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Time now for Storycore, this project has been traveling around the country recording everyday Americans talking about their lives. Today, a story from World War II. During that conflict, the US military ran prisoners of war campus across the country. One of them was in Tremonton, Utah. Jean Thackeray was growing nearby. One day, she met one of the German prisoners when he came to work on her father’s farm.

During the war, most of the men were gone and so there was a lot of need for people to come and thin the sugar beats and to cultivate the potatoes. So they brought the German soldiers in from Treemonton, Utah. And they had guards with them. And when they brought him in while I had a role that my father gave me I had to do but it was away and away from the soldiers. And I would read and they would read. And then one night, when they were all through, I was still out in the field. And one of the soldiers was crying. And I, went up and to the guard, and I said what’s wrong. And he had said he has a little bible that he brought from Germany. And he 's had with the moral life. And he’s lost it in somehow in that field. And he’s heartbroken over it. And I stayed until I found the soldier’s bible. In the field, cos I know in which role he’s working on. And /I found it when he’s back the next day, I gave it to him. He was so thankful. And of course he wanted to give me a hug, but he couldn’t. And so he asked the guard if he had a nickel. And the guard gave him a nickel. And he went back and carved out of that nickel a special little necklace barmy and brought it back to me the next day. He’d left the band of the nickel all the way around, that he had carved a little hole in the top and it looked like it was a half moon. And then I put it on my necklace. I’ve never heard that story before. Haven’t to know, yeah, you'll have to show that to me. I will.

This interview will be archived with all the others at the library of Congress. Subscribe to the Storycore at NPR.ORG.