Friend or Foe?

In the previous post, the importance of Jim Hoel’s dog tag was mentioned. The tag had his home address on it which was not the norm, but an apparent mistake. It generated, however, a miraculous “reunion” of sorts.

While the prisoners were for the moment freed from solitary confinement and enjoying their first few minutes simply talking to other friends and Allies, a German soldier walked out of a little shack or office that was adjacent to the area where the men were talking and enjoying a smoke. As he got closer, Jim saw that he was a German Corporal.

"Is Lieutenant Hoel here?" the Corporal asked.

"Yea, that's me," Jim replied. Bear in mind that Jim and the others had just been interrogated by the best of the Germans. Jim was wary and he hadn’t told them anything. Though they tried every trick in the world, Jim finally understood what they were doing. So anyway, here, he simply said "That's me," and left it at that.

The German Corporal said, "Well, would you come over here? I'd like to talk to you."

So the two young men went over in a corner by themselves and the Corporal said, "I see in the office from your dog tag records that you live in Evanston, Illinois.

"That's right." Jim said cautiously.

"I'm from Evanston also." And Jim thought, "What the hell are these Germans up to anyway?" Jim figured this was another trick.

Jim asked the Corporal a series of questions about intersections and parks and locations of places in Evanston, where Jim and, allegedly, this German solider were both raised. The Corporal got every question right and Jim thought, “These guys are good!”

Finally, Jim tried to trick him and asked, “Do you remember the ice cream store at the corner Main Street and Hinman Avenue?” The Corporal said yes of course he did. “When you walked in,” Jim went on, “and you turned to your right to the fountain you…”

“No, no,” the Corporal interrupted, “You turned to the left,” which was correct of course.

Jim was stunned. Convinced now that this was no trick, Jim, incredulously asked “What on earth are you doing here?”

The young German Corporal went on to explain that he really grow up in Evanston and that he was a citizen of the United States, but prior to that was a citizen of Germany, thus a dual citizen. The European rule of citizenship at that time was, if you became a citizen of another country, you still remained a citizen of your country of origin.

As a citizen of the United States in 1938, the young man, my father’s age, was offered (as a lot of German-Americans were) a "free" vacation from Hitler to come back to the “fatherland” to see their relatives.

The young “Evanstonian” took the vacation and when he stepped off the boat he was greeted by the German military who told him "Welcome, you're a nice good German citizen”. With that, he was "conscripted" into the German army. That happened to a good many people, as Jim understood it.

Otherwise, both of these young men would likely still be fighting in the War, but on the same side. On the other hand, circumstances could have placed them yards apart, each with a “duty” to kill the other.

The first section of the poem “Brothers” written by Wayne Benson about the Civil War reads:

The sounds of rolling thunder fills the air of the nation,
A cry of despair comes from the founders of this creation
A family against family, brother against brother;
For a war has begun, a war like no other.

Jim has never forgot this encounter though he never saw the German Corporal again.