George H. Roxandich was born in August 1925 in Lansford, Pennsylvania and attended Lansford High School. His father was a grocer. When he died, Roxandich took over the grocery after he came out of the service. He later took and passed a test and became a staff manager at Prudential Insurance Company in Pottsville [Annotator's Note: Pottsville, Pennsylvania]. He had one sister. The family did okay during the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. He and his father allowed people to buy on credit, which cost them a lot. Roxandich graduated from high school in 1943. In high school, they were given a test by the Army. He and two other boys passed. He was not yet 18 at the time. They were given the opportunity to take basic training, and then proceed to college and become civil engineers. The idea was to complete four years of college in one year. He completed the year in three months and was put into the Army. He then went to Princeton [Annotator's Note: Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey]. He would see Einstein [Annotator's Note: Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist] on campus. The Army students did not mix with the regular Princeton students but were taught separately. The program was disbanded, and the men lost their ranks. Roxandich ended up in Camp Carson [Annotator's Note: now Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado] and was assigned to the Timberwolf Division [Annotator's Note: 104th Infantry Division]. He had his basic training in Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia]. It bothered him to be away from home, but eventually adjusted. He had a girlfriend from New York.

George H. Roxandich completed basic training. While there, he got sick with 104-degree fever which was upsetting because his mind was not all there. He had been a gymnast in high school and was in good physical condition. He was confident in his abilities as a soldier. It was less than a year before he was deployed to Europe. He took a train from Carson [Annotator's Note: Camp Carson, now Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado] to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey] then from there took a ship, possibly the Marine Robin [Annotator's Note: SS Marine Robin]. The swimming pool on the ship had been turned into commodes. He got seasick during the voyage. He had gotten a box of Baby Ruth candy bars, and to this day he does not like them. They arrived in France. He had no idea what to expect. At Fort Dix, they all had their hair cut. Roxandich became the platoon barber and would give haircuts for 15 francs [Annotator's Note: the French currency of the time] a haircut. Roxandich met his uncle while in France, he was in the 4th Division [Annotator's Note: 4th Infantry Division] stationed near his bivouac [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite]. While there, they did not do maneuvers or do any work or training until they suddenly were told they were moving out. They fought some Germans and pulled back. They received mortar fire and pulled back again, but that area was zeroed in on by 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] and they moved out in a hurry. They were then told that they would be joining the First Canadian Army and Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery] took over command. He was once fired on by a sniper but was not hit.

George H. Roxandich [Annotator's Note: wounded and captured by Germans while serving with Company B, 415th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division on the Mark River in the Netherlands, 31 October 1944] did not know where the rest of his unit was [Annotator's Note: when he was encircled by Germans near the Mark River] and thought he had been spotted by a German, so he threw his remaining grenades. The CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] at the time was Captain Hannaberry [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. There was no plan when Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery] launched the attack. When the other soldier was shot [Annotator's Note: a fellow American soldier was shot by a German when he refused to put his hands up], it was with a bolt-action rifle as opposed to the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. Roxandich thought if the German would take the time to fire on a man with a bolt-action, he would do much worse with an automatic weapon, so he knew he had to surrender. The German colonel knew a lot about Roxandich and his unit. He was taken to a hospital [Annotator's Note: he had been shot in the arm] on a bus full of German soldiers. A young boy of 10 or 12 years old tipped his hat to Roxandich and ran away then a German soldier swung at him for doing so. A woman in a doorway seemed to be signaling to him that she was with him. He was not afraid when he was captured, because it did not really register. He was put in a place where he was unable to sleep because it was at an angle. Finally, he was put into the regular camp. In the camp, each country was assigned a different area, separated by barbed wire. Roxandich's father was Serbian. They received Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] parcels there, and Roxandich would use cigarettes to bribe a guard so he could get to the Serbian section. He was able to speak a little Serbian, and they gave him food. He asked about a map and how he could escape. At this time he was held in camp 11-B [Annotator's Note: Stalag XI-B near Bad Fallingbostel, Germany]. The urinal was separate from the barracks where they slept. The bathroom would often overflow, and it was winter so the overflow would freeze. At night, they were not allowed to go out so there was a tub at the end of the barracks for them to use. Roxandich did not stay there very long, he was soon moved to a place where they were made to cut down trees. They would wake up in the morning, have a bowl of soup, cut trees, walk a mile back, and have another bowl of soup. One day the men went on strike because they were not getting enough to eat. The Germans threatened to bring the SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] and have them shot. The prisoners said they would rather die quickly than slowly. The German later came back and told them go to back to work and that they would get them Red Cross parcels. Later, they were indeed given parcels, but only one parcel for two men to share for two weeks, when they were intended to be one parcel per soldier per week, but it was enough to keep them alive. They worked six to eight hours a day, occasionally given Sunday off. It was tough work. Roxandich was still in good shape but had lost about 30 pounds. As the Americans advanced, they moved to the Russian area. When the Russians advanced, they moved back. During his time as a prisoner he was held in camps 11-B, 2-A, and 2-B [Annotator's Note: Stalag II-A, known as Camp Fünfeichen, and Stalag II-B near Hammerstein, Pomerania, now Czarne, Poland]. He did the same type of work in each one. There was a nearby airfield and planes were often flying overhead. He once saw two Spitfires [Annotator's Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] attack a German piggyback plane [Annotator's Note: Mistel, the name for a small, piloted aircraft mounted on above a large explosives-carrying drone; also called Huckepack, Beethoven-Gerät, or Vati und Sohn], a bomber with a fighter on top, and shoot it down. They were pleased to see it.

