ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Families of American prisoners of war are learning new details about what their loved ones endured in German captivity during World War II after a local man found classified government documents.
John Membrila said, “I can’t remember one time when he shared any of his experiences when I was around.” His grandfather, Emilio Membrila, was a U.S. Army private first class who was captured in December 1944 by German forces at the Battle of the Bulge. For decades, John Membrila had questions about his grandfather’s experience.
“I had so many questions for him, but I didn’t have the strength, or I didn’t think it was the right time to ask those questions. And I never got those questions answered,” Membrila said.
The accounts of more than 140 soldiers, including Emilio Membrila, were documented in handwritten questionnaires recently discovered by Jason Hurdle of Waterloo. Hurdle found the documents while cleaning out his garage and discovering a hidden crawlspace with a box labeled “secret.”
“I knew I had something special. But how special? I didn’t know until now,” Hurdle said.
The 80-year-old documents describe grim living conditions, little food or medical care, and exposure to air raids and gunfire while being transported in crowded rail cars. Some prisoners reported witnessing beatings and executions. Emilio Membrila’s handwritten account described “poor sanitary conditions” and living quarters in horse stables with no heat during winter.
“I’ve been trying to connect the dots myself for years and I could never get that one puzzle piece that’s been missing for a long time,” Membrila said.
When asked if the documents gave him that missing piece, Membrila said, “Oh yeah. To see it written in his own words — and just a firsthand account — because everything else was through second person.”
The last two words in his grandfather’s account, “and no blankets,” left a strong impression on John Membrila. “When you close with ‘and no blankets,’ that’s very — that kind of hit me hard. It hit the heart,” Membrila said.
“You know, what were the needs of these men when all they wanted was a blanket just to keep warm. Right? I think the torture didn’t have to go very far,” Membrila said.
After returning home to Arizona, John Membrila said he believes his grandfather struggled with post traumatic stress disorder and rarely spoke about his experiences. “You didn’t talk about it — what happened over there stayed over there. That was the mentality. And I think it kind of followed him throughout his whole life and he struggled with things,” Membrila said.
In 2003, Emilio Membrila shared some of his memories in a taped interview with the Voces Oral History Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “They transported us three days without food or water and freezing weather,” Emilio Membrila said. “Some had dysentery, some were wounded, some were dying,” he said.
John Membrila said, “I would hope the takeaway is, for all the POW’s, for them not to be lost in history. Because they will still live on as long as we speak of them.”
Emilio Membrila received several medals for his service, including the Bronze Star, and was awarded a Purple Heart in 2007, more than 60 years after his liberation. The POW documents have been declassified, digitized by the National Archives and are available for public view. For a link to the documents, click here.
In-Depth: A hidden box in Waterloo is helping one family finally learn what a WWII POW endured WHEC.com.
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