After 60 years, German POW recounts time in Knox prison camp
Former German prison of war Heino Erichsen talks about his time spent as a POW in Texas and at Fort Knox during a visit to the post on Monday.
By ERICA WALSH
The first time Heino Erichsen set foot on Fort Knox he was a prisoner. Instead of Army fatigues, his uniform was a denim shirt with the letters "PW" painted on the back.
Erichsen was one of the first 500 German prisoners of war to be held at Fort Knox during World War II and the only living former POW Fort Knox officials know of, said Matthew Rector, a historic preservation specialist on post.
"He's a treasure to Fort Knox," Rector said.
It was 60 years ago this month that two POWs were accidentally shot and killed by a Fort Knox soldier. They were honored at a ceremony Monday held for "Volkstrauertag," the German memorial day or day of mourning. Similar ceremonies are held at installations across the country.
It was the first time Erichsen had been able to make it to post for the service.
Erichsen grew up in Kiel, Germany, with his father, mother and sister. Kiel was a seaport town that became a main Allied target during World War II.
He was 9 years old when Adolf Hitler came to power, and at 10 he joined the Hitler Youth. He didn't have an option, he said. That's just the way it was.
"It was policy," he said. "There was no choice. I have often laughed at the word Œbrainwashed,' but I was raised on all this nonsense Š Yes, I would say I was brainwashed."
Erichsen stayed in Hitler Youth programs until he was 18, when he was drafted into the German Army.
He remembers going to school in the first years of the war, when bombing in Kiel was heavy. He would take people to bomb shelters during the school day.
When he was drafted, he traveled to Denmark for training and then signed up to go to North Africa, mainly because his only other choice was Russia, he said.
In November 1942, he became a member of the Afrika Korps, although he wasn't convinced his country stood a chance.
"It was my first combat experience and already in my mind we were on the losing end," he said.
The Axis forces surrendered in May 1943. Erichsen was now a 19-year-old prisoner of war, an anti-tank gunner who would eventually be held at the U.S. Army's Armor Center.
He was sent first to Morocco, where he boarded a ship for New York. He spent three-and-a-half weeks on the lower bunk in the ship's cabin. Prisoners weren't allowed to have anything made of metal, including spoons. They received field rations in wooden crates and used the pieces of wood for silverware.
"It was no fun," he said.
They landed at Ellis Island where they were deloused before boarding Pullman trains heading for POW camps. It was a far cry from the rail transportation in Germany, which was mainly done in cattle cars.
Erichsen first arrived at a POW camp in Hearne, Texas. He remembers his first impressions of the site.
"I saw a water tower," he said. "I knew you could take a bath and get a drink."
He became a translator for the company sergeant and did other odd jobs. In May 1944, he was transferred from Hearne to Fort Knox. He had asked to leave Texas after a fellow POW was murdered by other German prisoners.
There was a strong division between German POWs who were not devoted to the Nazis and those POWs who had been avid members of the party, or the S.S. Erichsen was concerned he would be attacked because he was working with the Americans, like the POW who had been killed.
During World War II there were 150 main POW camps in the United States and about 425,000 POWs. Erichsen was one of the first 500 German POWs to be held at Fort Knox. Until 1944 the camp mostly housed Italian prisoners.
Erichsen said they were as comfortable as prisoners could be during his time in the work camp.
At Fort Knox he worked in the post laundry and the headquarters kitchen. He also spent some time on tobacco farms. The men had time to relax by playing soccer and entertained themselves by putting on skits.
They were paid up to 80 cents a day for their work, which they could use to purchase items like cigarettes, soap and candy from a commissary designated for the POWs. The barracks they lived in were similar to those for American soldiers.
Erichsen remembers that the Americans were very friendly. But some of the other prisoners weren't.
"It was not really that scary," he said of being a prisoner of the Americans. "The real danger was within."
In early November 1944, Erichsen remembers a beating taking place between two groups of POWs. A few former Nazis had ganged up on other prisoners. Erichsen was at work that day, but remembers coming home and finding the whole camp at the fences.
He still isn't sure of all the details, but he heard a guard on the outside was nervous or startled and fired shots into the crowd, killing two of Erichsen's friends, Ernst Schlotter and Frederick Wolf.
The New York Times reported that the prisoners were shot because they were trying to escape, but that was not true, Erichsen said.
"They didn't do anything wrong," he said. "They were just in the field of fire."
Gary Kempf, a civilian employee on Fort Knox and a friend of Erichsen's, said until recently the story of what happened to the two POWs was unknown.
"For many years if you inquired about how these soldiers died, everyone would tell you they died of pneumonia," Kempf said.
Most people knew nothing of the real story ‹ including Kempf ‹ until he met Erichsen in 1991. On his first visit back to Fort Knox after being held there, Kempf took Erichsen to his friends' graves for the first time.
When the war with Germany ended in May 1945, POWs weren't sure what would happen. They were told as long as they kept working, they would be fine.
In 1946, the rumors began that they would all be sent home. Erichsen volunteered to go a few months before he had to because he was eager to get back to his family that he had not seen since the war.
He did get home, eventually. First the prisoners were transported to France, England and Scotland, where they were forced to work for another year or so to make up for their war crimes.
When he finally reached Kiel, he found that 80 percent of his hometown had been destroyed. He knew as soon as he returned that he wanted to immigrate back to the United States.
"I liked what I saw in America," he said. "I wanted freedom. I didn't think the way the war ended that Germany would be a country again."
In 1953, Erichsen, his first wife and his son moved to Minnesota. He had a junior college degree in accounting from Germany, but it wasn't worth much in the United States. He didn't really know what he was going to do.
"Life through the barbed wire looked a lot easier than the other side," he said.
Nothing is left now of the POW camp at Fort Knox except a soccer field, which is now the football field for Fort Knox High School. Scott Middle School stands on the ground that once held the prisoners' barracks.
Rector was hoping to get a historical marker placed at the site, but so far the project is on hold.
Since he immigrated to the United States, Erichsen divorced and remarried. With his second wife, Jean, he founded an international adoption agency, and two of his children joined the military. Both completed basic training at Fort Knox.
Together, he and his wife wrote the story of Erichsen's time as a prisoner of war. "The Reluctant Warrior: Former German POW Finds Peace in Texas" was published in 2001. It took the pair 10 years to finish.
Erichsen moved to Texas in 1982 and still lives there.
While writing his book, Erichsen said there were some memories that were difficult to recall because they brought back something he didn't want to remember, let alone write about.
But for the most part, he recalls his time as a POW favorably.
"If I had bad feelings I wouldn't have come back," he said.
© 2004 The News-Enterprise