Hi Christoph!
I had no success trying to communicate with Dr. A. K.-B. That is a great accomplishment you had. The fact she responded and then her answer, while not giving us information, has helped us narrow down that they have no obvious records.
Early on I had more success with the Tourist Office and an incredibly helpful person there, Jan Bitterburg. I have wanted to go back to my records and revisit the responses and send them to you. At the time what was significant to me was that Jan was able to determine that after my Dad's escape Siegburg was never bombed again and the inhabitants were somehow moved out.
She wrote:
I will translate the main points in your mail to our historian and hope she can answer some of your questions. From what I know about the war in Siegburg myself I can tell you the following:
The pictures you took at your first visit in the 1980s are of the Benedictine abbey of Siegburg. From May 1940 to March 18th 1945 the abbey was used as a military hospital. I do not know if American prisoners were treated there. The POW camp your father was in, STALAG VI G, was actually situated in the city of Bonn, which is about 10 miles from Siegburg but it may well be that the wounded or sick POWs were send to Siegburg for treatment. During the December ‘44 bombings you mentioned the abbey had already been heavily damaged and there was another bomb attack on March 6th. After that there were no more bombings so maybe your father was successful in convincing the Americans not to bomb the city anymore.
From March 9th on Siegburg lay under constant fire by artillery for four weeks until by April 9th the city was finally taken by US troops of the 97th Infantry Division, 303rd Regiment. 25% of Siegburg’s buildings were destroyed and another 32% heavily damaged. Compared to many other European cities Siegburg has been relatively lucky. The abbey were the hospital had been was almost completely destroyed though, as it had taken lots of artillery fire because the Americans suspected the German artillery fire was directed from this elevated position.
From 1947 to 1953 the Abbey was rebuilt and today it is inhabited by Benedictine monks again as you may have noticed during your last visit. What happened to the graves of the comrades your father had to bury I do not know. In Siegburg there are only a few minor monuments to WW2. On the biggest cemetery – Nordfriedhof - there is a monument to the fallen of the war. Beside that, there are a number of monuments related to the crimes of Nazi-Germany especially the Holocaust but that is all.
We do have a museum that covers the city’s history from prehistoric times until today and of course the Nazi Rule and the Second World War have their own department in this exhibition. There are no tours especially about the war.
It seems that because of the approaching US troops and the constant shelling the military hospital was evacuated shortly after your father was able to break free and shortly before he was able to contact the Americans. That is all I can write to you right now but I hope to get some more information with the help of Mrs Korte-Böger, the city’s archivist.
I want to say one more thing: Even if your father’s attempt to save the hospital from further bombings might have not been necessary anymore – we don’t know for sure – I am glad and thankful that men like him were willing to risk their lives to end the tyranny of Nazi-Germany in Europe. I hope he did know that most Germans today feel this way.
I will write you again when I have more information.
Best regards
Christoph, I do not recall who Dr. Zenker is?
And Thank you for sharing those posters! Very unusual to get see them.
I will look for Jan's other response and send it hopefully tomorrow.