Julian Siebert was born in Westmoreland, Kansas in 1923. Growing up during the 1930s, he saw that everyone was hard up. Farming was poor. The weather was hot. Crops were not doing well. It was during the Depression. He had three brothers and four sisters. His father and grandfather farmed the place that Siebert would ultimately take over. The family home on the farm was built by his grandfather in 1904. His father and mother bought the land from his grandfather. Siebert grew up on the property. After he was married, Siebert rented a farm nearby. In 1966, farming was poor and with five children at that time, he was concerned about being able to afford to send them to school. It was then that he applied for a mail route. He bought the farm from his dad and carried the mail on a mail route from that point. As his mail route continuously grew, he found he did not have sufficient time to devote to the farm. He rented it out as a result. He attended school nearby in the Flush School. He graduated from high school there. He attended trade school there, also. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he, like many others, was not aware of the location of the American facilities. They had never heard of Pearl Harbor before that attack.

Julian Siebert was drafted in May 1942. The next year was very long. He had his basic training in Camp Hood in Texas. After training, he briefly went home while en route to his port of embarkation. He crossed the Atlantic in ten days starting on 22 October [Annotator's Note: 22 October 1944]. His ship was alone and did not convoy with any other ships. He grew very sick on the third day of the trip. It was said that the first day of being sick a person worried that they might die. After the first day of sickness, the individual worried that he might not die. After the ten day voyage, the ship landed on Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach was one of the five beachheads established in Normandy on D-Day 6 June 1944 and continued as a landing site for further reinforcements entering France afterward]. Siebert's ship had been to England before the French landing. There had been an overnight exchange of ships prior to sailing across the Channel to France.

Julian Siebert went straight from England to France. Within two days, he was on the front in November 1944. Siebert was assigned to the 328th Regiment within the 26th Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 328th Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division]. He was an infantry rifleman on the front lines. He came into combat in France as a replacement. The veterans welcomed the new men, but they never became well acquainted with them. There were casualties and with the influx of new replacements and the ongoing action, getting to know others was not possible. The replacements would be put on the front lines within days of arrival in France. Siebert's friend who also came in as a replacement was killed on their first day on the front line. It was difficult for Siebert since it was his first day in combat. He quickly learned what war was about. The weather was raining. The terrain was muddy. It kept getting colder as time went on. On the night before his birthday on 21 November, the outfit dug in next to a small town. His squad was sent on a patrol. They saw some civilians and got the word that there would be a Catholic mass. A few Americans attended the mass. Soon afterward, German artillery started firing on Siebert's squad and they withdrew. The artillery kept coming in close to them as they pulled back. They wondered why that was happening until they had a sniper firing at them. They realized at that point that the sniper must have been directing the artillery toward the American position. The situation was so uncomfortable; Siebert knew he had to get underground. He found an old foxhole full of water and broke the ice on top of it and jumped in. He went in to his shoulders in the cold water, but he came out alive. He never changed clothes until the end of the war. With the weather being what it was, his uniform froze on him during that bitter winter. He actually warmed up a bit when his clothing froze. His feet may have contracted a bit of frostbite. This was during the period prior to the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: the Battle of the Bulge started 16 December 1944]. Although Siebert was in combat during this time, he has not talked of it much because he has put it out of his mind and actually remembers little about the events.

