Reims France: Museum of the Surrender

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My second stop on the drive back to Paris was Reims France. Rheims was the city where Germany unconditionally surrendered on May 7, 1945, at 2:41am. However, the Soviets had not yet officially approved the text of the Instrument of Surrender signed in Reims. The Soviets insisted that the proper signing ceremony must not take place in France, but right in the fallen Reich’s heart, in Berlin. They also insisted on certain changes in the text of the Instrument of Surrender, insisting it state unambiguously that all German troops were required to give up their arms and hand themselves over to the Allies. Therefor on May 8, 1945, there was another, grander, more formal ceremony in Berlin Germany.

There were no immediate celebrations. The ceasefire was set for 11.01pm on 8 May, and the news correspondents present at the Rheims signing were sworn not to report the surrender until further notice. A few hours later, however, German radio did – and the news was out.

My Father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was serving occupation duty in the area of Hemer where Stalag VI-A was located as well as Iserlohn and Plettenburg Germany when Germany surrendered. He held on to the Stars and Strips newspaper announcing the surrender for the rest of his life. I now have that very yellow and fragile newspaper with the full-page headline NAZIS QUIT! Arthur must have been ecstatic that the European war was over. The 75th Infantry marching band celebrated by marching through the streets of Plettenberg Germany playing patriotic music.

Although Arthur Thorspecken wasn’t at the signing on May 8, 1945, he was reassigned to Camp Cleveland just 11 miles south east of Reims on June 1, 1945. Leaves to Rheims and Paris were common for the 75th Infantry soldiers who ran Camp Cleveland. I have no doubt that Arthur would have taken a leave to Rheims and come to the this site where the war in Germany had ended.

The newspaper announced that, German officers formally surrendered the German forces at a meeting in the big red schoolhouse which was General Eisenhauer’s headquarters. Grand Admiral Doenitz, successor to Adolph Hitler, ordered the surrender and the German High Command declared it effective. The signing of the surrender declaration took place in secret in the “map room” located in the technical college (now called Lycée Roosevelt)

The red schoolhouse in Rheims is now a museum memorializing the end of World War II. The museum has archives, uniforms, and artifacts which bring the period of May 1945 to life. Unfortunately, when I was there, the museum was under renovation. It is slated to re-open in March of 2026.

The text serving as the “Instrument of Surrender” had already been written by the Allies in mid-1944, after the D-Day Landings in Normandy France. Reworked sections of the text were also the subject of the Yalta Conference in early 1945. The main points were that the surrender had to be unconditional and must be signed by the German Military High Command. When Germany’s surrendered in WW1, only the civilian government signed. This later paved the way for the “Dolchstoß”, or ‘stab-in-the-back’, legend that militarily Germany had not actually been defeated on the battlefields, but that it was “betrayed” – by republicans, social democrats, and Jews. This propaganda fueled the hatred that allowed Hitler to be voted into office and begin a massive build up of armed forces.

Adolph Hitler’s suicide, in the Fuhrer bunker in Berlin on 30 April 1945, opened a real chance for surrender to come quickly. Yet it came in stages, drawn out over the course of more than a week, partly because of the chaos the German military was experiencing.

Today the museum looks quite nondescript, a simple red-brick complex. Only the four flagpoles flying the British, United States, French and Soviet flags hint at its significance.

April 20, 1945: Hemer Germany, War Memorial

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When driving out of Hemer towards Plettenberg Germany, I noticed this World War I and II memorial dedicated to the solders from Hemer who died in the wars. I usually planned my sketch opportunities in advance by researching the night before, but in this case, I just stumbled across this memorial as I was driving. I pulled off the main road and turned around to sketch.

On April 20, 1945, 300,000 German soldiers surrendered in the Ruhr Pocket. April 21, 1945, was the end of the Ruhr offensive. After seeing Stalag VI-A in Hemer, I started to drive to Plettenberg Germany where the 75th Infantry command post was in operation at the time.

On April 25, 1945, American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe River near Torgau, Germany, a defining, symbolic moment in World War II known as “Elbe Day”. This link-up cut the German army in two, signaling the collapse of the Nazi regime and marking the effective end of the war in Europe. By April 30, 1945, Adolph Hitler had committed suicide in Berlin. The World War in Europe would officially end on May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered. 1st Lieutenant Joe Colcord of the 75th Infantry Division wrote, “VE Day was quite a celebration as it meant that we were not going to the East to join up with the Russians at the Elba.”

