~: 6D 1987 Ogden Standard-Examiner, Sunday, April 12, ‘Weber From drawn In mans news 1D doing various jobs on he worked in a local sugar beet fields and chards from Kaysville City, picking cherries, pears. the depot, cannery, in in fruit orto Brigham apples and for the Americans, Ogden, some of the Ger“couldn’t take it” when the their country had surren- dered was the camp. broadcast throughout Weber decided to join the church and promised Hadlock he would come back to Utah. Weber left Ogden in 1946 with gifts for his family and $138 in savings. But his homecoming was “One of them went in a dry bitterly delayed when his ship archamber (a room where the prisrived in Britain and the prisoners oners dried their laundry) and were detained in another camp hung himself,” Weber says. for a year before their release. “Let me tell you, the work was But life in the prison camp also When Weber returned to a dea blessing,” he says. “We loved it. had its brighter side. Weber says stroyed Dusseldorf, his talent as a You came out in the fresh air and sculptor was put to use recon-. the prisoners would sneak fruit you worked and you could eat as from the orchards that “wasn’t fit structing the city. He and his much (fruit) as you wanted to.” _ for sale or human consumption” wife, Johanna, joined the Mor- When they weren’t working, mon Church, and with Hadlock’s and bring it back to the depot the prisoners had various activi- where they brewed their own alsponsorship, immigrated to the ties at the depot from which to cohol. The bottles were stored United States in 1954. : choose — art, music, educational After arriving in Salt Lake under the barracks. classes and sports. Weber espeCity, Weber found work doing “For a while it was nice until cially enjoyed emceeing his commarble repairs for a stone compathe Americans brought in dogs rades’ plays and going to the ny, a job he kept until he retired and they sniffed it out and that movies where he first saw Laurel was the end,” he says. in 1976. One job he is especially and Hardy. proud of was restoring the arms Many of the men cared for and hands of the huge statue of stray dogs, cats or birds. But one .- Despite good living conditions, Christ in the LDS Visitors’ Cenprisoner had a rude surprise the anguish of the war was never ter on Temple Square when it when the “weasel” he captured far away. Men were lonely and was vandalized in 1982. turned out to be a skunk, an aniworried about their families and Looking back, Weber says his mal not found in Germany. conditions in Germany. Times Weber says there were plenty experience as a prisoner of war were tough for Weber’s own fam“was in sharp contrast to that of of attempted escapes from DDO, ily; food was scarce and his his comrades in Russia. _ . but they usually didn’t last long young daughter died while he was “Here we were living the life of once the Germans found themin Africa. Riley,” he says. One of his friends selves outside with no money and _ Tragedy struck the prison was the sole survivor at a Rusunable to speak English. camps too. A fellow prisoner in sian camp where 200 other GerIt was during his work at a loOklahoma was beaten to death mans were shot. cal cannery that Weber struck up with milk bottles by the other ~“We had radio, cinema, a friendship with O.B. Hadlock, prisoners, who were enraged over enough to eat, a place to sleep,” | an Ogden schoolteacher who had a map of bombing targets in Gerbeen a Mormon missionary in he says, “— and those poor dogs many the man had supposedly died.” Germany. Before the war ended, Ae LETTS