Julian Siebert and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 328th Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division] were told that they would be relieved on about 15 December and sent off the front lines to Metz, France. The unit was to get rest while at Metz, however, the very next day, the Battle of the Bulge commenced. Siebert and his regiment were ordered to find the enemy and engage them. About Christmas morning, the outfit had reached the edge of a town. They were pinned down by the enemy. The men had to lay flat under the German fire. The man next to Siebert was killed. Siebert had his back scratched up from the action. The Americans with Siebert took cover in a stone building. A German hand grenade was tossed into the building. It was dark so the GIs could not find the grenade. They took shelter in the corners of the room to avoid the blast. No one was hurt but Siebert still remembers the ringing in his ears. The Americans anticipated a German tank with its 88mm gun showing up to blow them out of the building. Prior to that, the men surrendered. Their captors took them outside beside a large pile of dirt. It appeared that the prisoners were about to be shot. The seconds and minutes took a long time to pass. A German vehicle similar to an American jeep pulled up and the officer talked to the enemy troops. They lowered their weapons and began walking the Americans away from the site of the surrender. The prisoners walked for days with very little to eat. A buggy, watery soup would be provided occasionally. As the column kept walking, more and more prisoners joined it. After several days, the men reached a railroad yard. They were tightly jammed inside a boxcar. The prisoners were not able to sit or lay down. They could hear American aircraft strafing the area. The prisoners worried that their boxcar would be attacked by friendly aircraft. They were never attacked and soon the car started moving a small distance. At that point, the cars were unloaded and the men marched on to Stalag XII-A [Annotator's Note: Stalag XII-A was located near Limburg an der Lahn in Western Germany].

Julian Siebert was taken by his German captors to Stalag XII-A. As far as he could see, there were just American prisoners of war in the Stalag. A few days later, he and a few others were taken to a work camp. He was assigned to cut trees and saw the lumber in meter lengths for making paper. It was a good assignment for him because it kept him busy and he was fed a little better than at the Stalag. Clothes or personal washing was not possible. Lice were terrible. The POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] were locked up at night in a barracks at the work camp. The guards overseeing the prisoners were older men. They treated the prisoners fairly well. They did not seem to be Nazis. On 1 May [Annotator's Note: 1 May 1945], the guards gave the prisoners an ax and said if things got too uncomfortable, they should break themselves out of the camp. The Russians were getting closer to the camp. The next morning, the guards told the men to pick up their belongings and that they were leaving. It was 2 May. They walked all day long toward the American lines. The Russian artillery could be heard just behind the procession as it made its way toward the Americans. When the United States forces were reached, the German guards handed their weapons over to their former prisoners. The former guards told the former POWs that they were now the captors. The Germans had surrendered to their POWs. They did not want the Russians to take them prisoner. The German guards also preferred for the American POWs to fall into the hands of POW's fellow countrymen rather than the Russians. Prior to leaving the work camp, Siebert had been bitten on his arm. It had become infected and the German medics had treated it. Upon arrival at the American lines, he was taken to an aid station for treatment. He also ate well and took several showers for the first few days back from captivity. He never saw his German captors again. The German soldiers were good fighters, but they did not hang in there like the Americans. That was probably a reason for the Allied victory. During his captivity, little information was available about the course of the war. When he saw the American flag for the first time, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He still thinks the flag is beautiful. When the war ended on 8 May, Siebert was in the medical aid station being treated for his arm infection. The victory was good news.

Julian Siebert was asked soon after the war in Europe if he was ready to go back home. He boarded a ship and returned to the United States. While he was home on 30 day leave, he heard the news about the atomic bomb. It was good news because he anticipated that he would have to go to Japan and fight the enemy there. He was relieved not to have to do so. After furlough, he was sent to Camp Chaffee in Arkansas. It was not quite time for his discharge. There was a flow of troops into and out of the Army at Chaffee during that time in December 1945. While home on furlough, he had been asked by his father what he would like to do after his discharge. Siebert thought he would like to farm. A friend of the family rented his farm to Siebert. He would go on to farm it for 20 years. By the time farming became poor business, Siebert had five children. Concerned about sending them to school, he applied for work with the U.S. Postal Service. He was given an examination and was in the top three who had applied for the mail route. He received the route. He bought the farm and gave up what he was renting. He farmed and did the mail route together. After awhile, he rented out the farm. He retired from the Postal Service in 1988. He continued to rent the farm out to others, but he maintained some cows. One incident is memorable about his captivity in the German POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] work camp. A stray dog passed the camp and a guard shot it. The POWs ate the dog because they were so hungry for meat. The watery soup had very little in it except bugs.