this, so I sought out the commanding officer. Through our interpreter, he told me that they were Serbian, and that they had been in the camp for five years. He said they had maintained strict discipline as a means to survival and they knew, when they were liberated they would be processed for return more readily if they remained in their area.
Although he was ragged and very thin, this officer impressed me. I knew we would be setting up a headquarters in this compound and would have dining facilities, so I invited him to dinner the next evening. When I went to pick him up to take him to dinner, I found, instead of a ragged, poorly clothed individual, an officer dressed beautifully in a clean, sharp uniform.
After dinner, which I could see he thoroughly enjoyed, I took him back to his compound. I noticed he had tears in his eyes. I asked, through our interpreter, if there was a problem. He said that he had been in this camp for five years, and that this was the first time he had sat down to a dinner in all that time. He was just overcome at his good fortune.
He apologized for not being able to reciprocate. He handed me this cigarette case - told me he wanted me to have it as an appreciation. He had carved it while in the camp, with tools made from ration tins and a piece of glass.
I asked how he happened to have such a beautiful uniform. He said that everyone in the compound had some item which he had been able to keep intact, and when his people heard he was going to have dinner with the Americans, everyone pitched in with what he had, and the uniform he wore was the result."
Note: Research shows there was a large camp called Stalag XIII-C near Hammelberg. I have tried to find this person through research to possibly return the case to his family, but had no luck.
