Re: Remembering Years in the Camps

Date: April 23, 2004

"WWII vets recall years in POW camp

By KIM STRODE / H-P Staff Writer

ST. JOSEPH -- On Aug. 17, 1943, the U. S. Army Air Force lost 600 men when 60 planes were shot down over Nazi Germany during a bombing mission.

Leslie Reichardt and Bruno Roti ejected from their B-17 bomber when it was hit by enemy fire and landed near Regensburg, Germany. Lieutenants in the 385th Bombing Squadron, they had gone through training together and flew together. Reichardt was the pilot and Roti his co-pilot.
They were on their seventh mission as a team when they were captured by Germans and taken to Stalag Luft 3, a prisoner of war camp.

"We were pretty much side by side when we were shot down," Roti said. "And we pretty much stayed that way through the war.

"We knew when we were captured, for us the war was over."

The pair separated after their liberation on May 30, 1945. Roti, now 88, came to St. Joseph and opened a Chrysler dealership on Main Street in Benton Harbor. He retired in 1979.


Reichardt, now 85, stayed in the service for 24 years. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. He then worked as a leasing agent for Nationwide Insurance and retired in 1979. He lives in Syracuse, N.Y.

They met again at a POW camp reunion in Norfolk, Va. Neither can remember the exact year of that first reunion, but they estimate it was about 25 years ago.

Since the reunion, the two correspond by mail and visit. Reichardt and his wife, Betty, visited Roti and his wife, Sara Jane, this week.

The camp

Reichardt, who was then 24, said a German citizen on a bicycle stopped to help him pack up his parachute after he ejected from his burning plane. He thought the man was going to help him, but instead he took him to a German commander, where Reichardt was interrogated.

"In the beginning, you didn't know what was going to happen," he said during an interview at Roti's home. "I didn't think I was going to be killed, because they really didn't do that. We had heard stories of people from England being in (POW) camps for two years. But once we were inside the camp, it was a sense of relief."

Roti, who was 27, said he opened his chute too early. This attracted the attention of a German soldier, and Roti was put in a roadside jail for a couple of hours.

Reichardt said the most difficult thing at first was wondering what his wife and family were thinking. He said he was relieved when he started getting letters from home and when he could write them back.

The pair said life at the Stalag Luft 3 was not too difficult. Both said they were treated well.

All of the men at the camp were officers. Enlisted men went to a different camp.

"They (the German guards) gave us what they could and treated us the best they could," Reichardt said. "They didn't have much themselves. And I suspect sometimes we got more to eat than they did."

Initially, they started out with eight people in each barracks.

"By the end, we had 14 people living in a room maybe 15 foot square," Roti said.

Roti said food was their biggest problem. The Red Cross would drop food parcels at the camp. At first they got one per person, initially. By the end of the war, they got one for several people.

They ate cabbage, barley and potatoes. They were allowed to get packages from their families. Their families could send dry goods, but food was still scarce.

Roti lost 25 pounds. Reichardt was "already thin," so his weight didn't fluctuate.

"When you're hungry, you can't think about anything else," Roti said. "You didn't think about your family, you didn't think about war. We talked about food and dreamed about food."

Cigarettes were the most valuable commodity, Reichardt said. The prisoners used them like money and would trade them for fresh food like milk or eggs.

"I would be out at night and trade with the guards coming in," Roti said. "American cigarettes were a favorite in Europe."

Daily life was routine. Reichardt said the doors were unlocked and roll call taken in the morning, and then they could go out and have the day to themselves.

The prisoners would read, play chess, exercise or play card games, like bridge.

"And I haven't played bridge since," Roti said.

They would have a roll call in the evening, and the doors were locked and the window shutters closed.

Reichardt said he kept a log of everything he did during his stay at Stalag Luft 3. He said he listed all the books he read, the plays men would put on, even what they had for Thanksgiving dinner. He left it above his bunk when they left the camp.

A Russian who was housed at the camp found the book and kept it until he was released. He then turned it over an American sergeant in Vienna, who returned it to Reichardt.

Reichardt said it's one of the few mementos he has of his imprisonment. He said his son wants him to write down his memories so the history doesn't die with him.

Roti said he has only memories that he has passed on to his children. He said he speaks freely about the war, and his experiences will be passed on through generations.

Liberation

In May 1945, the invading Russian army was drawing close to Stalag Luft 3. As a result, the guards and the prisoners marched south 90 kilometers to Moosburg, Germany.

"We knew the Germans were losing the war," Reichardt said. "We had a hidden radio the guards never found, and we even got some news while we were marching."

The camp prisoners were liberated by Gen. George Patton's troops.

"Patton himself walked down through the field, through the mud with his pistols at his side," Reichardt said. "He said he'd get us out of there, and he did."

Once they were liberated, the men went by ship to France, then were flown home. They picked up the pay they hadn't gotten for nearly two years and had 90 days furlough.

Their homecoming was not easy.

Reichardt said even though he was involved in the war, he didn't really know what had happened.

"My wife had to explain rationing to me and what everyone there had gone through while I was gone," he said. "My mother saved a scrapbook of news articles of anyone she thought I might know. It took a long time to catch up."

Roti, who wasn't married at the time, came home to his parents' house.

"I found out when I got home that my older brother, who was 36, had died in 1944 while I was gone," he said. "My folks didn't think they should let me know, so they didn't."

Both men said the experience changed them.

"You realize what's important," Roti said. "Things that used to bother you now seem trivial."

"That's a good way to put it," Reichardt agreed.

© 2004 The Herald-Palladium
St. Joseph-Benton Harbor, Michigan
The Newspaper for Southwest Michigan"