Ex-WWII POWs reunite after 64 years

SOMERVILLE, N.J. -- Slowly and with the assistance of walkers, Zigmund Harkiewicz and Harvey Warninger approached each other Wednesday in the kitchen of Harkiewicz's residence on Fairview Avenue as their children and grandchildren watched.

"My God, finally, finally we got together," 91-year-old Warninger of Yakima said to Harkiewicz, who eventually began to cry.

It had been 64 years since the World War II veterans had last seen each other. Back then, they had just been freed from a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany, where they were held after parachuting from a bomber hit by enemy fire.

Harkiewicz, 87, and Warninger exchanged Christmas cards during the years and occasionally spoke by phone, but never saw each other in person. That was until Warninger visited his son and daughter-in-law in Waymart, Pa., last week, and they decided to make the roughly two-hour trip east.

"I see you two different ways -- now and when it was way back then," Harkiewicz said to his former flying partner. Both members of the Army Air Forces, Harkiewicz served as a navigator, while Warninger was a bombardier.

"It seems kind of unreal," Warninger said. "I look back on it and it's hard to believe it even happened."

'Burning like crazy'

The memories of both men from their experiences during World War II remain sharp.

"He was one of the crew members that I got along with real good," Warninger said. The two met while training in California. Harkiewicz was even a member of Warninger's wedding party mere weeks before they shipped out.

Harkiewicz said their B-24 Liberator was shot down over Czechoslovakia in early December 1944 after taking off on a bombing mission from southern Italy.

"All of a sudden the number one engine just burst into flames and it was burning like crazy," Warninger said.

Crew members parachuted from the falling plane, but they were eventually captured. They were taken to Frankfurt and then transported to the Stalag Luft 1, a prison camp for Allied airmen by Barth near the Baltic Sea. They spent the next several months as residents of North 3 compound, barracks 6, block 306, room 9.

"Just being with others is what made it a great deal easier," Harkiewicz said, adding that there was really only one subject of conversation.

"The subject was food, nothing else, that's it," Harkiewicz said. "It was not religion, it was not females, just food."

Beyond the meager meals provided by their captors, Harkiewicz said the men were supposed to receive one box of food and other supplies from the Red Cross every week, but they were only given two boxes for everybody because the Germans took the rest for themselves. Warninger mentioned chocolate rations known as "D bars."

"That was money," Warninger said, explaining its hefty value in bartering for other items.

Freed by Russians

Russian forces liberated the prison in May 1945. Warninger said he and other prisoners woke up one morning to find all of the guards gone. American transport planes began flying them to France four or five days later, he said.

Harkiewicz was reunited with one of his younger brothers, Joseph, in France as he waited to take a boat back to the United States. All three of Harkiewicz's brothers served in the war.

"In the distance, I saw an airport. I had nothing to do so I decided to go over there and watch the planes come in," Harkiewicz said. "A plane came down and out came my first younger brother."

Harkiewicz was transported to Boston and returned to his native Newark, N.J. Warninger traveled to London before taking the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner to New York. In Yakima he and his wife Lois owned and operated Bill's Plumbing Supply for 35 years.

Support from Harkiewicz's and Warninger's families made Wednesday's reunion possible.

Bruce and Karen Warninger, Harvey's son and daughter-in-law, visited Harkiewicz last year and arranged Wednesday's meeting with the help of Paulina Harkiewicz, Zigmund's daughter. All four of Zigmund's children were at the house.

The meeting was important for not only the men, but their children as well, all of whom seemed eager to hear about their fathers' experiences during World War II.

"Little by little, he is starting to tell us more," Paulina Harkiewicz said beforehand.

As the two men sat and shared memories at a relaxed pace, their children tried to coax more from them, asking for details about the food they ate or their liberation.

"It's just such a profound experience to be in the family and hear about it, and it's a bittersweet thing. It's a journey that he wanted to do, to see these men, because they've been through so much together," Karen Warninger said.