Erdenheim WWII vet, 79, authors book about ‘my own holocaust’

By LAUREN FRITSKY

One of the first things 79-year-old Frank Yarosh will tell you when you ask about his experiences in War World II is that he’s no hero. Yet, the suffering he endured as a young soldier is something most of us could never even fathom. While the war ended nearly 60 years ago, it will never be over for Yarosh.

“I had my own holocaust,” Yarosh said. 

The Erdenheim resident, now a husband, father, grandfather, and retired engineer, was a prisoner of war (POW) in Germany during the winter of 1945. In 1992, Yarosh decided to write a book about his ordeal, entitled World War II is Not Over. He thought of the title one day when he was writing and his wife of 38 years, Margaret, asked when the war was going to be over for him.

Yarosh’s beginnings were humble. He grew up in Lopez, PA as the oldest of four children. He spent his boyhood days during the Great Depression fishing, trapping, hunting and working. World War II is Not Over begins with Yarosh working as a laborer at a dam project in 1939 with his cousin, who starts talking to him about the war.

“During this time of my life, I have to think twice as to where Germany is on the globe and have little interest in activities beyond Lopez,” Yarosh writes on page 20.

When he was whisked off to Fort Lewis, Washington, in the spring of 1943 after registering for the draft, 18-year-old Yarosh had only left Pennsylvania one time before, on a class trip to New York. He completed three months of intense combat training before moving to Brigham Young University in Utah to participate in the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), where he studied engineering. Yarosh was then forced to leave BYU, because President Eisenhower needed invasion troops in Europe. He was assigned to Company C, 1^st Battalion, 274^th Regiment, and 70th Division in Camp Adair, Oregon.

One of the first turning points in the book is when Yarosh turns down the opportunity to attend West Point. Both his athletic ability and intelligence qualified him for the prestigious school, where he would have been required to serve in the army for many years afterward. Yarosh had already developed a distaste for regimentation and being treated like a number instead of an individual. After some uncertainty, he decided that an army career wasn’t for him and remained in Company C as an infantry scout.

Shortly after rejecting his acceptance to West Point, Yarosh was shipped to Europe where he was assigned to lead a large-scale attack into Phillipsbourg, France. While on another assignment a few weeks later, Yarosh sprained his ankle and was asked to spy on nearby German troops with three other infantrymen. It was then that Yarosh became a prisoner of war.

“The message is clear!” Yarosh wrote of their capture in their Maginot Line pillbox by the Germans. “It is a bomb to my 20-year-old mind!”   

World War II is Not Over is a quick read, and avoids using fancy language to convey the atrocities of war. Graphic descriptions of intense “eyeball to eyeball” infantry combat are as disturbing as the tortuous experiences of being a prisoner of war. With nothing but cigarettes and thoughts of his family and God, referred to as his “friend in the sky,” to keep him sane, Yarosh endured three months of hardship while in captivity at Stalag XI-B in Northern Germany.

The camp was packed with thousands of POWs from the many nations Hitler had defeated. Soldiers died every day of exposure to the harsh conditions, which included lack of food, heat, clothing and simple sanitary items like toilet paper. In those three months, Yarosh dropped 65 pounds from his normally athletic body. The barracks and POWs were infested with lice, and prisoners were forced to drink contaminated water. Yarosh spent much of his time digging out tree stumps without a meal after walking nearly four miles to his worksite.

The way Yarosh described his starvation conjured up an image of a candle slowly burning out. “You have hunger pangs at first, but then your mind keeps adjusting,” Yarosh said. “I stopped thinking about all the food I wanted. I felt myself fading.”

Yarosh’s extreme will to live is demonstrated throughout the book. He constantly tries to keep his mental and emotional states sound by thinking of God and his BYU studies. “I remind myself that I must be more prudent in handling the limited remaining rations in my backpack and perhaps just as important, not to be carried away by the negative emotions that are surfacing,” he writes on page 119.

When Yarosh is finally rescued from the camp by the British “Desert Rats,” given medical treatment in England and returned to the States, he has a hard time adapting to his old life. One of his friends, who had also been in World War II, calls him a coward. “Battles continue on the home front,” Yarosh writes on page 220. “I truly did not expect this result of my premonition: a blow to my character and self-esteem.”

Fast-forward to spring, 2003. Yarosh is on vacation in Florida when he meets Mack-Mallon Company owner John McIlhargey while walking on the beach. After a brief conversation about Yarosh’s book, McIlhargey says that he’s interested in reading it. Months later he contacts Yarosh, telling him he is interested in turning the book into a movie. After lengthy legal negotiations, the two signed a contract, and McIlhargey is now in Hollywood working with his producer/son on the project.

Yarosh said, “I feel deeply honored to have my one and only book be considered for a movie.”

In the meantime, Yarosh is enjoying life with his wife, two sons, Alan and Scott and six grandchildren. After returning home from the war, Frank completed his engineering studies at Bucknell University and then worked for the Philadelphia Gas Works for 37 years until retiring in 1987.

Yarosh has suffered from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder since he came home from the war. This means that certain types of daily occurrences can cause him to relive combat and POW events. Even so, Yarosh has still found some good in his experiences. “Combat is a very serious affair, very nerve-wracking, unpleasant, tough,” he said. “Being in the service is an education. There are many opportunities. You meet a lot of different people.”

Yarosh has given many talks about his book, including a recent one at a granddaughter’s school. When asked if writing the book was cathartic, Yarosh looked at me with his sharp blue eyes and replied, “No. Now I have it in two places – written down and in my head.”

Yarosh has a large cardboard box of letters of appreciation from readers of many persuasions, including veterans, wives and children of veterans, and war history buffs. World War II is Not Over can be purchased at Borders in Chestnut Hill. Copies can also be ordered through Yarosh’s website, www.members.aol.com/WW2isNotOver or by visiting www.Xlibris.com.