Nazi Germany’s final days, and a GI’s unique souvenir

The souvenir was an unusual choice. With the fighting in Germany now over, Sgt. Robert J. Roeber decided to bring home an enemy hospital sign. What would Mrs. Roeber say? The sign came back to northern Illinois in 1945 and then remained packed away for the next several decades, until its purchase at an estate sale in 2021. Behind its cracked painted lettering, nail holes along the edges, and a separation down the center, is a story of the last days of the Second World War and tragedy in a German village.

The frontline arrives in Schmiedefeld

1 April, 1945. Easter Sunday. The Nazi party district leader holds a meeting in Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig at 4 PM. He tells residents that American soldiers are nearing, occupation is a real possibility. For the past several days villagers have grown anxious. The boom of artillery fire draws closer. The sky buzzes with allied airplanes on a daily basis. At night the villagers watch as bombs fall on Schweinfurt to the south.¹

Schmiedefeld is a small village nestled in the mountains and dense woods of the Thuringian Forest in central Germany. Located some 14 kilometers east of Suhl, Schmiedefeld was historically a mining community beginning in the early fifteenth century. The iron-ore mined here supplied the region’s famous, and still active, weapons manufacturing industry. Tourism then became the mainstay of the local economy from 1900 onwards. Many trails run through the village, including the Rennsteig, ideal for hiking or winter sports.

_{Left: aerial view of Schmiedefeld as depicted on a late 1930s postcard. From author’s collection. Right: location of Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig in Germany. From Google.}

Spring 1945 saw few, if any, tourists to Schmiedefeld. Two days after Easter, on 3 April, the United States Army’s 11th Armored Division entered Suhl. On the same day a large group of German soldiers arrived in Schmiedefeld. They were the 11. Marschsturm, marching storm, of the paratroopers of the SA-Standarte Feldherrnhalle. Although its name sounded impressive, the unit was made up mostly of teenage recruits.

A defense line was established along the hills and mountains east of Suhl. Its purpose was to halt the rapid advancing American armored forces. The southern cornerstone was Schmiedefeld, defended by a mixed force of regular and paramilitary troops. Largest of the regular units was the Feldherrnhalle. Amongst the paramilitary troops was the local Hitler Youth and Volkssturm.

For several days German forces held their positions in and around Schmiedefeld. They set up roadblocks, dug defenses, and took over several buildings. The soldiers did not only maintain a vigilant watch for Americans. As the tragedy that took place at Gersgrund hill on 6 April demonstrates, fanatical Nazis carried out needless killings even with the enemy at their doorstep. A group of ten ostarbeiter, forced laborers from Central and Eastern Europe, recently released from their employers, were found dead in a mass grave. The circumstances surrounding their death is unclear. Locals then and after the war accused outsiders of perpetrating the crime: the SA-Standarte Feldherrnhalle, guards from the laborers’ employer, and non-resident Volkssturm soldiers.²

The strength of these forces was grossly overestimated by the Americans. On 7 April, a Feldherrnhalle patrol was intercepted by US soldiers two kilometers east of Suhl. Two young soldiers were captured. They told their captors from the 26th Infantry Division that a concentration of 1,600 SS troops and armored vehicles was in the Schmiedefeld area, preparing to counterattack Suhl at midnight. These statements were false. 

In reality only a tactically insignificant number of inexperienced fighters from the Feldherrnhalle were in Schmiedefeld. Nonetheless, American commanders ordered the village to be shelled throughout the night. Additionally an airstrike was launched by the 367th Fighter Squadron. General Willard S. Paul of the 26th Infantry Division remained at his command post in Suhl until 2 AM the following morning. The German attack never came. Later that day, General Paul made his move.

Infantrymen from the 26th Infantry Division assaulted Schmiedefeld on the afternoon of 8 April. They entered the village around 3 PM. By then the German soldiers had retreated from their positions. Still, a house-to-house search ensued. After which the Allied occupation began.

A school building converted into a hospital

German casualties sustained in the defense of Schmiedefeld were high. The  SA-Standarte-Feldherrnhalle alone lost 23 members within the village proper, the ages of the deceased ranging from 15 to 22 years of age.³ During the fighting a dressing station was set up to treat the wounded. This facility was located behind the military command post at a forester’s house. There was also a hospital in the village.

Sometime in March 1945, the exact date is unknown, the school building in Schmiedefeld was converted into a hospital. Students resumed classes elsewhere locally. Still in operation, the school is a multistoried wood structure, opened in 1920, built on a hill near the village center.

A surprise discovery from the war was made when a gymnasium was being added in 1964. Hidden behind a rear staircase was a Walther pistol. Village historian Klaus-Dieter Völker witnessed a police officer retrieve the gun. Klaus recalled that the gun’s original owner was found, a former military officer, who explained he was a patient at the hospital when the war ended. The soldier heard that the Americans were close-by and thinking quickly, he hid his sidearm.⁴ Indeed, the takeover of the hospital was an intense experience for its occupants.

