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Archiver > BANAT > 2011-10 > 1318886110
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Subject: Re: [BANAT-L] BANAT Digest, Vol 6, Issue 274
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:15:10 -0400
> I really would like to see that poster.
Frank - Windsor
> Very interesting. Thank you, Tom.
>
>
> On Oct 16, 2011, at 12:01 AM, wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > Today's Topics:
> >
> > 1. (no subject) (Frank Dornstauder)
> > 2. recent discussions on German POWs (tom farley)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:56:12 -0600
> > From: "Frank Dornstauder" <>
> > Subject: [BANAT-L] (no subject)
> > To: <>
> > Message-ID: <>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
> >
> > List members:
> >
> > When in the Donauschaben House museum in Munich I saw a "poster-like" document published by the Austrian crown
> inviting settlers to come to their land. It goes on to describe the benefits they have to offer a settler and some of
> > the conditions of settlement.
> > The document begins in this way: "Wir, Josef der Andere .......". It has a copy of the imperial seal and is
> > signed by what appears to be Josef (Hapsburg?) 11.
> > Can anyone tell me the derivation of the phrase "der Andere" and its implications?
> >
> > Frank Dornstauder
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:42:52 -0700 (PDT)
> > From: tom farley <>
> > Subject: [BANAT-L] recent discussions on German POWs
> > To: "" <>
> > Message-ID:
> > <>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> >
> > This article appeared today in the Cleveland PD, and certainly reflects the good side of
> > so many of our peoples.
> > ?Vet recalls duty as German POW guard
> > Published: Saturday, October 15, 2011, 3:16 PM
> > By Brian Albrecht View full size
> > Lonnie Timmons III, The Plain DealerTed Lesniak, 85, of Parma Heights, says this wooden suitcase was made for him by
> a German POW who wanted the former prison camp guard to "go home in style," rather than return with his belongings
> packed in a duffel bag. "There are no ordinary lives," said Ken Burns of those who served in a global cataclysm so
> momentous that the filmmaker simply entitled his 2007 documentary "The War."Many who served in so many different ways
> during World War II are gone now.Some took th eir stories with them.But not this one.
> > Funny how people can get along when they're not shooting at each other.
> > The realization struck Ted Lesniak not long after he started guarding German soldiers at a POW camp in Georgia
> > during World War II. More than 400,000 Axis prisoners were shipped to some 500 POW facilities in the U.S. from
> 1942-1945. Many were put to work in factories and farm fields, receiving minimal pay (as per protocols of the Geneva
> > Convention). Lesniak, now 85, of Parma Heights, was drafted right after graduating from East Tech High School in
> > 1944. "I was the angry guy in basic training," he recalled. "We all reached the conclusion it was either kill or be
> > killed. That was the bottom line." So when he arrived at Camp Wheeler, Ga., he initially had more than a few
> > misgivings about guarding some 2,000 German Afrika Korps soldiers who had been captured in 1943. Actually, a more
> accurate description of his role was protecting, rather than guarding, Lesniak said. "You were there to protect them
> from crazy civilians if somebody wanted to come and kill a Nazi," he explained. World War II veteran recalls duty as
> > POW guard Ted Lesniak, 85, of Parma Heights, guarded German prisoners at a POW camp in Georgia during World War II,
> and discovered they shared more than a barbed wire enclosure. Most of his job involved watching over POWs who'd
> volunteered to work in local farm fields. The nation faced a labor shortage due to the war, and "the farmers just
> > loved them to death, they were such good workers," Lesniak said. "The remarkable thing was that they all knew what
> > to do. I didn't have to do anything. Just stay out of the way," he added. Lesniak recalled spending much of his
> supervision time in a truck cab -- reading, writing letters or sleeping -- as the POWs worked. He stuck his carbine
> > ammo in his pocket and left instructions to be awakened if anyone saw another Army vehicle approaching. There was
> never an escape attempt. As an English-speaking POW told Lesniak, "We're not going anywhere. We're not going to swim
> > across the ocean to go home." Lesniak said the POWs got $1 a day for their work, and spent the money on cigarettes,
> > recreational equipment, musical instruments and anything else that helped pass the time in camp. View full size
> Photo courtesy of Ted LesniakTed Lesniak originally started in the Army as a military policeman but found that his
> 140-pound physique put him at a decided disadvantage in trying to subdue larger, sometimes inebriated GIs, so he asked
> > for a transfer to POW guard duty. Though imprisoned, the Germans maintained strict military discipline; marching
> wherever they went, and snapping off stiff-armed Sieg Heil salutes during soccer games. Lesniak said they saw the GIs
> > as too casual, which they regarded as a character flaw of all Americans. In conversations with the POWs, Lesniak
> > said they'd hash over strategies of the war. The Germans steadfastly believed they were going to win, to the point
> > where they'd quiz him about his hometown; asking for geographic, manufacturing and other details. "It was like, 'If
> > we ever take over, we'll want to know these things,' " Lesniak recalled with a grin. The actual situation at the
> front hit home when a group of several hundred German POWS who had been captured in the waning months of the war,
> > arrived at the camp. Lesniak remembered them as being the last-ditch remnants of the German army -- either very
> > young or very old, beaten, battered, half-starved, "looking like hell" and smelling even worse. When confronted
> with the typical culinary largesse of a GI mess hall, these newcomers who'd just been given hot showers and fresh
> > clothing, broke down in tears, according to Lesniak. One prisoner shouted, "Are we in heaven, or what?" he said. He
> recalled that when Germany surrendered, the Afrika Korps soldiers volunteered "to a man" to fight with Americans
> > against Japan. Lesniak said the camp commander called the POWs together and told them: "To fight for America is a
> privilege. The privilege is granted to citizens only. You guys are not citizens, therefore you can not fight for
> > America." The Germans were indignant, Lesniak recalled. "They said, 'We're the best soldiers in the world, and
> > you're going to turn us down?'" But soon afterwards, Lesniak said many of the POWs were asking him about how they
> > could become American citizens. Come time for the POWs to go back to Germany -- and many didn't want to return to
> > their war-ravaged nation -- "it was sad, in a way," Lesniak said. When the former guard returned to Cleveland, he
> brought home a wooden suitcase made for him by one of the POWs using materials purloined from various work sites -- a
> > common practice, as guards looked the other way. Lesniak had the suitcase when he went to Bowling Green State
> > University and earned a math degree and a master's degree in counseling. He kept it while he worked as a math
> teacher in Beavercreek, Ohio, then as a school counselor at Cuyahoga Community College and Parma High School before
> > retiring. His children -- three sons and two daughters that he and his wife, Helen, raised -- played with that
> > now-battered wooden case. And these days, when he pulls it out and remembers, Lesniak realizes that those who had
> to battle the Germans or lost loved ones in the war might not appreciate the sentimental attachment packed in that
> > suitcase. He knows how the dark memories can linger. One of his brothers served in the Marines during the war and
> always refused to talk about the experience -- except once, after a few drinks, when he remembered the days he spent
> > on Iwo Jima, trapped under enemy fire in a foxhole with a dead buddy. But to Lesniak, the war also represented a
> > time when enemies could peacefully co-exist; perhaps not as friends, but as fellow soldiers. As he said, "Once you
> > got to know them, they became people, just like you and me." ? 2011 cleveland.com. All rights reserved.
> >
> > ------------------------------
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> > End of BANAT Digest, Vol 6, Issue 274
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