Saturday, September 5, 2009

Childhood Memory of WWII Prisoner by Dot

We were living at EGP during WWII, I know, because there was a prisoner of war camp at Dexter, just down the road from where we were. Daddy contracted to have some of the prisoners, who were Germans, come to the farm and work. I remember them arriving in the back of a big truck. One of the prisoners became friendly with Mother and Daddy. His name was Bruno Gatermann. After the war ended, Mother got a letter from Ann Marie Gatermann, Bruno's wife, in 1946. She was trapped in East Germany with their three children while Bruno was in West Germany. Eventually she and the children escaped to the West and were reunited as a family. In 1975 Bruno and Ann Marie came to the US with one of their sons who was a doctor. They visited with Mother and Daddy in Missouri where we had land at that time. Bruno was an artist and did watercolors. He gave each of us a picture he had painted. I don't remember what happend to mine.

1 comment:

Debbie said...

I have heard mom talk about this story. What an awesome memory.