Another patient at the hospital was Rudolf Schniedergers. Wounded on the Western Front, Rudolf was evacuated by hospital train and arrived at the reserve hospital in Ilmenau on 23 March 1945. The hospital in Ilmenau was overcrowded and patients had to be transferred elsewhere. One of the destinations was the hospital in Schmiedefeld. Rudolf made the trip by truck, along with other patients who could manage to sit upright. Less than two weeks later came their capture.

Shortly before Americans marched into Schmiedefeld, the school-turned-hospital was hit by gunfire. The Bavarian chief medical officer told patients that the building was not clearly marked. A flag had to be hung from the roof. Rudolf volunteered to help the doctor, and the two made their way to the attic. The flag was attached. Just as Rudolf pulled his body back through a window, however, shots were taken at his direction. A bullet hit the doctor in the foot. Both men crawled to the window and peered out, viewing the Americans’ arrival.

The next day a brief report of the hospital was filed by the 328th Infantry Regiment. A total of 63 enlisted personnel was recorded as patients.⁵ As for Rudolf Schniedergers, he remained in Schmiedefeld until mid-May. He then returned to Ilmenau for a medical operation.⁶

A GI’s souvenir for home

7 May, 1945. The German High Command surrendered unconditionally. The Allies celebrate both at home and on the battlefield. Soon the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union degenerated into the Cold War but for now, Europe enjoyed a relative peace.

Three days later Sgt. Robert J. Roeber found himself in Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig. His unit, the 563rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, was split up with its four companies, and headquarters, garrisoned in different locations. In the last week of April, the companies moved into their final wartime positions. Near Schmiedefeld was Charlie company in Zella-Mehlis, and Dog company in Suhl.⁷

At 39 years of age, Robert was older than the average American combat soldier. He grew up on Chicago’s North Shore and graduated from Deerfield-Shields High School in 1925. His passion was scouting. Joining the local movement in 1917, Robert rose through the ranks and organized Troop 48 at Halsey School, Lake Forest, in June 1929.⁸ At the beginning of the war, Robert and his wife lived in Highland Park where he worked for a fuel oil company. This comfortable life was interrupted by the army. Trained on anti-aircraft guns, Robert was sent overseas and was promoted to sergeant by war’s end. Once the fighting was over, he was like the average soldier in that he hunted for trophies.

Typical war trophies, souvenirs, brought back by American servicemen were helmets, firearms, edged weapons, uniforms, and uniform regalia, like medals and badges. These items could have been shipped back home through the army’s postal service or more typically, they were stuffed inside duffel bags and footlockers. Even firearms were allowed, provided that the sender filled out the proper customs forms. Catching Roeber’s eye in Schmiedefeld was something atypical: a German hospital sign.

During its short-lived use as a hospital, a fiberboard sign was mounted on the school building. Constructed from two panels the entire sign measures 40 cm by 60 cm. Its painted side reads in Fraktur typeface ‘Rez. Laz. [Reserve-Lazarett] Ilmenau Teil-Laz. [Teil-Lazarett] Schmiedefeld’. The teil-lazarett, partial hospital, designation refers to the hospital being under the administration of another institution. In this case, teil-lazarett Schmiedefeld was administered by the reserve-lazarett in Ilmenau. On both panels Sgt. Robert J. Roeber wrote his name in a corner along with a date, ‘May 10, 1945’. The date is likely in reference to the sign’s capture.

Whatever the reaction of Mrs. Roeber was to the sign that her husband brought home from the war is unknown.

Click here to read about how this article was shared in a German newspaper.

1. A thorough day-by-day history of the fighting that took place in the villages of Schmiedefeld and Frauenwald in April 1945 was written by Andreas Möhring. The author incorporated contemporary sources, such as German military reports and daily community reports, and postwar eyewitness testimonies. See Möhring, Die Rennsteigfestung: Kriegsende 1945 in Schmiedefeld und Frauenwald [German] (Norderstedt: BoD-Books on Demand, 2015).
2. For details of the massacre and postwar commemoration, see Möhring, Die Rennsteigfestung, pp.63-8.
3. For a list of the known German casualties in the fighting around Schmiedefeld, along with the names of some of the Americans killed, see Möhring, Die Rennsteigfestung, p.36.
4. Klaus-Dieter Völker, email to author, 9 January 2022.
5. This report was sent to the regimental G-3 officer as well as the divisional surgeon of the 26th Infantry Division. A copy was supplied to the author. Andreas Möhring, email to author, 21 January 2022.
6. Rudolf Schniedergers recalled his wartime experience to Klaus-Dieter Völker in an interview, sometime in the 2000s. The notes of this interview were saved. Klaus-Dieter Völker, email to author, 9 January 2022.
7. United States Army, The history of the 563rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (United States: [unit publication], 1946?), p.54.
8. John L. Ropiequet, An Illustrated History of Boy Scouting in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, Illinois 1910 to 1944 (Highland Park: Boy Scout Troop 324, 2018 [revised July 2020]), viewed at: https://lflbhistory.org/sites/default/files/assets/files/Boy-Scouting-in%20Lake-Forest-Lake%20Bluff-1910-1944-by-John-L-Ropiequet_compressed.pdf (accessed 1 January 2022).