6. Poem Translation: Home “ Home” sing our hearts just a word but a prayer that in pleasures and in pains stands above all stars. Like a fine lovely sound that resonates all around us on and on but in lonesome nightly hours it becomes a thunderous accord. And the waves of tones trail the soul be dreaming of being home. Musing I am looking to the distance above to the Lord’s nearest stars and it is my night prayer that begs the Lord father ….. “ HOME”
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Editor's Notes
“ At least two POWs committed suicide during the two-and-one-half years that Camp Hearne was in operation, and several were shot, one fatally, while trying to escape. The most serious case, which resulted in the shooting death of POW Hans Lukowski, occurred on June 19, 1944. A few minutes after 6 A.M. the guards in Towers 5 and 6, Pvts. Joseph Kidney and John A. Klescik, saw a prisoner climbing the south fence of Compound 2 near the recreation area. Kidney … told the prisoner to halt and when this failed to stop him, opened fire. Klescik did the same thing. … Apparently the escape attempt was a suicide. Einicke suggested that during the interrogation in Tunis, Lukowski had admitted ‘more than he was allowed to do according to German directions or German rules. As a result, his conscience was troubling him. Now, at this time with the invasion [of France] he believed that the final victory of the Germans was moved closer and that he would be subject to court-martial.’ … There were only two recorded incidents of prisoners committing suicide at Camp Hearne. The best-documented case is that of POW Karl Erler. On June 27, 1944, Erler was working in the fields on the Astin Estate Plantation, located about fifteen miles south of Hearne. According to the Bryan Daily Eagle (1944) and a later army report (Howard 1944b), Erler jumped in front of a Missouri Pacific train and was decapitated. … Ben Mason, who was guarding the prisoners that day at the Astin Farm, offered an explanation for this tragedy: ‘We had a few things happen while we were there, the guys were getting sad letters from their families in Germany. … [Karl Erler] got a message that his family had been killed in Germany.’ … One problem common to all POW camps during the war was the desire of prisoners to escape from captivity and return to their homeland. This was a nearly impossible task for German POWs in the United States. Even if they managed to escape from their camp and initially elude capture, they were still thousands of miles from home and surrounded by enemy territory in all directions. Furthermore, civilians were not likely to be sympathetic nor would they aid a prisoner attempting to escape. … Otto Franke escaped on the afternoon of August 9, 1944, while part of a work detail ‘clearing brush in a thickly wooded area’ … he was captured at about ten that evening by highway patrolman Jimmie Mason and Capt. Hilton B. McQuarrie from Camp Hearne. … That same night, three other prisoners attempted to escape. Heinz Watermeier, Gerhard Becker, and Hugo Schwarzmeier fled sometime between 11 P.M. and seven the next morning. The three were sighted fifteen miles downstream … as they floated down the Brazos River in crude boats they had constructed from wood, canvas, and raincoats. … The Cameron Herald (1944a) reported that the ‘prisoners were well supplied with money, clothing, and food’ and that they were hoping to make their way to Argentina. … Tommy Ryan, …, related an interesting incident that occurred on Christmas night, 1945 … Some prisoners were being transferred from Camp Hearne to Camp Swift in Bastrop, Texas. The transport vehicle experienced mechanical failure on the way there, so the POWs were temporarily housed n the Burleson County jail... Because of the jail’s poor condition, three prisoners were able to escape. Unfortunately for them, a cold front came in the night resulting in freezing rain. … recalled Ryan, ‘my dogs woke all up barking. … it was the three prisoners standing in our front yard. … they were cold and wet and were just ready to give up. My grandfather had been in World War I and had fought in Germany. [He] told them to come on in the house and of course we had lots of leftovers from Christmas dinner … so my grandmother brought them in by the fire and she spread the table with all the food and they ate. … The sheriff arrived about 9 A.M. with two carloads of policemen. … [the police] came in … they handcuffed them and put them in the car. … Apparently, attempting an escape was quite easy. Fritz Haus said he acquired an atlas of the United States … The atlas was being thrown away and the guards showed no concern when he asked if he might have it. … ‘ The thing is,’ observed Joseph Pohl, ‘we were told in the military that we were supposed to make at least one serious attempt to flee.’ He said, ‘escaping was crazy in a place like Texas, where the distances were so great.’ In Europe, where distances were not so vast, ‘it would have been more sensible. Normal people would not have thought about that. Mostly people did it for sport anyway.’”
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