Article from the Hutchinson News-Herald, 1/22/1946, pg. 8, w/photos:
Dutch Prisoner Saved Flyer's Life When Nazis Left Him For Dead
Because he saved their son's life, Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Clothier, 611 Howard, will always feel drawn by a strong bond of gratitude to a young medical student in Holland by the name of Hubert Niessen, whom they have never seen. The Clothiers moved here in September from Wichita. Clothier is an evangelist in the Church of Christ.
Their son, T-Sgt. William [sic] H. Clothier, is now at McClusky General hospital at Temple, Tex., and is soon to be transferred to Battle Creek, Mich., to be fitted with an artificial left leg. His wife and daughter, . . . , are with him.
On Feb. 22, near Aachen, Germany, flak damaged the Flying Fortress on which Clothier was a radio operator and gunner. The crew had to bail out. Clothier, his left leg practically shot off by flak, struggled out of the plane by hopping on his right leg.
He lost consciousness instantly, once in the air, and revived barely in time to pull the rip cord of his parachute and land without further injury.
No Anesthetic
The Germans gave him no anesthetic when they amputated his leg. They thought he would not recover anyway, and would have stopped the operation had it not been for the insistence of a medical student there from Holland as a forced helper. That was when Clothier first met Hubert Niessen.
For five days the wounded man lay without medicine or attention, with nothing whatever done to ease his pain. Then Niessen managed to slip out at night, at the risk of his life, and get morphine and medicine. That was why Clothier pulled through although the Germans would tell Niessen, "Your kamerad will be dead by morning."
Again Niessen risked his life, when the Germans allowed him to go home one weekend, to send a shortwave radio message to let his friend's parents know that he was a German prisoner and was wounded. The Clothiers did not hear the message themselves but they had many calls and letters from persons who did.
Clothier has been back in the States now for nearly a year, but he and his family are a long way from forgetting Hubert Niessen. He is thinking of coming to this country himself, and he is sure of a most warm welcome if he does.
Send Food Back
In the meantime, letters travel back and forth, and the Clothiers have been able to send foods to the Niessen family that the war has made it impossible to get in Holland.
"I thank you out of the deepest of my heart," Niessen writes Clothier's mother from Utrecht after the arrival of a recent parcel.
But he does not complain of food shortages. Clothiers treatment by the Germans was only a small part of their brutality that he had seen, and he is still rejoicing simply to be rid of them. He writes gratefully:
"We never will forget what your people have done for us and our country. Your soldiers made us free again, and after that your country helped us with all possible things, such as food, so that we never can forget and we always will be grateful.
"Your son knows a little bit how the Jerries have treated other people, but he has not seen what I saw after he left Heinsberg - hundreds, thousands and more, men, women killed by gas, shot or starved.
"Thinking of all such things, we ask God to help us build a new world, not only new houses and factories, but to build, in a way, new men, women and children, who hate war. We will have to teach the people more charity. Only then will it be possible to be really happy."
Dutch Prisoner Saved Flyer's Life When Nazis Left Him For Dead
Because he saved their son's life, Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Clothier, 611 Howard, will always feel drawn by a strong bond of gratitude to a young medical student in Holland by the name of Hubert Niessen, whom they have never seen. The Clothiers moved here in September from Wichita. Clothier is an evangelist in the Church of Christ.
Their son, T-Sgt. William [sic] H. Clothier, is now at McClusky General hospital at Temple, Tex., and is soon to be transferred to Battle Creek, Mich., to be fitted with an artificial left leg. His wife and daughter, . . . , are with him.
On Feb. 22, near Aachen, Germany, flak damaged the Flying Fortress on which Clothier was a radio operator and gunner. The crew had to bail out. Clothier, his left leg practically shot off by flak, struggled out of the plane by hopping on his right leg.
He lost consciousness instantly, once in the air, and revived barely in time to pull the rip cord of his parachute and land without further injury.
No Anesthetic
The Germans gave him no anesthetic when they amputated his leg. They thought he would not recover anyway, and would have stopped the operation had it not been for the insistence of a medical student there from Holland as a forced helper. That was when Clothier first met Hubert Niessen.
For five days the wounded man lay without medicine or attention, with nothing whatever done to ease his pain. Then Niessen managed to slip out at night, at the risk of his life, and get morphine and medicine. That was why Clothier pulled through although the Germans would tell Niessen, "Your kamerad will be dead by morning."
Again Niessen risked his life, when the Germans allowed him to go home one weekend, to send a shortwave radio message to let his friend's parents know that he was a German prisoner and was wounded. The Clothiers did not hear the message themselves but they had many calls and letters from persons who did.
Clothier has been back in the States now for nearly a year, but he and his family are a long way from forgetting Hubert Niessen. He is thinking of coming to this country himself, and he is sure of a most warm welcome if he does.
Send Food Back
In the meantime, letters travel back and forth, and the Clothiers have been able to send foods to the Niessen family that the war has made it impossible to get in Holland.
"I thank you out of the deepest of my heart," Niessen writes Clothier's mother from Utrecht after the arrival of a recent parcel.
But he does not complain of food shortages. Clothiers treatment by the Germans was only a small part of their brutality that he had seen, and he is still rejoicing simply to be rid of them. He writes gratefully:
"We never will forget what your people have done for us and our country. Your soldiers made us free again, and after that your country helped us with all possible things, such as food, so that we never can forget and we always will be grateful.
"Your son knows a little bit how the Jerries have treated other people, but he has not seen what I saw after he left Heinsberg - hundreds, thousands and more, men, women killed by gas, shot or starved.
"Thinking of all such things, we ask God to help us build a new world, not only new houses and factories, but to build, in a way, new men, women and children, who hate war. We will have to teach the people more charity. Only then will it be possible to be really happy."