After Germany’s surrender, the 75th Infantry Division became the civil-military government in Westphalia Germany, caring for 175,000 Allied prisoners of war and displaced persons which formed a central part of their duties. On VE Day the 75th Infantry Band marked through the streets.

Lieutenant Paul Cunninham of the 75th Infantry Division, wrote about his experience at a German camp for Russian POWs… “men to sick to work were sent there to recover. In reality they were sent there to starve to die, starved to death. If someone did get well, he was immediately sent to work in the mines. 25,000 men were kept where only 9,000 could be accommodated.”

My Father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Harold Thorspecken was in charge of C-Company in the 1st Battalion of the 75th Infantry Division which was part of the 290th Infantry Division. 290th Infantry Division.

A dedication was sent to all the soldiers after Germany surrendered… “ Today we have achieved final and conclusive victory over Germany. The monster that was Nazism lies crushed and broken. The road to victory has been long and bitter for everyone. It has been built by the unfaltering courage and the steadfast devotion of every man serving under the flags of the Allied nations. The darkest hours have been illuminated by the flames in the hearts of free men fighting indomitably onward to the final victory.

As we are gathered here to celebrate the great day, we must certainly be joined by the spirits of those of our comrades who have sacrificed their lives in order that we might accomplish this victory. To those men whose unselfish devotion to duty shall live forever asa torch of freedom, we most humbly dedicate this day. May God grant men the wisdom needed to carry on ideals for which they have died.

While VE Day is an occasion for thanksgiving and celebration, it comes to us with the realization that long dark months of trails and tribulations lie before us. Not only great dangers, but many more misfortunes, many shortcomings, many mistakes many disappointments will surely be our lot. Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey, hardship our garment, and valor our shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be unyielding. Our qualities and deeds must burn and glow through the gloom of the world until they become the veritable beacon of it’s salvation.

Today concludes the first phase of our titanic struggle. A struggle which will ultimately end with our crushing defeat of the last barrier to world peace.”

After Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany was captured by the Americans, it was renamed Camp Roosevelt. It was a long road to liberate all the POWs in the camp. Hundreds of Soviet POWs kept dying every week from the many months of starvation. Soviet prisoners sent back to Russia would be seen as traitors, so after all the horrors of capture and forced labor they would go back home to be treated with suspicion. Camp Roosevelt  was then used as a camp for detaining Nazi prisoners.

Hemer Germany: Diloh Russian Cemetery

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Diloh Cemetery in Hemer Germany, is further away from the Stalag that the Hochlingerweg Cemetery which had been filled quickly with mass graves from all the Russian solders being starved and worked to death. The Diloh cemetery is a more difficult drive which I can attest to since I drove up there from the Stalag VI-A site. Right next to the cemetery was a military shooting range and the wall where the targets were placed was across from the entrance to the Diloh Cemetery. This military shooting range was surrounded by a high fence and there were always military guards at the site. Locals seldom went there.

This cemetery was also a site for mass burials in open trenches. The bodies were dressed and wrapped in oil paper and then tied up with rope. When no paper was available, in the last weeks of the war, the bodies were thrown naked onto the horse drawn wagon. Locals in the upper floors of the homes along the route had a view of the grisly procession as the horse cart made its way up the hill to the Diloh Cemetery.

POWs in Stalag VI-A were blackmailed with schnapps and special rations to conduct the sad and horrific task of collecting the dead at the Stalag every day. The would load the dead in a horse drawn cart to bring the dead to the Diloh Cemetery. The back of the cart would be opened and the cart tipped to allow the emaciated bodies to roll out into the trench. The inmate could wear protective gloves but there were no masks to hide the stanch of death. Bodies would be stacked, one on top of the other four deep. Once the bodies were stacked, then dirt could be shoveled in to cover the faces of the dead.

Each cart load could bring 25 to 28 bodies up the hill to the cemetery. The process would have to be repeated several times a day. An inmate work crew had to work every day to prepare the long trenches about 10 feet wide and 8 feet deep.
After the liberation of Stalag VI-A on April 14, 1945, the mortality rate remained at about 100 deaths a day. The Americans improved the living conditions by supplying food and drugs, but many of the POWs were already too far gone. Conditions slowly improved. After liberation on April 14, 1945 to April 28, 1945 deaths in the Stalag were kept to 790.

