Obit: Paul, Norman A. (1913 - 1945)

Contact: Stan

Surnames: Paul, Goetsch, Jakel, Kraut, Lindow, Lusher, Hoff, Van Huizen, Edwards

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 20 Dec 1945

Paul, Norman A. (15 Apr. 1913 - Fall 1945)

Curtiss, Wis. - Memorial services were held Sunday afternoon at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church at Curtiss, Wisconsin for T/5 Norman A. Paul, 32, who died this fall in a prisoner of war camp on the Japanese mainland after having been a prisoner since the fall of Corregidor early in 1942.

The Rev. M. C. Goetsch officiated at the rites, during which Misses Lorraine and Marguerite Jakel, Betty Kraut, Wauneto Lindowm and Beatrice Lusher, accompanied by Miss Myrtle Hoff, sang, "Be Still My Soul," and "God Be With You Till We Meet Again."

The Owen post of the American Legion, Albert Van Huizen Post No. 123, officiated at the military rites.

Norman A. Paul, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Paul, Curtiss, was born at Valders April 15, 1913. Following his confirmation and graduation from public school near Curtiss, he worked on his father’s farm and was engaged in trucking.

On April 7, 1941, he was inducted into the Army, receiving his basic training at Fort Knox, Ky. After maneuvers in Louisiana he was assigned to the 192nd Tank Battalion and went overseas October 27, 1941, landing in the Philippines on Dec. 2. He was at Bataan and Corregidor, and after the fall of Corregidor his parents were informed that he was missing in action.

A year later they were told he was a Japanese war prisoner on the Philippines. After the Death March of Bataan he was interred in the Philippines and was taken from there in the fall of 1944 to Camp Osaki on the mainland of Japan.

The Pauls heard from their son once a year, the last card being written in January, 1945, and arriving here six months later. Since that time they had heard nothing until a buddy from Janesville who had been with him returned to the States and told the Pauls on Oct. 12 that Cpl. Paul had died shortly before the Americans came.

Approximately a month later a telegram came from the War Department confirming his death, stating that he had died a prisoner of war at Camp Nagoya, the results of chronic bronchitis.

Surviving besides his parents are five brothers and two sisters, Elmer, Otto, Arthur, Raymond, and Wilmer, all of Curtiss, and Mrs. Lila Edwards, Blue Island, Ill., and Lorraine, at home. Raymond Paul served in the Philippines and on other islands for three years and Elmer, a Marine, was also in service. Both have now been discharged.