Ep. 12 - Prisoners of War

Millions of Allied and Axis soldiers became POWs in WW II.  His weight down to 90 pounds, sick with malaria, Edgar Kuhlow overheard two German guards talking about his condition – “He is going to stay laying here in Germany.”  Forced to work in railyards 2 – 3 times a week in Munich, William Ledeker knew he was better off than the concentration camp prisoners he would occasionally see from nearby Dachau.  Recovering from being shot in the back and the shoulder, Jim Lingg was still loaded onto boxcars along with other POWs by the SS. While trying to liberate the Belgium town of Viller-La-Bonne-Eau, Michael Cannella and six others were separated from their company.  Badly outnumbered with an intense fire fight taking place outside, Cannella’s makeshift squad took refuge in a cellar.  Unbeknownst to them, it was already occupied by nearly a dozen German soldiers.  Together they all made a pact, they would lay down their guns and surrender to whoever took over the town. When the Russian forces liberated his camp, Paul MacElwee found he went from being imprisoned by the Germans to now being imprisoned by the Russians.  Seldom reported in the official records of the war, opposing forces in WW 2 sometimes did not abide by the Geneva Accords and took no prisoners.  American GIs like James Spaulding couldn’t forget the senseless killing of soldiers who should have been taken prisoners of war. 

Edgar Kuhlow and John Ulferts

William Ledeker

James Lingg (standing far right)

Michael Cannella

Paul MacElwee

Murray Shapiro

Robert Erhardt

James and Eva Mae Spaulding