After the end of the war, the Soviet Military mission gave the order to erect a monument which was designed by Russian architect Lieutenant Lewikij. It was erected on October 9, 1945 in the presence of British and Soviet officers as well as the mayor of Hemer Germany. Engraved on the monument is the following… You have suffered all the torments and pains, and tortures. Those who have tortured you to death in the foreign country have not escaped the punishment that has caught up with them. Those who have been swept away today with powerful force have themselves fallen into the grave. Sleep well. From home, beautiful light flows on you in a wide river. The vigilant warriors of the Red Army protect your peace.

The cemetery was remodeled in 1949. Raised ground form the mass grave trenches were leveled and the whole area was sown with grass, to allow for easy mowing and maintenance. The small metal plates which had marked the grave rows were removed. The opinion at the time was that Soviet victims of the war did not need to be buried in a comprehensible manner. And the names of the deceased could no longer be determined.

In 1966 there was a push to erect a new monument which did not have the Soviet star. That project never happened due to a lack of funds. In 1987 plaques were added which translated the Russian engravings and a second panel indicated that the victims were buried after the inhumane treatment of their captors. Those plagues were destroyed and the vandals were never prosecuted. Police had to start patrolling the cemetery to prevent further vandalism.

Stalag VI-A Model

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My father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken would have been in and around the area of Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany, helping liberate the prisoners from April 19, 1945 to June 1, 1945, a total of 43 days.

1st Lieutenant Joe Colcord in the 75th Infantry Division wrote… “We captured several unnamed cities in the Ruhr Pocket and liberated a displaced person’s camp, the poor souls were wandering around weakly, near death since the German guards had left. Some lay in stacked beds too weak to walk. All were in effect skeletons. They almost seemed non-human. I suspect this was a work camp.” Joe continued… “There were many Displaced Persons, that by treaty were to be shipped home by the easiest rail line. These people did not want to go East. We had to nail the doors shut on the 40-8’s to keep them on board. At least until they left the marshaling yard. For many there was no home to go to, and this act may have been a death sentence. I can still see the sad faces as they were boxed up to go “home’.” There were literally hundreds of these work camps, so I can not verify if Joe is talking about Stalag VI-A or another work camp.

Dr. Nikolai Gubarew was a Soviet soldier captured and sent to Stalag VI-A as a 20 year old prisoner in 1942. He remained in the camp until it was liberated in April of 1945. In time he became an assistant to the StalagVI-A Captain Edmund Weller and thus he gained insight into the inner workings of the camp. The camp had a reputation among Soviets as the place Prisoners of War (POWs) went to die. Bread was the only hope to survive. For breakfast there might be a sip of liquid which was a replacement for coffee, lunch might consist of a thin soup with some turnips with unpeeled potatoes, sometimes with a bit of margarine. The best possible bread ration was 8 ounces which allowed for slow starvation. Soviet prisoners were always given the worst rations of food since the Germans considered then sub-human. Soviets would get 1 bowl of broth while other nationalizes got 2 bowls.

Clothing consisted of old uniforms marked with white phosphorus so a prisoner could be identified at night. Instead of shoes, prisoners were given old woolen pants which sometimes covered the feet. Clothing was regularly untied to fight the lice. If clothing got wet with outdoor work, then pneumonia was often the result. Prisoners slept in 3 story bunk beds. Being in the stone buildings was better than being in the wooden barracks since the wooden barracks were very drafty.

The death rates soured for prisoners who had tuberculosis and pneumonia. There were no drugs to treat the patients. Due to the risk of infection, these barracks were never entered by German camp staff. The door to the medial barracks was secured with a padlock and only Soviet medical personnel held the key. The dead would lie with the living in the bunks for a time, this allowed bread rations to be collected from the dead and distributed to the living. When bodies began to bloat, they had to be removed by medical staff with a horse drawn cart.

At 6am each day there was a roll call. If the numbers were not right then prisoners might have to stand for hours until the numbers were correct. Forced Laborers who were worked outside the camp would be marched away. During the night, illumination was provided solely by the beams of guard tower searchlights as they swept across the perimeter fences. Some guards were very brutal. They beat prisoners with truncheons.

