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POW at Peabody created a German tank

By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

During World War II, when Mary Olson of Marion was seven and eight years old, approximately 150 German prisoners of war were housed at Peabody.

They helped farmers in the area during busy times because many of their own sons had gone to war.

During their many idle hours, one young POW, Karl Heinz Stegelmann, created a German tank model out of scrap tin. An intricately-carved and painstakingly-painted soldier sat in the driver's seat. A woman's name, Hilda, was written on the tank, and it had a German license plate.

The model had wooden wheels instead of tracks, so whether or not it was a "tank" is debatable.

When the POWs were returned to Germany in 1946, Stegelmann was not allowed to take the model along.

He gave it to Mary's father, Joe Gaines, in hopes of obtaining it later by mail.

The U.S. Post Office refused to send it because of the swastika painted on it.

Stegelmann kept in touch with the family and sent a wedding picture.

He described the dire conditions in Germany following the war.

"Here in Germany," he wrote, "it is hard to get anything, as we are in need of almost all things necessary for a decent living. You can't get no clothings, even no sewing-yarn.

"The rations for our nourishment are very, very small. Do you know what water-soups are? I guess you know them only by hearsay. For us they are our daily food.

"Very often yet I think back of the time I spent in America. There we had at least good meals and eating."

Mary said her father sent care packages to Stegelmann and others who had worked for him. He made an attempt to bring Karl and his wife back to America but was unsuccessful. Many people were trying to emigrate but government officials believed they were needed in Germany to rebuild the country.

The Gaines family eventually lost touch with Stegelmann.

Childhood memories

Mary has distinct memories of the time when the Germans were in Peabody. Her parents, Joe and Tina Gaines, owned a farm eight miles southeast of Peabody.

Joe owned a threshing machine and field cutter and sometimes did custom work. He hired several POWs during harvest time and to help with chopping sorghum for silage. Stegelmann was one of them.

Every day, Mary's mother prepared a noon meal and afternoon lunch for the workers.

"I was afraid of the men at first," Mary said, "but I think I was more afraid of the guard who carried a gun than the POWs."

Later, it was determined a guard wasn't necessary. Joe picked up the workers in the morning and returned them to Peabody at the end of the day.

"I likely went along sometimes," Mary said. "I went with him everywhere."

She recalled the Germans refused to eat corn. They called it "hog feed." When they wanted more of something, they didn't ask that it be passed to them but simply stood up, reached over, and helped themselves.

"They were hard workers," Mary acknowledged, "but they weren't allowed to operate machinery."

One time, one of the men disobeyed the rules. He mounted a tractor and put it in gear. After that, he didn't know how to stop it, so he just went round and round in the yard until someone else jumped on the tractor and took it out of gear.

The POWs were paid 40 cents per hour and were allowed to keep 80 cents per day for their personal use.

Mary recalled a time or two when her curiosity got the best of her and, while in town, she "sneaked" past the large brick building in which they were housed. A tall fence surrounded the building which still stands today.

The German tank model made by Stegelmann remained in the family.

"Joe valued the tank very much and would only get it out to show anyone on rare occasions," Mary's mother wrote many years later.

When the widowed woman moved to an apartment in Peabody, Mary bought the tank at auction for $700.

She found out later she had unknowingly bid against her younger brother, who also wanted to keep it in the family.

Mary said the model might be worth a lot of money but she plans to pass it on to a nephew who is interested in preserving it as a part of family history.

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