When Charles Wagner, serving with the 28th Infantry Division, was captured during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II he and 350 other American Jewish soldiers were taken out of the Prisoner of War camp and placed into Berga Concentration Camp. Charles, along with other Americans of Jewish heritage, was made to work seven days a week, 12 hours a day in a mine.
“My brother went into the service first,” Lester Wagner said. “They signed him up at age 20 or 21. Later they would take the older guys so those of us that were in college in ROTC weren’t involved with the draft: we were reserve officers so that kept me out at first.”
The slim and fit Charles aimed to join the United States Air Force but was denied entry due to his colorblindness. Eventually Charles would become part of the war effort when he was drafted.
“We knew he was going to be in the service somewhere because that is how it was; everybody served,” Lester Wagner said. “Still, here I was taking advantage of all of this, going through training and different camps so I didn’t land in Europe until January 1945.”
Charles, who worked several jobs throughout Chicago, was described as a good bookkeeper and would have trained to become a CPA if given the opportunity. However, he was shipped out in February of 1944, placing him among the first American troops to invade Europe. By the time Lester Wagner and his 65th Infantry Division was making their way into Europe, Charles had been captured by the Germans. As Lester’s division and other Allies Troops closed in on the Germans, the distance between the two brothers became shorter and shorter.
On April 6, 1945 Lester and his division were engaged in the Battle of Struth. Sadly, Lester didn’t know the whereabouts of his brother, nor would the two ever see each other again. Charles died from malnutrition, on the road, unable to even drink water on April 9, 1945: just three days after the Battle of Struth, only 40 miles away and less than a month before the end of the war.
Lester would learn about his brother’s death after speaking to his mom, who had no news about Charles, from U.S. Representative Helen Douglas. Of the 350 Americans of Jewish descent brutalized at Berga, more than 20 percent perished.
When the war ended Lester found his brother’s grave in Europe. Charles was laid to rest with a Cross-above him, which Lester would have replaced with a Star of David. Eventually Lester, who has settled in Culver City and raised his family, would have Charles buried at Hillside Memorial Park, also in Culver City.
