A Kriegie Kid is the child of an ex-WWII POW. Kriegie is a shortened version of kriegsgefangene which means prisoner of war. The Kriegie Kids that make up our travel team are a worthy group not because of any personal attributes, but because of the commitment of our fathers.
Our Travel Team
A University of Michigan WWII researcher (Laura and sister Ellen W.), two management consultants (me and Rich) and a public relations executive, (Ellen H.), make up our group of Kriegie Kids explorers. Spouses who elect to join our group will be along. Pam will accompany me, Liz will join Rich and Dave will be along with Ellen W. I’ll reserve sharing last names for internet privacy. However, Laura our member author, has written one of the best and most extensively documented accounts of a WWII prisoner of war who happens to be her father, I have read in my research on my father’s (Vic) POW experience. Laura’s book can be found on Amazon; search On the Wings of Dawn, American Airmen as Germany’s Prisoners.
I met Ellen H., our PR expert, when I read that she would be making a presentation to the American Legion in Starkville (my town) about her father’s time as a prisoner of war. As it turns out our fathers were in the same Stalag and shared many of the same hardships. Ellen H. is also from Starkville and, I remember after she brought it to my attention, that her father had a service station in Starkville when I was in college.
Laura and Ellen have been able to bring valuable research information to the group, as they made a 2016 visit to Stalag IV, the prison where all of our fathers were held and a number of other important Death March waypoints.
Rich, my consulting counterpart, was welcomed into our group in the latter stages of our trip planning and has become a valuable asset in helping to organize the many travel details involved in getting a group of eight English speaking Kriegies to make and confirm hotel and rental car reservations with non or partial English speaking proprietors. Rich and Liz and Pam and I will be sharing a rental car and plans are to be driving around two thousand kilometers during our excursions. Rich and Liz live in one of my favorite towns of all time, Charleston, SC.
Also traveling with us will be Christine and Susanne and Christine’s television film crew from ARTE television in Strasbourg, France. I’ll save the television details to a later post but tell you a little about Christine and Susanne.
Christine is a television producer, I may be taking some liberties with titles and descriptions here, but with good intentions, with ARTE and is coordinating our trip with regard to the proposed documentary filming. Susanne, a German WWII historian who must know everyone in Germany who knows anything about the war and US POWs is organizing lots of interesting events and important venue stops as we travel. Christine and Susanne will also be valuable in communications, our collective German language understanding is “danke”.
The more we learn about the tribulations of the POWs we know without a doubt that our fathers were not representative of the greatest generation, they were the greatest generation. They would not claim that title and would be uncomfortable with the thought. Most of them would simply say, “we were just doing our job and trying to get home”. Danke, Jim