Page 49 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2019- Online Magazine

village people in their fields and orchards. Brooks
was glad to do this because he could get some fresh
air and food. The particular family he was assigned
to were the Hartungs. They were bitter toward the
Germans because their car agency, nice home and
money had all been taken from them.

When Brooks came in the first time to eat dinner,
he was surprised to see a table laden with so
much food, but he was even more delighted when
he recognized the German boy who had put the
sandwich through the fence. It was the Hartungs’
son, Joseph. He realized then that not everyone
sympathized with the Germans. They had two
other sons, but they didn’t know if they were dead
or alive. Once, after SS soldiers kicked the door
open, clicked their heels, looked around and left,
Mrs. Hartung
made faces
and stuck her
BROOKS SPEERS’ MEDALS tongue out at
Purple Heart their backs. If
Bronze Star they had seen
P.O.W. Medal her, they would
have shot her.
Defense Distinguished
Service Medal April 12, 1945
Good Conduct Medal was the best
EAME Service Medal day of Brooks’
American Campaign Medal wartime
experience. He
Expert Rifleman heard the roar
of an American
tank battalion.
The German
guards were putting their hands on their heads
shouting, “We surrender! We surrender!” General
George Patton liberated all the prisoners, flew them
to France, then home to the USA.

After Brooks got home, he sent care packages to
the Hartungs, and we continued to do so as long
as they lived. We corresponded with the help of a
German friend, who wrote letters in German, so
they would not be intercepted. (Many years later,
Joseph came to visit us. When we picked him up at
the airport, he had no luggage. Joseph had worn all
of his clothes layered under his overcoat, “so they
wouldn’t get lost.” He brought three peach seeds
from the orchard where Brooks had worked as a
prisoner - one for each of our children. He even
brought Brooks a sandwich, just as he had the first
time he saw him in captivity.)

Lubbock Senior Link 49