World War II Radio Heroes : Letters of Compassion World War II Radio Heroes : Letters of Compassion is a book by psychologist Lisa Spahr , co - authored with Austin Camacho , that recounts her personal investigation of the activities of shortwave radio listeners who notified families of captured U . S . military personnel of their status as prisoners of war during World War II . It documents Spahr ' s search to locate and thank the listeners who wrote letters to her great - grandmother reporting details of her grandfather ' s capture and internment in a German prison camp in 1943 . Discovery . Spahr ' s discovery of what she first took to be a box of love letters in trunk belonging to her late grandfather inspired her to investigate who wrote them and why . She found more than 70 letters written to her great - grandmother Martha in 1943 by individuals in different parts of U . S . Each one advised Martha that her son Robert had been captured during the Tunisia Campaign and was being held by the Germans as a prisoner of war . The letters often included personal reassurances from the writer , such as " don ' t worry " and " he ' s in good health " , and some passed along requests for items from home , such as toothbrushes and underwear . Subsequent investigation showed they were written by shortwave radio listeners who ' d tuned in to Axis propaganda broadcasts that disseminated details of recently captured prisoners . Inspired by the apparent compassion of the writers and the unique service they felt compelled to provide to families of war prisoners , she undertook to try and locate and thank any she could find who were still living . An internet search of names and addresses contained on the letters resulted in a number of possible leads . Spahr sent letters of gratitude to approximately 75 of these and received about a dozen responses . She was able to make subsequent contact with several of the individuals , and developed close friendships with a few of them . Listeners . During World War II , short messages from prisoners of war were often read by studio announcers at stations in Germany , Japan , and other Axis powers countries . A number of shortwave listeners copied the prisoner names and addresses and notified families by mail or telephone , and the practice became known as “ Prisoner of War relay ” or “ POW monitoring " . Although the Allied government provided similar services , the families usually heard from shortwave listeners first , sometimes as many as 100 at a time . Many wartime listeners were ordinary citizens who discovered they were able access the shortwave bands ; a feature included on many premium consumer radios of the era . Times and radio frequencies of the news from Rome , Berlin and Tokyo were published daily on the radio page of " The New York Times " . Others were dedicated shortwave listeners or DXers who maintained an ongoing interest in long - distance radio listening as a hobby . Still others were licensed amateur radio operators who were , as a group , banned from transmitting due to wartime restrictions , but often kept their listening gear in operation . Some of the reports they provided were casual . Spahr documents a letter from Edward D . Rapier of New Orleans , Louisiana who wrote that he accidentally tuned into a German broadcast and heard about Robert Spahr ’ s status . Others appeared more urgent . Mrs . Earl Seigle of Tyler , Texas sent a letter to Martha Spahr by airmail special delivery . Seigle noted the radio announcer ' s reading of a message from Robert Spahr : “ I arrived safe in Germany as a prisoner . I will write later . ” Others like Irwin F . Bender of Oberlin , Pennsylvania asked for the donation of a postage stamp so that he might continue to provide other families the same service . Sometimes letters got misrouted , and Martha Spahr once received news of a soldier named James C . Caraway . Many listeners like Herman Winkler of New York City were so dedicated to their practice they created letter templates to speed up the process . Some of these belonged to clubs such as “ SWAM ” , the " Short - Wave Amateur Monitors Club " , a group of listeners organized by Mrs . Ruby Yant of Lima , Ohio . Yant assigned each member a specific night of the week to monitor so that no messages would be missed . A copy of a SWAM newsletter containing a membership list , and a SWAM postcard invitation to membership , both reproduced in the book , indicate that the group was formed in 1943 and had around 50 members in 1944 . Some of the SWAM monitors approached their job with enthusiasm . Although not typical , at least two SWAM members were responsible for sending 3 , 000 letters each . Another , according to Spahr , sent over 5 , 000 . One SWAM member , Flavius Jankauskas of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania was only 16 years old when he sent his letter to Spahr ' s family . The next year he joined the war effort by enlisting in the United States Merchant Marine . On meeting Jankauskas , Spahr reports that he remains a ham radio enthusiast holding the callsign K3JA , and still listens to shortwave broadcasts as a hobby . They developed a close friendship , culminating with Jankauskas presenting Spahr with the shortwave radio receiver he used during the war as a gift . Controversy . The practice of monitoring POW broadcasts sometimes provoked the U . S . government to react strongly against individual listeners . Spahr documents a number of cases , among them , John R . Fike , of Omaha , Nebraska . Fike sent a letter to Martha Spahr on May 9 , 1943 . Shortly after , the FBI investigated Fike ' s shortwave radio listening and accused him of being a German spy . His name was eventually cleared before his death in 1988 . Listening to enemy broadcasters was widely viewed with suspicion by the government , and Spahr cites a 1943 American Legion Magazine article which sought to discourage reliance on news contained in enemy broadcasts , saying that the POW broadcasts were seen as merely bait in the Axis propaganda war , intended to weaken the morale and the “ will to fight ” of relatives and friends of missing men . By 1943 , government officials were reportedly “ increasingly concerned ” over citizen POW monitoring . A New York Times article stated the activity was “ playing directly into the hands of the country ’ s enemies ” by building up an audience for the propaganda broadcasts . It went on to say that since there was no assurance of the information ’ s accuracy , the shortwave listeners might cause " needless disappointment and heartache . ” The American Red Cross reported that hundreds of families had received “ false casualty reports , ” and that enemy news of prisoners should be ignored . It quoted the FBI as saying “ The spreading of such reports indicated a substantial force of enemy representatives strategically placed throughout the country , working under enemy orders to undermine American morale . ”