By looking at Anthony Argenziano’s face, you can tell he has never stopped thinking about his role in World War II. Now 76, Argenziano doesn’t talk about what he did to win the Bronze Star.
Despite this being the fourth-highest honor a military man can receive, Argenziano said there are things done in the war that shouldn’t be repeated.
But what Argenziano does talk about in his tours of veteran’s groups, area schools and other forums, is the experience he had as a prisoner of war. This is what he talked about on May 11 at Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus.
With the average age of World War II veterans at 78, the first-hand stories of the war are fading, as they die by the thousands from old age and disease. This was one reason Meadowlands Hospital asked him to speak.
Argenziano talked before a small audience of other veterans and interested people about how he was among the thousands of soldiers who hit Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944, an invasion depicted graphically last year’s film Saving Private Ryan. Two months later, he became a prisoner of war when – after his unit went to help British forces in a wooded area – German tanks overran his unit.
“We caught hell,” he said, recalling the SS Troopers – an elite German military force – catching him and two other American soldiers in the woods.
“One of the SS officers was a Harvard graduate,” Argenziano said. “He spoke perfect English.”
One of Argenziano’s companions was a Jewish man named Stanley Steinberg from Alburn, New York.
“We told him to get rid of his dog tags,” Argenziano said, having heard tales of how the German government treated Jews. Dog tags are metal tags attached to a chain and hung around a soldier’s neck. Among the information contained on them are the soldier’s name, rank serial number and race.
Steinberg, however, apparently feared he would be in deeper trouble if he could not identify himself, Argenziano said, noting that the SS troopers took each of them away to interview.
“Stanley was second to be interviewed,” Argenziano said. “They shot him.”
This moment would haunt Argenziano throughout his captivity, and set the tone for a series of horrors he has yet to forget. He recalled being herded together with other prisoners: French, British, Italian, Russian and being marched to the nearest town.
Along the way, French citizens tried to give the soldiers food and drink. Depending on the mood of their German guards, the prisoners got the food or the French citizens got sent away.
Argenziano also recalled being loaded onto freight cars for transport in land to prisoner or war camps in Germany, and the long 15-day ride, with no toilet other than a bucket. Aircraft, unaware of what the train contained, fired on the train. Half the prisoners died along the way, he said.
Welcome to the camp
After being transferred into a truck for transport to a stalag, Argenziano did something he would regret for years: he tried to escape. He leaped out and landed in a ditch, fracturing nine vertebrae in his back. He received no medical treatment, although a German doctor did acknowledge his injury later and exempted him from hard labor.
“There was no medical help. They Germans didn’t have medicine. They had no bandages,” he said.
The prisoners found themselves in a stalag 30 kilometers from Munich. He said American airplanes bombed Munich by day, and the British bombed it by night. So they heard the rumble of it all the time.
He remembered being cold most of the time.
“We were in the Bavarian Alps during one of the coldest winters of the war,” he said.
During the last two months of his nine months captive, Argenziano and the other prisoners of war were moved into a quarry, starting in end of February and extending into early April.
Prisoners in camp could not drink water because the wells were polluted. So they sucked on raw potatoes to cure their thirst. Food consisted of turnip soup and hard bread baked before the start of the war.
“It was made from unbleached flower and it had woodshavings in it,” he said. “It was tough and dry, and difficult to swallow.”
From the beginning of their captivity to the end, the soldiers wore the same clothing, and suffered invasions of lice. Plumbing did not exist in the camp. Soldiers had to use a local field. During air raids, they could not go out – if they did, the German’s loosed the dogs on them.
“I went out three times and the guards hit me in the head with a rifle,” he said.
Argenziano said he lived like this for nine months. During that time, the camp received four Red Cross packages containing cocoa, chocolate bars, cigarettes, stew and candy. Clever soldiers removed the cocoa from the tins, put dirt in them, and carefully removed the wrap from the chocolate bar, putting a piece of wood in them. These soldiers bartered these with German guards for loaves of bread. When the guards discovered the trick, they flung open the doors and sent the dogs into the barracks, seeking to find the people who fooled them.
“Yet each time we got a package, somebody did the same thing, and each time the Germans fell for it,” Argenziano said.
Towards the end of the war, the German guards – trying to win favors of the prisoners since each knew Germany would lose the war – brought wood alcohol for the prisoners to drink. More than 400 prisoners went blind as a result.
Patton liberates the prison camp
General George Patton – whose son-in-law was among the prisoners – liberated the camp, breaking through the gates.
“He was the first one in,” Argenziano recalled. “The German guards ran away.”
He remembered the liberated prisoners stealing some chickens from a local farm. But they were so hungry, they forgot to gut them, and they cooked them whole.
“We all got sick,” he said, explaining why he hadn’t eaten a chicken since.
Eventually, Argenziano made his way home, through a number of stops. When he reached New Orleans he wrote the family of Stanley Steinberg – the Jewish man the SS Troopers had killed. Argenziano wanted to let them know what happened to their son. The parents came down to see him from New York State. They were not happy, but they were grateful to know what had happened.
“They had heard nothing about their son, only that he was missing,” Argenziano said. “Stanley was their only child.”
Yet for Argenziano, the war wasn’t quite over. His injuries plagued him. He did not get surgery on his back until four years after the Germans surrendered, partly because that kind of surgery hadn’t existed. During that time, he could barely get out of bed, rolling himself out of the bed onto the floor so he could stand up gradually. After surgery, he remained in a full body cast for 26 months.
Argenziano has become a kind of advocate for World War II veterans, particularly those who were prisoners of war, and speaks out for their rights at each of his lectures.
The number of American world war two prisoners of war is shrinking fast, he said. In 1975, 180,000 still survived. This year, the number is less than 36,000, and only about one third of them get compensation for their injuries.
“They either don’t know they should get them, or don’t have an organization to work on their behalf,” Argenziano said.
Retiring a flag
As part of his Eagle Scout project for the Boy Scouts, Kent Kalogera has organized a flag ceremony in conjunction with the American Legion Post 118 in Secaucus.
“The project is one of the requirements for me to advance to the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America,” Kalogera said.
The program would retire old, worn American flags that would avoid having them tossed out as if trash. “I chose this project to raise awareness and patriotism in local citizens,” he said. “Flag Day is on June 14 and the only day an American Flag came be retired properly.”
Kalogera has placed boxes in several locations throughout town where people may put their flags: Family Video at 12 Paterson Plank Rd. in the Plaza section of town, on the first floor of Town Hall, 11 Paterson Plank Rd., the second floor of the American Legion Hall at Second Street and Centre Ave., and at the International House of Pancakes, 111 Route 17 South, in Hasbrouck Heights. For more information call 864-7570.
Memorial Day Celebrations slated for May 24
Instead of a celebrating Memorial Day with a parade this year, town officials will hold a special recognition and dedication ceremony in Buchmuller Park on May 24 at 7 p.m.
The event will honor veterans of World War II, Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Post 3777, Quarter Master Al McClure, American Legion Secaucus Memorial 118 and Post Commander Robert Pietz.
The event will feature live music by the Secaucus High School Band, guest speakers, and savings bond award presentation for student essay and drawing contests.
A special ceremony honoring Secaucus’ 19 veterans who died in various wars will be held at 11 a.m. on May 28 at Town Hall.