This photo and story of Jim Van Blaricom comes from a Veteran’s Day celebration held in 2006. It was held at The Wilsonville Retirement Community where my Dad was living, my Dad was also honored at the celebration. Jim was born February 7th, 1917 and passed away June 1st, 2009.
Crucifix carries tale of loyalty to Jewish friends in POW camp
Sunday, November 05, 2006
The Oregonian
The Germans who ran the prisoner of war camp in Barth , Germany , in 1944 didn’t like Jews. Sometimes all the American and British POWs would be awakened in the middle of the night by their captors, who would study tags and records, looking for newly captured prisoners who had last names that sounded Jewish. When a few men acknowledged they were Jewish, "They were taken away to another camp where we heard conditions were not very good," says Jim Van Blaricom of Wilsonville, who’s 89 years old today. Word spread among the American and British men in the huge camp. "After that, if there were any Jewish men, nobody let the Germans know," says Jim, who was brought to Stalag Luft 1 in Barth after his B-17 was shot down in Germany on Jan. 11, 1944.
There were a lot of things the Germans who ran Stalag Luft 1 didn’t like. They didn’t like losing control of the prisoners. "During air raids, when American planes were on the way, sirens would go off and we had three minutes to get inside, or they shot you," Jim said. "They did it because they knew we would jump around and wave our arms and shout at the Americans. They did it to keep order." The Germans didn’t like escape attempts, either. "I know three men who tried to escape but got captured," Jim says. "If you tried and they captured you, they were tough on you. They put you in solitary and minimized your food." Even those on full rations were getting little to eat. The Germans themselves had little food. So they’d open packages sent to the POWs from their families in the U.S. , "and take whatever they wanted," says Jim’s daughter Mary Allen.
Mary has heard her father’s stories, pored over his wartime photos and read WWII historical accounts of life in the camp. But her favorite story is about how her father saved the lives of two Jewish prisoners in his barrack. Everyone knew the Germans suspected the two were Jewish, though the men had denied it. There had to be a way to remove the suspicion.
And Jim came up with one. Jim had grown up in tiny Hamilton , Mont. He was a teenager when he met Anna Carver, who was a few years younger. It was after high school, when the two attended Montana Tech, that they fell in love. Jim proposed to Anna, who accepted with the proviso that Jim first become a Catholic. Jim took the classes, learned the Latin, said the prayers. But their plans got delayed. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Jim enlisted in the Army Air Forces. "I always wanted to be a pilot," Jim says, and he did learn to fly. But his eyesight worsened, and the Air Forces made him a bombardier instead.
He was shipped to a base in Bury St. Edmonds , England , assigned to a B-17 the men nicknamed "The Passionate Witch." Jim sat in the Plexiglas nose of the Flying Fortress and flew the plane when it was time to drop bombs. "We bombed mostly airports," Jim says. "We didn’t bomb cities. We hit runways, hangars, anything that was part of the war effort." On his 14th mission Jim’s plane was shot down in Germany . He bailed out and "landed in a great big garden," he says. "There were women working there. Some had guns. They ran over and one said, ‘For you the war is over.’ "
Jim was driven to Barth in northern Germany . The camp was huge and only got more crowded in the 16 months Jim spent behind its walls, eventually topping 6,000 prisoners. Food was scarce; by war’s end Jim would weigh only 100 pounds. Jim was homesick. And he was bored, until he realized he had work to do. Jim decided to help his two Jewish friends pass as Catholics. Jim was fresh from his catechism classes, and as a new Catholic he remembered all the prayers he’d recently had to memorize. "In the middle of the night my dad would sit by candlelight and teach them these prayers," Mary says. "He taught them how to make the sign of the cross."
Jim wasn’t trying to convert the men, just help them evade the Germans. "We all have the same God up there," Jim says. "I never had a problem with anybody being Jewish. I’m from Montana . We love everybody." One prisoner elsewhere in camp was a priest, who had a rosary. Jim taught the Jewish men how to say a prayer for every bead. And then he made them each a crucifix.
Jim liked working with his hands. The guards knew he was making the crucifixes, he says. "We would trade cigarettes with guards and get tools," he says. "Candy and cigarettes could get you just about anything." Jim took a knife and cut thin strips of wood from his bunk bed, fashioning a cross. In the wood he inlaid strips of ivory he carved from a toothbrush handle.
To create the figure of Jesus on the cross, Jim collected fine sand, dampened it, and pressed the small crucifix from the end of the priest’s rosary into the sand, creating a mold. Then he melted pieces of solder he’d scraped from the tops and bottoms of tin cans he’d been sent from the U.S. He poured the hot solder into the sand mold, let it cool, and had an incredibly detailed tiny statue, which he affixed to the cross he’d made. He gave one to each Jewish man.
The next time the SS arrived looking for Jews, Jim and his two friends stood together, holding their crucifixes, saying Catholic prayers. "That fooled the SS," Mary says. "I said, ‘Dad, you saved their lives.’ " Jim and the other prisoners of Luft Stalag 1 were liberated by the Russians in May 1945. It took him two weeks to get to Seattle , where Anna met him. They were married within weeks.
And on their wedding day, Jim reached in his pocket and gave Anna the wedding gift he’d created for her, back in Germany . It was a tiny crucifix, just like the ones he’d made his friends. The crucifix has sat on the sill of their kitchen window through 61 years of marriage. Jim believes the crucifix, and prayer, and a lot of luck helped him survive the war.
Today Jim and Anna live in the Wilsonville Senior Living Community. On Friday the compound will have a Veterans Day celebration, featuring residents’ wartime memorabilia. Jim’s crucifix will be front and center. He’s had a good, long life. He served in his country’s military for 37 years, and won a lot of ribbons and medals. But the tiny crucifix tells the most important story about Jim’s capacity for bravery and friendship. In the end, it was a very powerful weapon.
Photo Courtesy Byron Balogh
