Excerpts from Interview with ex-POW at Oflag 64 John R. Rodgers by Martin Madert
Channel: Polish-American Foundation for the Commemoration of POW Camps in Szubin
Date: 2020-10-26

"...So we got finally got off the train at a little town called Szubin..." begins the oral history recorded by ex-POW at Oflag64 2nd Lt John R. Rodgers. John R. Rodgers was a WWII US Army Air Force Pilot, who on his 8th mission to northern Sicily, was hit by ground fire which set his P-51 Mustang dive bomber ablaze. Shortly after he bailed out, the Germans captured John and forced him to march to a camp not far away. Within a few days, the Germans loaded him and other captives onto trucks and later onto boxcars heading northward.  Following a series of stops along the way, they eventually arrived at a POW camp in Szubin, Poland. They remained there until the Germans evacuated the camp, via forced march to Germany, on January 21, 1945. Along the way, John and the other captives were held briefly at two other POW camps. General Patton's forces liberated them from their final camp in Moosburg, in southwest Germany, on May 5, 1945. John R. Rodgers turned 97 this year and lives in Pensacola, Florida, USA.



https://www.witnesstowar.org/
https://szubinpowcamps.org/
https://friendsofoflag64.org/
http://oflag64.us/
Full interview: 
https://www.witnesstowar.org/search_result?share=b6c9c99dc3