Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War Read Online Free Page A

were gone. Pieces of their tile roof lay across the street. Although the house was uninhabitable, Maria declared it “God’s gift” that there was no fire. Unlike many residents, who had lost their worldly goods, the Denglers were able to recover most of their belongings, although everything had “a million pieces of glass in it.” White-hot shrapnel had ripped through the house, singeing fist-size holes in furnishings and clothing. Digging through the rubble, the three boys dropped down into the pitch-black cellar and retrieved most of the remaining canned goods their mother had put up.
    Looting had begun, with townsfolk who had lost their homes and belongings scavenging through wrecked and deserted structures whose owners were gone, taking food, clothing, blankets, tools, and utensils.
    Finding a working phone, Maria called her parents. Upon hearing that their home and most of Wildberg had been destroyed, her mother said, “You and the boys are welcome here.” A plan was made for Maria’s brother Theo, who was home from the army on medical leave, to come to Wildberg to help with the move to Calw. The next day, Theo showed up in a horse-drawn wagon.
    The Schnuerles were already feeding and housing more than a dozen relatives and friends, including several Jews, such as Mrs. Hess, who was fearful of being “resettled” after her Swiss husband was drafted into the army. Although Hermann and his family did not suspect the ghastliness of Hitler’s Jewish plan, they knew that Jews in Calw—such as the butcher, who had owned his own shop that was now boarded up—had disappeared. Having once been forcibly taken from his own home, Hermann did not hesitate to help others.

    Maria Dengler with her three sons, 1942. Right to left: Dieter, Martin, and Klaus. Family photograph.
    A year passed, and before all the wildflowers of the Black Forest bloomed that final spring of the Third Reich, the war in Europe was over. The German economy went into free fall. With store shelves empty, hungry people canvassed the countryside, going from farm to farm trading their silver, Persian carpets, and other heirlooms for eggs, milk, and potatoes.
    For many German civilians—mostly women, children, and the elderly, as men between eighteen and fifty years old were scarce—the Allies’ occupation of their homeland meant a fight for survival far worse than any they had endured during the war years. The next two winters were bitterly cold. With so many houses damaged or destroyed, there was inadequate shelter, and there were shortages of coal and food. Many people starved or froze to death.
    Under the Allies’ division of occupied Germany, the southwest corner of the defeated country—where Calw was located—was in the French zone. It was not long before the residents of Calw met their occupiers: the rugged Moroccan Goumiers, who carried long daggers in their belts and werefrightening in appearance and by reputation. In the final weeks of the war, the Moroccans had breached the fortified Siegfried Line and fought their way through the Black Forest all the way to the Austrian border. They specialized in night raids and were also used to man the front lines in mountainous and other rough terrain. With the spoils of war in mind, these wild and fearless combat veterans arrived in Calw “like a conquering army.”
    Young Dieter would never forget the first time he saw the Moroccans. He was standing at his mother’s side in his grandfather’s bakery, “wide-eyed and scared,” when three of the hardened fighters, wearing turbans and striped cloaks, entered with axes and commenced to smash open storage bins, cabinets, and closets, taking anything they fancied. When they left, his grandfather hurried everyone into the cellar where he stored potatoes and made cider. They sat silently on crates and barrels stacked against earthen walls, the only light coming from a single candle. Suddenly, the door flew open and several Moroccans rushed inside.