WATERLOO, N.Y. — A discovery of historic significance, found in a hidden crawlspace. A man in Waterloo uncovered hundreds of original World War II documents labeled “secret” while cleaning out his garage.
Jason Hurdle said he found the documents in a crawlspace behind a piece of wood in his garage. Inside, he discovered an old safe, some milk cans and a box filled with dusty folders.
Hurdle said he was about to throw the box away when a gust of wind blew open a folder, revealing a letter marked “secret” from Stalag Luft 3 in Nuremberg, Germany.
Firsthand POW Accounts
Inside the folder were more than 300 pages of handwritten, first-hand accounts by American prisoners of war. The documents included questionnaires filled out by soldiers in 1945 after their liberation from German POW camps.
“Very few medical supplies. Very little food. I saw one boy die of malnutrition,” Hurdle read from one of the accounts.
The soldiers described grim living conditions, saying they were “not fit for humans,” with “no heat, no beds,” and exposure to vermin and lice. Many reported being exposed to air raids and gunfire while being housed in crowded boxcars and forced to work on damaged rail lines. Some witnessed beatings and executions, and one account reported the “cold blooded murder” of surrendering soldiers.
“I feel the hurt, the pain and a lot of things these guys have been through,” Hurdle said.
Preserving The Documents
Hurdle reached out to a local museum, which recommended he contact the National Archives. Agents from the Archives traveled to Waterloo to examine the documents.
“When they came up, I turned them over. And when I first laid them on the table in front of them, the first thing the one agent said was, these are original, we want these,” Hurdle said.
The National Archives did not have the documents listed among its missing records.
Historically Important
“They’re quite extraordinary documents,” John Barrett, a professor of law at Saint John’s University who studies legal history and the Nuremberg trials, said.
Barrett said the documents were clearly intended to gather evidence of war crimes. “So there are these kind of first person records and experiences of a uniquely horrible aspect of military service, in the most important war ever, is something that really matters to history,” Barrett said.
No one has determined how the documents ended up in Hurdle’s crawlspace or how long they had been there. Hurdle said there are a couple different theories, including that they may have belonged to a former Army officer who lived next door years ago. Hurdle found books and other items from that neighbor’s family in the box.
“I knew I had something special. But how special? I didn’t know, until now,” Hurdle said.
The National Archives has digitized the documents, marked them “unclassified” and made them available for public view.
To view the POW documents click here.
In Depth: Secret Files: What a Waterloo man found in a hidden crawlspace is helping preserve WWII POW history WHEC.com.
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