Article from the Hutchinson News-Herald, 1/22/1946, pg. 8, w/photos:
Dutch Prisoner Saved Flyer's Life When Nazis Left Him For Dead
Because he saved their son's life, Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Clothier, 611 Howard, will always feel drawn by a strong bond of gratitude to a young medical student in Holland by the name of Hubert Niessen, whom they have never seen. The Clothiers moved here in September from Wichita. Clothier is an evangelist in the Church of Christ.
Their son, T-Sgt. William [sic] H. Clothier, is now at McClusky General hospital at Temple, Tex., and is soon to be transferred to Battle Creek, Mich., to be fitted with an artificial left leg. His wife and daughter, . . . , are with him.
On Feb. 22, near Aachen, Germany, flak damaged the Flying Fortress on which Clothier was a radio operator and gunner. The crew had to bail out. Clothier, his left leg practically shot off by flak, struggled out of the plane by hopping on his right leg.
He lost consciousness instantly, once in the air, and revived barely in time to pull the rip cord of his parachute and land without further injury.
No Anesthetic
The Germans gave him no anesthetic when they amputated his leg. They thought he would not recover anyway, and would have stopped the operation had it not been for the insistence of a medical student there from Holland as a forced helper. That was when Clothier first met Hubert Niessen.
For five days the wounded man lay without medicine or attention, with nothing whatever done to ease his pain. Then Niessen managed to slip out at night, at the risk of his life, and get morphine and medicine. That was why Clothier pulled through although the Germans would tell Niessen, "Your kamerad will be dead by morning."
Again Niessen risked his life, when the Germans allowed him to go home one weekend, to send a shortwave radio message to let his friend's parents know that he was a German prisoner and was wounded. The Clothiers did not hear the message themselves but they had many calls and letters from persons who did.
Clothier has been back in the States now for nearly a year, but he and his family are a long way from forgetting Hubert Niessen. He is thinking of coming to this country himself, and he is sure of a most warm welcome if he does.
Send Food Back
In the meantime, letters travel back and forth, and the Clothiers have been able to send foods to the Niessen family that the war has made it impossible to get in Holland.
"I thank you out of the deepest of my heart," Niessen writes Clothier's mother from Utrecht after the arrival of a recent parcel.
But he does not complain of food shortages. Clothiers treatment by the Germans was only a small part of their brutality that he had seen, and he is still rejoicing simply to be rid of them. He writes gratefully:
"We never will forget what your people have done for us and our country. Your soldiers made us free again, and after that your country helped us with all possible things, such as food, so that we never can forget and we always will be grateful.
"Your son knows a little bit how the Jerries have treated other people, but he has not seen what I saw after he left Heinsberg - hundreds, thousands and more, men, women killed by gas, shot or starved.
"Thinking of all such things, we ask God to help us build a new world, not only new houses and factories, but to build, in a way, new men, women and children, who hate war. We will have to teach the people more charity. Only then will it be possible to be really happy."
Dutch Prisoner Saved Flyer's Life When Nazis Left Him For Dead
Because he saved their son's life, Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Clothier, 611 Howard, will always feel drawn by a strong bond of gratitude to a young medical student in Holland by the name of Hubert Niessen, whom they have never seen. The Clothiers moved here in September from Wichita. Clothier is an evangelist in the Church of Christ.
Their son, T-Sgt. William [sic] H. Clothier, is now at McClusky General hospital at Temple, Tex., and is soon to be transferred to Battle Creek, Mich., to be fitted with an artificial left leg. His wife and daughter, . . . , are with him.
On Feb. 22, near Aachen, Germany, flak damaged the Flying Fortress on which Clothier was a radio operator and gunner. The crew had to bail out. Clothier, his left leg practically shot off by flak, struggled out of the plane by hopping on his right leg.
He lost consciousness instantly, once in the air, and revived barely in time to pull the rip cord of his parachute and land without further injury.
No Anesthetic
The Germans gave him no anesthetic when they amputated his leg. They thought he would not recover anyway, and would have stopped the operation had it not been for the insistence of a medical student there from Holland as a forced helper. That was when Clothier first met Hubert Niessen.
For five days the wounded man lay without medicine or attention, with nothing whatever done to ease his pain. Then Niessen managed to slip out at night, at the risk of his life, and get morphine and medicine. That was why Clothier pulled through although the Germans would tell Niessen, "Your kamerad will be dead by morning."
Again Niessen risked his life, when the Germans allowed him to go home one weekend, to send a shortwave radio message to let his friend's parents know that he was a German prisoner and was wounded. The Clothiers did not hear the message themselves but they had many calls and letters from persons who did.
Clothier has been back in the States now for nearly a year, but he and his family are a long way from forgetting Hubert Niessen. He is thinking of coming to this country himself, and he is sure of a most warm welcome if he does.
Send Food Back
In the meantime, letters travel back and forth, and the Clothiers have been able to send foods to the Niessen family that the war has made it impossible to get in Holland.
"I thank you out of the deepest of my heart," Niessen writes Clothier's mother from Utrecht after the arrival of a recent parcel.
But he does not complain of food shortages. Clothiers treatment by the Germans was only a small part of their brutality that he had seen, and he is still rejoicing simply to be rid of them. He writes gratefully:
"We never will forget what your people have done for us and our country. Your soldiers made us free again, and after that your country helped us with all possible things, such as food, so that we never can forget and we always will be grateful.
"Your son knows a little bit how the Jerries have treated other people, but he has not seen what I saw after he left Heinsberg - hundreds, thousands and more, men, women killed by gas, shot or starved.
"Thinking of all such things, we ask God to help us build a new world, not only new houses and factories, but to build, in a way, new men, women and children, who hate war. We will have to teach the people more charity. Only then will it be possible to be really happy."
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