Soldier and Soldat: Senior
Thesis Tells Story
of 'Little Guys' from Both Sides during War
|When Samford student Betsy Richardson
introduced German exchange student Georg Pingen, her fiancé,
to her grandfather, he quickly asked if Georg's grandfather fought
in World War II.
Georg said yes, and Betsy's grandfather, Porter Richardson of
Gadsden, Tenn., asked, "Did he steal my Christmas present?"
Richardson was joking, but he explained, "When I was there,
some German soldiers stole our Christmas packages, and I never
did find out what my mother sent me."
With that encounter, Betsy realized for the first time that their
grandfathers had been enemies in the deadliest war ever fought.
It prompted her to wonder about how much the world had changed
in 50 years.
And out of the exchange grew an idea for a senior research project
that would help Betsy, Georg and their families have a better
understanding of the hardships faced by "the little guys"
on both sides in the war.
Senior Betsy Richardson studied World
War II from the viewpoints of her grandfather and those of her
fiancé, Georg Pingen, also a Samford student.
She determined to interview her grandfather, who had talked very
little about his war experiences over the years, and members
of Georg's family about the conflict. To do so would require
her to become fluent in German.
What she discovered were striking similarities. Her grandfather
and both of Georg's grandfathers, Wilhelm Pingen and Franz Josef
von Laufenberg, were drafted off family farms to serve in the
conflict. Richardson and Pingen were only 19. They endured the
hardships of service in Europe and the Middle East.
"The major difference came at the end of the war when one
returned home victorious, the others defeated," she said.
Pingen and Laufenberg were both captured by the Allies and sent
to prisoner-of-war camps. Although the war ended in 1945, neither
was able to return to Germany until 1948. Pingen was held in
Egypt for several years after Germany's surrender; Laufenberg
was sent to camps first in the U.S., then in England.
Pingen and Laufenberg died several years before Betsy
began her project, but their wives and family members helped
her piece together their war experiences through diaries, letters
"What comes through are the struggles and loneliness they
faced, and the many disappointments," she said.
Even though Richardson was on the victorious side, he faced hardships
as well. His unit fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and he was
one of 17 men out of a company of about 120 men to survive. Getting
separated from his company may have saved his life.
"He talked about surviving a week on apples in a barn after
being separated from his unit," said Betsy, "and later
the horror of stepping over the bodies of both Americans and
Germans in the snow."
At first during the interviews, Richardson was unable to talk
war for very long before becoming too emotional to speak. Gradually,
their interview sessions grew longer.
Betsy worked on the project for more than two years, doing the
bulk of her interviewing in Germany during the summer of 1999.
Now, she has converted her work into a senior research thesis,
"Soldier and Soldat: The Impact of World War II on an American
and German Family," written in both English and German.
Her German professor, Dr. Hajo Drees, praised Betsy's project
because of its contribution to cross-cultural understanding.
He noted that, to do this, she had to master German language
and culture, travel to Germany to gather authentic materials,
conduct interviews and research literature in the U.S. and Germany
dealing with the issue.
The project "models communication between two generations
and two countries, illustrating how similar they really are and
assisting to overcome a silence that has long dominated that
generation of soldiers in both nations," said Professor
Drees. A German major, Besty plans to teach after earning a master's
degree in education.