European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 4, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Me. I Tienlu 1944. Your hey. Land 0w it he Ltd Ixl lace t. But Mien into Ward nazi party in Frankfurt where he was a teaching priest. They offered him a Choice professorship teaching almost anywhere he chose once in the system they promised All things were possible. And the terms he was presented according to Hofmann were simple join the nazi party renounce the Catholic Faith. Hofmann told them can never Hofmann relates that he was placed under observation orders not to leave Frankfurt. And told to Check in with police regularly. The Gestapo searched his House. Hofmann said and got him fired from his Post. Soon he was virtually out on the Street taking any till in teaching Job he could get. Germany was Seething with intrigue. A desperate policeman came and told him that he had been ordered by the Gestapo to kill the Secretary general of the league of peace of German catholics that afternoon by running Over him with a car. I can t do this he said. It is against my Hotmann who had already written a letter to the Vatican protesting the persecution of catholics hurried and warned the Secretary general who managed to escape to France. In 1937 Hofmann visited his sister and cousins in America. What did he think of the nazis they wondered. There is something wrong something terrible in he replied. They Are criminals. This cannot go it was till going on in october 1943 when Frankfurt was struck by a ferocious Daylight american bombing raid with Many incendiary bombs. Hofmann had never seen anything like it. Like Rome he recalls. A bomb whistled Down and crunched to Earth almost on his head. It hit several feet away. It weighed 200 pounds. It did not explode. Despite a badly injured leg. Hofmann look that Opportunity to say goodbye to smashed burning Frankfurt. He hoped the Gestapo would think he was dead. Many were. He returned to his boyhood Homo of bad Camberg a 600-year-old town North of Frankfurt where his Friend the mayor helped him obtain a teaching Job. And it was also the who called him one Day in the Spring of 194 1 to Tell him that an american plane had just been shot Down. And a mob of angry German youths were Rushing to catch the Pilot parachuting Over the town. Hofmann was the Only person in bad Camberg who could speak English could he do something the priest related that he ran out to the Power Plant and found the Pilot on the ground leg broken a mounded by a mob ready to finish him off with stones. Hofmann said he advised the Yelling american please be he told the Young germans that they did t know what they were doing that they were All mixed up. And persuaded them to leave the american alone. He took the Pilot to the Camberg Hospital saw that he was patched up and fed and got him to the main Row Camp at Limburg. He even managed to get a letter Back to the Pilot s relatives in California. Not Long after that a fierce air Battle broke out Over bad Camberg. Four . B-17 bombers were shot Down two of them crashing together and tumbling earthward. The sky was filled with smoke planes and american parachutes billowing open. Luftwaffe interceptors banked in and machine gunned the parachutists As they floated Down Hofmann says. Is troops fired volleys at them from below. Twenty seven american airmen were killed most of them As they dangled in their chutes. Ten others hit the ground alive one of them with 16 Bullet holes in him according to Hofmann. Hofmann said he and several other germans again managed to get the living americans to the Hospital. That night they buried the american dead in the bad Camberg cemetery the be u is were scheduled to be burned and put up a White Cross Over the Graves. After this the nazi Leader in the area called a conference. What you have done today he raged at Hofmann is against the Law priest or no priest. Why should you help the americans who Are Over Here bombing us it does t make any difference answered Hofmann. I help anyone who is Hurt whether he is German or american. It does t make any helped anyone German or american who was hurl priest levied the nazis to " is photos by Tracy Baker ii you do this once More i la arrest said the nazi Leader and some shiny very bad will happen 10 you Hofmann recalled. For Star ers he got the priest fired trom hi3 teaching Job. The burgers Neiffer called Holmann in and showed him a letter trom the nazi. I have been ordered to turn you in if you do anything like that before his eyes the merge me Bertore up the letter and dropped it in the wastebasket. And the priest says he did not change his ways. Other things were irritating to the nazi. If that stubborn priest was discovered listening to English language broadcasts from across the Channel again he will be the priest put his ear closer to the radio. Now. In the closing Days of the War Holmann was again summoned by the Borgemeister. What can we do to save our town he lamented. Nazis were preparing to install two v-1 rocket launch pads on a specially chosen site above bad Camberg. The americans will wipe our town completely Oil the Hofmann and local Farmers loaded up wagons brimming with manure and when the nazis weren t looking went out and dumped it All Over and mixed it All in the Earth o the specially chosen site. When rocket technicians next visited the site they slogged around and finally concluded that the ground there was too soft too unstable. Moreover it did not smell Correct. What did you Spray Here not Champagne replied a Farmer. The end was near. Patton s army was driving on bad Camberg. Worried people went around searching for a Way to keep the town from being destroyed. Hofmann had an idea Fly a White Flag from the Church Steeple. But we had to be very careful he recalls. The americans were coming and the Headquarters of the is Mountain division North was nearby. Surely we would get shot by somebody. The is was building tank obstacles around the town to Stop ration. Why Are you doing this i asked them. It s crazy. The War is almost Over and you Are doing this " the is commander told the priest that if he did not take Down the White Flag he would be marched to the Market place and hanged and the is themselves would blast bad Camberg to bits. The priest thought it Over. The White Flag stayed up. Soon americans and is were battling along the autobahn a few Kilometres away. Hofmann and other citizens arranged to meet secretly in bad Camberg that night then walk out and try to make Contact with the americans and implore them to spare their town. When it came time to go. Everyone had excuses no one showed up. Hofmann strode into the dark alone trying to Dodge is and locate the americans. There was shooting everywhere and it seemed that even a priest touched by Grace was going to get blown away wandering around out there. He returned to town but Early the next morning in a heavy log he went out looking again. Still no americans. About noon accompanied by a woman named Elizabeth Waechter a former Pupil he made his third attempt. There have to be americans out they told each other Over and Over. There s one gasped Waechter staring at a dirty Man with a Rille emerging from a Trench. That is an american hands up said the dirty Man. The priest and the woman were taken before an officer. What can i do for you. Father asked the officer who happened to be a Catholic. Holmann tells How he be seethed the officer to spare his town. He told him that All German troops had evacuated during the night unfortunately taking the White Flag from the Steeple with them and that there would be no resistance. The officer told Holmann that because the White Flag was gone he had called for air support. Bad Camberg was going to be bombed. One minute before the bombers took off Hofmann remembers that Fine officer got the Mission a Little later the feisty priest met ration the feisty general. Caspar Hofmann says ration told him that he admired his guts. He was very Nice. I got him to Promise that his soldiers would make no transgressions on bad Camberg. Or almost sometimes ration had said soldiers Are not Angels. The stars and stripes Page 15 4,1985