POW camp staff enriched themselves by taking prisoner bread and other food. The food would disappear before getting to the camp warehouse. Staff would lift goods from the delivery train at the Hemer station to private trucks. Any meat, fat and bread would often be taken directly from the Stalag kitchen. Moldy bread is what usually would arrive at the Stalag with no replacement shipments. Bombing raids guaranteed late shipments. Potato and turnip supplies did run out. When serving food there was often chaos among the starved inmates.

Russian POW Dimitry Alexandrovich was a talented photographer. While in the Stalag, he was entrusted to work taking the pictures of incoming prisoners which were added to the inmate information card files. He also had to work on the mass burial detail, and at the risk of his own life, he photographed the grisly scenes of emaciated bodied being dumped into mass graves. Thanks to his access to the dark room, he was able to develop and print these scenes of horror.

On April 30, 1945, Adolph Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker.

Russians celebrate May Day on May 1st, which is a celebration of spring and renewal. The 75th Infantry hosted a May Day celebration at the camp where Generals gathered at a podium to speak. POWs lined up in tight military formations. American enlisted men and officers gave up their white bread rations for 3 days, so that the Soviets and other POWs could have more to eat at the ceremony. There was music, marching and the 75th Infantry Division General Ray E. Porter had a banquet set up for the delegates assembled.

May 8, 1945, was Victory in Europe day (VE Day), when Germany officially surrendered.

On June 1, 1945, the 75th Infantry Division was relieved by the British infantry since Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany was in the British occupation zone.

Russian Memorial Hocklingerweg Hemer, Germany

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In the final months of World War II, the area around Islerohn Germany saw the surrender of German forces to the American troops. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken with his C-Company in the 75th Infantry Division, moved into Hemer to help liberate Stalag VI-A, one of Germany’s largest POW camps.

The Americans of the 75th Infantry Division distributed U.S. Military rations to the starving prisoners. Approximately 22,000 men were found at the camp with 9000 of those in the camp “hospital”. Patients suffered from Tuberculosis, Dysentery, Malnutrition, and Typhus fever. Inmates were from the Soviet Union, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Romania, Great Britain, Canada and America. American War photographer Joseph D. Karr was on the scene documenting the struggle to keep men alive. Despite being offered food rations, many men were just too far gone. Over 100 men (mostly Soviets) kept dying every day. Soviets were given half or less of the rations that other nationalities were given and over the week before liberation there was no food distributed in the camp since the cooks and guards had retreated East away from the advancing American troops.

Two cemeteries were established for the mass graves for all the men who were dying. The exact number of men who died is hard to calculate. Some researchers think 24,000 men lie in the two cemeteries. Others think that number is too high, while others think that number may be far higher, based on the rising numbers of inmates who died at the end of the war. The goal of commemorating is to never forget. Future generations need to know what man is willing to do in the name of an ideology and how quickly a society is willing to throw away basic moral principles.

Early in the war, the first men who died were buried in a forest near the Stalag. The dead were buried in simple wooden coffins. Most of these men were French (166) and Polish (42). By 1945 there were 335 graves. War graves agreements after the war, insisted that the bodies be returned to home countries. The remaining graves were then moved to the two cemeteries dedicated to the Stalag dead in Hemer.

The numbers of Soviet dead kept growing exponentially. They had been through the hell of war, capture, forced stays in the front-line Stalags followed by excruciatingly long cold train rides into the Reich where they were immediately put into forced labor details. Additional land had to be acquired from a Protestant parish for the hundreds of men who were dying each week. The bodies were carried on a horse drawn carriage on the shortest route up the hills and winding roads to the cemetery. Long excavated trenches had been dug, and the bodies were unceremoniously thrown into the pit. People walking down the street, or passing by train could see the grisly scene. There was no secrecy to the mass murder taking place.

By the end of 1943 all the rows had been filled with bodies. The capacity of the cemetery was exhausted. More than 3,500 Soviet prisoners were buried in 16 mass graves in about 15 months. Since men were buried with bodies stacked on top of one another, about 3 men deep, it became impossible to figure out who was buried where. At first there were distinct rows with metal plates to delineate the rows, but over time the landscape was flattened and a featureless lawn with a few birch trees remains. The metal plates had been discarded or lost.

