So, the site which tells of where he was taken is: http://www.merkki.com/
My brother says there is now video footage of their evacuation from the prison in Barth, Germany of May 12-13, 1945. It is odd to know that my father is one of those men walking by. I'm not sure why I find this dip into the past so upsetting but I do. Perhaps it is why I am so anti-war, and yet, my father was never bitter about his experience. I, however cannot imagine the toll. He would say it gave him time to read, but that was my father. He truly saw the glass as overflowing with joy, comfort, possibility and love. My mother did too.
I realize now that this experience brought my father what cancer brought to me. There are many missions and many types of wars. I wonder then why we have to create more of them since life itself seems to bring plenty of challenge, but some, like Bush, like to stir the pot with the bodies and souls of those he may never comprehend, and then, they choose what to do with the meeting of their core.