June 14 is National Flag Day.

End of April 1945, prisoners of Mauthausen overheard radio broadcasters that allied forces were near by. Comparable to the battlefield, Nazi camps had an organizational hierarchy. Kapos were privileged inmates who supervised other prisoners; they lightened the Nazi workload. They were given privileges, goods and power. Many other groups formed to protect each other.

Thinking about freedom the prisoners somehow managed to gather clothing scraps. They used sheets from the SS laundry and red panels from Nazi banners. They cut and stitched pieces on sewing machines that had been used to sew Nazi uniforms and made a replica of the American flag.

In early May American soldiers from the 11th Armored Division of the U.S. Third Army and Red Cross liberated Mauthausen. Colonel Richard Seibel entered the compound to cheering and crying. Many were shouting “freedom” in their native Spanish, Soviet-Russian, Italian, French, Polish and Czech. It was at that time they gave Colonel Seibel the 6-foot long American flag; it had 56 stars, not the correct number of 48 stars representing the number of states at that time.

The flag made by the prisoners was given to Colonel Seibel and was eventually presented to Simon Wiesenthal, a Jewish architect (subsequent Nazi hunter) who was a prisoner in 5 Nazi camps including Mauthausen. It is currently on display in “The Greatest Generation” section of the Simon Wiesenthal Museum in Los Angeles.

See Richard Seibel (Normandy 1944) - Menu top left - many declassified photos.

This letter is in memory of Marion C. Jones, R.N. native of Bowmanstown who graduated from St. Luke’s School of Nursing. She was a lieutenant who served in the U.S. 3rd Army 34th Evacuation Hospital in the European theater. She died at the age of 92 in 2013.

Debra Becker

Effort