A small concrete monument had been built by Soviet inmates after the liberation of the camp, but it was replaced by a memorial stone designed by Menden Germany sculptor, Walter Voss. It was dedicated on the Sunday of the Dead, in 1967. The stone says: Rest. Soviet Citizens who died in the years 1941-1945 far from home. The number of deceased, at 3000, was the credible number at the time when the stone was carved. As of 2021, 3,513 of the Soviet prisoners could be named. The exact number may never be known.

April 23, 1945: Hemer Germany, Stalag VI-A

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On April 23, 1945, the 290th Infantry Division relieved the 5th Infantry Division, assuming the duties and responsibilities of occupying, administering and policing the large area in and around Iserlohn Germany. The care, feeding and expeditious evacuation of 90,000 Displaced Persons, coming from every one of the countries Germany had conquered, presented difficult problem. The 75th Infantry had limited personnel and transportation facilities.

Hemer Germany was captured on April 14, 1945. While the German commander of the 512th Heavy Panzerjager Battalion was negotiating a surrender, the American Major Thomas Daily learned about the deteriorating conditions in Hemer’s Stalag VI-A, just to the east of Islerohn. He learned that Russian prisoners had escaped and were looting the city. Most of the camp guards had already been disarmed. Daily quickly realized that the starving prisoners could cause chaos. The prisoners had cut their way through the barbed wire fence and were slipping out in small groups. An order was issued to shoot any armed civilians to restore order. American tanks were deployed to surround the POW camp. The prisoners who escaped were forcibly returned to the camp.

The living conditions I the camp were horrific. There were 9000 patients in the camp “hospital”. Typhoid, pneumonia, fever,  tuberculosis and dysentery raged uncontrolled through the camp.  The clothes of the prisoners were only rags. Body lice was everywhere. The sanitary facilities were dirty and completely inadequate. Even after being liberated, there was an average of 100 to 150 deaths a day. Hundreds of bodies lay on the ground. They needed to be loaded onto army trucks and buried in a mass grave site.

The four days before the Americans arrived, there had been noting to eat in the camp at all. Before that, the prisoners had only been given a thin barley soup, with one bowl a day for each Russian and two bowls a day for the other nationalities along with a single loaf of bread between 10 men. Guards had retreated, knowing hat the Americas were coming. All the Russians suffered from malnutrition. The 99 American prisoners had only recently been captured and they were in comparatively good condition.
At 7p.m. an American Kitchen was set up and all available food was distributed. At first warning shots had to be fired with hand guns and light tank guns over the heads of the prisoners to dissolve a riot among the prisoners. None of the Americans knew how to speak Russian. An armored loudspeaker vehicle was found and it was used to calm the excited crowd with translated announcements.

Prior to the war, Hemer had petitioned to become a military location. The mayor felt that this would boost the city’s economy. The city took the financial risk to build modern brick military barracks. The hope was that the construction would catch the eye of the Nazi Party. War broke out before work was finished on the buildings. With Poland invaded, the unfinished barracks immediately became a Prisoner of War Camp. Hemer became the first prisoner of war camp near Dortmund Germany. Large tents had to be brought in since the buildings were still uninhabitable. At first prisoners had to sleep on the bare concrete floor until the rooms could be equipped with 3 tiered crude bunk beds. Barbed write was quickly unrolled around the complex.

Train loads of prisoners kept arriving which lead to constant overcrowding with insufficient sanitation. Vermin spread disease. Once the buildings were completed, the prisoners in the brick buildings, were better off than other Stalag’s which were quickly constructed with Forced Labor out of wood, mud and hate. But with malnutrition, all prisoners were equal.

POWs were used as forced labor. Those who could not work would be returned to the Stalag where they would languish and die. Treatment by the guards was brutal, hitting prisoners with shovels and sticks. In one instance, a sickly prisoners tried to grab a second serving of soup and run away. A guard hit the prisoner in the head with a thick club, which he nicknamed “Bull Penis”, which he kept ready for just such an occasion. The Russian fell to the ground, blood flowed from his mouth, nose and ears. Military camp personnel did not shy away from torment and isolated murders of the prisoners.