George H. Roxandich [Annotator's Note: a German prisoner of war] heard news about how the war was going, and that Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. They would get news from civilians who had access to radios. They would talk to them through the barbed wire and would trade soap and Hershey bars [Annotator's Note: Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar] for bread. At the last camp Roxandich was in, there was a woman and her daughter who cooked for them. The woman's husband was a pilot who was shot down over the English Channel. The women were very nice to the prisoners. The men were able to send letters, so his parents eventually knew where he was. The lack of food was the hardest thing about being a prisoner. They probably would have starved without the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] parcels. The Germans were not eating any better. There were deer in the forest where they were tasked with chopping trees. One guard tried to kill it for food but missed. For some reason, Roxandich was not afraid. He felt sure the war would end, just did not know how or when. Imprisonment all felt like a dream. He was in a group with other prisoners of war and gave a speech to them. A women told Roxandich that her husband had not been able to hold down a job because he was upset by his wartime experience. A guard came to them one day, explaining that Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had given orders to annihilate all Jewish prisoners of war. He began reading a list of all the Jewish names, and Roxandich's name was mistakenly on the list. The action was fortunately never carried out. Most of the men in his barracks were Jewish.

George H. Roxandich [Annotator's Note: with the 104th Infantry Division] was at a reunion when a fellow veteran recounted that he had overheard a discussion among generals about the Mark River [Annotator's Note: a river that runs through Belgium and the Netherlands]. Their own commanders wanted to hold back and reconnoiter, but Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery] wanted to launch a surprise attack. Roxandich's unit went into an area that was not heavily defended, were able to cross without incident but were not told what to do once they got there. At this time, Roxandich was with Company B of the 415th Infantry Regiment [Annotator's Note: Company B, 415th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division]. There was a nearby farmhouse which they encircled. They saw a dead German on the road. The men separated and Roxandich dug a foxhole. He was captured 31 October [Annotator's Note: 31 October 1944] near the Mark River. He was with an advance group, unsure of what to do. He went to a ditch to use the bathroom, and suddenly heard big guns shooting. He looked up and there was a small tank about 50 yards from him. It fired on him, missing his head by a foot. He ducked down, waiting, and then jumped into his foxhole where he had two anti-tank grenades. He hit the tank with one, and missed with the other, but the tank backed up and left him alone. Roxandich began firing at men moving from one building to another until he ran out of ammunition. All he had left were three grenades. It began to get dark, and he heard rumbling, thinking he was going to get more ammunition. He realized it was Germans. He ducked down into his foxhole and three tanks parked near him, without realizing he was there. The men were walking around just six feet away from him. Roxandich threw his remaining grenades without being spotted and began running. He was fired on and hit above the elbow. Another American was also running but did not have his rifle. They were encircled by Germans who stopped them and told them to put their hands up. The other American said no and was shot in the stomach and died. Roxandich was captured and taken to a German officer who knew more about Roxandich's unit than he did. He was taken to a field hospital where they cut the flesh from his wound without anesthetic.

George H. Roxandich [Annotator's Note: a German prisoner of war] was eventually liberated. The guards were gone, and the gates were open. A few of the men walked down the road and saw a German battalion and SS troops [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization]. They were stopped by a German officer who asked if they were French. They responded that they were American, and the officer said, "Oh, they're here already!" He offered them a ride to the front to meet the Americans, but they refused as there were too many SS around. Some Russians on patrol arrived, and Roxandich told them that there were no German soldiers there. He found a bicycle and rode towards where he thought the Americans were and ran into two soldiers in a truck. He asked them to come to the camp and transport the liberated prisoners. They agreed. En route, they ran into a Russian tank column. The soldiers were celebrating and wanted Roxandich to join. They gave him a snifter of vodka [Annotator's Note: type of alcoholic beverage]. When they came to a fork in the road, he was bleary-eyed [Annotator's Note: drunk] but chose the right direction and found the camp. He had to be lifted back on the truck [Annotator's Note: Roxandich laughs]. It was a good day. Later, at Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France], a plane arrived and Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] got out. He shook everyone's hand, including Roxandich's. The liberated prisoners had been warned to be careful eating after months of nearly starving. They were flown to a port and took a ship home. Roxandich had to hitchhike to Lansford [Annotator's Note: Lansford, Pennsylvania, his hometown]. He had a mustache at the time. He made it home, hugged his father and sister, and the first thing she said to him was "Shave it off."