News-Info-Alerts

Re: POW Rail Car Stirs Up Memories

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: September 24, 2002

"POW rail car stirs up painful memories
JAMES HANNAH
Associated Press Writer

DAYTON, Ohio - Former prisoners-of-war gathered Friday at a museum ceremony to dedicate a French rail car of the kind that transported them to German prison camps during World War II.

But the sight of the "40 and Eight" boxcar at the United States Air Force Museum brought little joy and stirred up painful memories for some.

Myron Swak, 77, of Hackettstown, N.J., spent four or five days in such a rail car after he was captured by the Germans in Belgium in December 1944.

"There was no food, no water, no nothing," Swak said. "It was very difficult. It was packed."

The boxcar was unveiled as an exhibit as part of a ceremony to mark POW/MIA National Recognition Day. Besides the POWs, U.S. and French military officials attended the ceremony.

The wooden and steel boxcar was called "40 and Eight" because it was designed to carry 40 people or eight horses. SNCF, the French national railroad company, restored the car and donated it to the museum at the request of the American Ex-Prisoners of War.

Swak was transported twice in such a boxcar after being captured by the Germans.

He was initially taken to Stalag 9B, a prisoner-of-war camp. Later he was transported to Berga, a satellite of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Swak said about 100 of the 350 U.S. prisoners taken to the camp died, victims of shootings, beatings or starvation.

Swak said he escaped while on a "death march" in April 1945, walking away from his captors and hiding in a barn.

William Schmidt has similar painful memories of riding in the boxcars. He was captured by the Germans on Jan. 1, 1945, and crammed into a rail car with 89 other POWs.

"It's the most terrifying thing," said Schmidt, 77, of Columbus. "It's worse than combat because in combat you can move around."

Schmidt said the prisoners had to use their helmets as toilets.

And he said they were helpless during Allied bombing raids. During one attack shrapnel pierced the roof of the car, he said.

Schmidt was taken to a work camp near Dresden.

By the time the camp was liberated by American troops in May 1945, Schmidt had lost one-third of his body weight.

"I got sick at the end," Schmidt said. "My buddies carried me out of the hospital, which was nothing but a hut where you laid down to die.""