Ogden Standard-Examiner Sunday, April 12, 1987 Travel Books “This Ogden was a tuming point’. - After spending a year in RusWeber fived i in barracks on the sia, Weber was transferred to - northwest corner of the military Tunisia in North Africa where supply depot from 1944 to ™ ALT LAKE CITY — his administrative experience ~ 1946. There, he and 4,000 other . Lhe passenger train landed him a job in the comGerman prisoners worked and g™ that awaited Frederick mander’s office behind the fir- ° passed time in comradery until H. Weber on his first. ing lines, a move he believes their release. “visit” to the United States dursaved his life. More than 40 years after his ing World War II wasn’t astonWhen the Americans marched _ internment, Weber says he has a ishing in itself. into Africa with “more tanks “respectful remembrance” of the But to Weber, the fact that Ae than birds in the air,” Weber’s ° Ogden camp. His memories of was to board such a train in Hounit was pushed to the shores of prisoner life are mosily good boken, N.J. was a bit of a marthe Mediterranean Sea. Surrenones, he says, not “hateful” or vel. As a German prisoner of der was the only option. pain-ridden like those of his war, Weber wasn’t expecting By way of Algeria and then | friends who lived. under terrible such lavish transportation to his Scotland, Weber eventually conditions in Russian prisoner_ destination — a prisoner of war boarded a ship for New Jersey <|of-war camps. ' camp near Muskogee, Okla. ~ where his odyssey aS a prisoner . “This Ogden was a turning “A passenger train — that was of war in America began. point in my life,” says Weber, the first time we were amazed,” Weber characterizes his time ~ whose conversion to the Morrecalls Weber, who was captured at Defense Depot Ogden as mon Church brought him back by the Allies during fighting in strict but not unpleasant. The to live in Salt Lake City after North Africa. “In Germany, Germans were treated well and the war. “Every time I pass by prisoners were transported in provided with good living quar: (Ogden), I raise my hand in saBe obox cars.” _ ters. They had clean clothes, ' The train ride to Muskogee : lute.” which they laundered them- Weber, a eray-haired, bespecwas only the first of many surselves, and plenty to eat. = prises for Weber. Upon arriving © tacled man with a German ac“In Germany, you got some cent “so big you can saw it with _ in Oklahoma, there were more: soup and some bread. Here you a chain saw,” is one of the few a “friendly” letter of welcome got your meat, your vegetables, _ from President Franklin Roose- . known POWs from Ogden who your rice or potatoes and what- |. = velt read to the prisoners by the | returned to Utah to live. Before World War II, Weber | ever else,” he says. camp commander, new blue Many Italians were also imi denim clothes for all (clearly | was living in Dusseldorf with prisoned at DDO, but after Italy marked “PW”), and a sumptu- — his wife and family. Although he was a trained sculptor — “a surrendered, they were granted © ous meal with everything from freedom the Germans did not : profession you starve to death - Meat to dessert. enjoy. by” — he was working in the Weber was one of nearly “We were envious of the Ital400,000 German prisoners cap- personnel office of the Dusselians,” Weber says. “They could dorf city government when he = tured during World War II and go downtown and do whatever. _ was drafted into the spi at age s shipped to prison camps We were under barbed wire un| ek throughout the United States. til the last minute.” “Nobody i in sei any wanted & After brief stays in Oklahoma, | The best thing about the Og. Texas, Arizona and California, _ the war,” Weber says, adding den camp, Weber says, was that many felt they were pushed into he eventually wound up in Utah the prisoners were put to work fighting. “We knew what war at the state’s largest prison and paid for their labor. Besides was, we went through World camp, housed at Defense Depot See WEBER on 6D | War eae cain By BECKY CAIRNS @.. Dd.@ BO &- & 4 Standara-Examiner staff