News-Info-Alerts

Re: The German Guard

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 02, 2003

"Former POW says German guard was kindly

By Sara Lee Fernandez Caller-Times
February 1, 2003

During World War II, Jose Angel Flores went to extraordinary lengths to remember.

For nearly six months in 1944 and 1945, Flores, then a 27-year-old prisoner of war, squirreled away scraps of paper in his clothing, worried that his Nazi captors would take them away.

Those pieces of paper detailed his life in the prison camp, Stalag 12A in Limberg, Germany. The notes weren't to brag over; in fact, he never thought anyone would even be interested. The notes were so he would never forget the details of that time in his life.

"I have always kept notes," said the now 85-year-old, who was assigned as a heavy machine gunner in the Army's 1st Battalion, 112th Regiment, 28th Division, which is also known as the Keystone Division and dubbed the "Bloody Bucket" Division by German troops. "I look back at them, and that's how I keep things straight."

More than half a century has passed since Flores was drafted, taken prisoner and later freed, but the memories are sharp and now preserved for all interested in Special Archives at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

"You just don't see things like this very often," said Tom Kreneck, who has been head of the university's special collections and archives department since 1990. "It's just amazing."

Flores' scrapbook includes telegrams to his first wife from government officials first telling her they didn't know where he was, then confirming that he was being held prisoner. The book also includes Flores' Army bankbook, draft letter, and Nazi coins and money from several European countries. But the most unusual items are three pictures of him and his two prison buddies.

Taken prisoner
On May 14, 1945, Russian tanks and troops arrived in the dead of night to tell the prisoners they were free. But Flores' first thought wasn't of the open prison gates but of the unoccupied Nazi camp office.

"The Germans were gone, so I went to see what they had in there," he said as he looked smiling at the picture of himself 58 years younger. "I got my picture and those of two of my buddies."

The picture of him was taken four or five days after he arrived at the camp.

"I was hungry, scared and cold," he said, explaining his expression. "I hid it in my coat."

Flores was taken prisoner in Hurtgen Forest, as a page in his scrapbook notes, on "7 Nov. 1944 3 p.m."

He said that when Nazis soldiers first interrogated him, he spoke in Spanish hoping that they would mistake him for a Spanish soldier. It didn't work. Some of the German soldiers spoke Spanish themselves.

"It was worth a try," Flores said, laughing.

Flores wrote about being forced to walk for three days without food or water before being placed in a boxcar that took him to the camp in Limberg.

Fate uncertain
He remembers almost fondly a guard who was in charge of him and the men he supervised doing carpentry work at the camp.

"Adolph," he said. "A real nice person. I think he said he was 54. He was very friendly with us."

Flores said he remembers giving the rations he got from the Red Cross to the guard's wife, things like sugar, candy and toothpaste. He said he had even visited the guard's home.

When the camp was liberated, he said that the guard pulled him aside and asked him for a G.I. uniform so that he could escape.

"I couldn't," he said. "I wish I could have helped but there was just no way. I don't know what happened to Adolph and I've always wondered. I feel bad that I couldn't help him."

Flores said that when he finally left the camp, it took him and his two friends several days of walking to find the American troops.

He said that on the first night of their freedom walk, they found a lonely farmhouse and decided it would be a good place to sleep.

"We went inside and everything was all broke up," he said. "The furniture was in pieces and when we went upstairs we found a man hanging from the ceiling. We didn't sleep in there. We slept in the barn."

'It was hard'
Flores said that after they found American troops, they were taken to France and placed in Camp Lucky Strike to recuperate for three weeks.

Flores said that through it all, he has never regretted the sacrifices he made for his country.

"When I was drafted, I had two little girls and a 14-day-old baby girl," he said. "When they drafted me it was hard, but I didn't look for any excuses. They needed me so I felt I had to help."

He said he was surprised that anyone would be interested in his scrapbook and amazed that the university would want to keep it.

"I just never thought about people being interested," he said.

Contact Sara Lee Fernandez at 886-3767 or fernandezs@caller.com

© 2003 Texas Scripps Newspapers, L.P. A Scripps Howard newspaper. "