Hundreds attend

Memorial Day

observance in

New Ulm

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Three crisp, cannon shots fired by the New Ulm Battery, echoed through the Minnesota River Valley Monday at Memorial Day Observance 2000 at the New Ulm City Cemetery.

Hundreds of spectators braved light rain to attend the program.

Tim Hellendrung, a New Ulm High School sophomore, read an address entitled "A Cottonwood Tree Talks to a Little Boy." The late Richard Wilfahrt wrote the piece. The recitation of the essay has become a tradition for New Ulm.

Narrated by a cottonwood tree that grew with the city, the essay incorporates 146 years of local history starting in 1854 when New Ulm was first settled.

War, which Wilfahrt called "the greatest man-made curse the world has ever known," saw New Ulmites answering to their country's military duty and fighting on foreign soil during World War II. The local National Guard was called into service in 1941.

During the Korean War, Captain Al Polta led the Guard unit into the railroad station. Some of those hometown soldiers became casualties of war -- their bodies returned for burial.

"On a clear day," I (the cottonwood tree) can see the emerald green cemetery that has swallowed them and is now their final resting place," read Hellendrung, a member of NUHS speech team.

Accounts of New Ulm servicemen are remembered throughout the narrative. Fremont Eibner, Sr., went to fight the Spanish in Cuba at the end of the 19th century; Charlie Wilfahrt belonged to the battalion that relieved the 'lost battalion' in World War I. The battalion wasn't really lost, just given up for lost because it was surrounded by the German Army. The soldiers held out against overwhelming odds until they were relieved.

In March of 1942, Otto Seifert Jr. and two of his friends shared a couple drinks at the Southside Tavern, next to the cottonwood tree. Seifert was later shot down.

Captain Willibald Bianchi fought at Corregidor and survived the Bataan Death March only to die as a Prisoner of War on a Japanese ship that was sunk by the Americans.

George Schuck Jr., Charlie Fast and Robert Niemann lost their lives in Korea.

Henry Polzin died in the steamy jungles of Vietnam.

"One day, during the Korean War, a father (a veteran) and son paused under my branches," the Wilfahrt piece reads.

"The soldier's son was leaving for Korea.

"The father cupped his son's shoulders with his beefy hands and said 'I never seem to find the time to tell you this, 'I love you.'

"I love you too, Dad," the son responded.

"With that, they parted forever. That son is listed in missing in action.

"Year after year, that father pauses beneath me. His walk is slower, his shoulders bent, his hair almost white.

"I can hear him softy say, 'I love you, son.'

"A voice far away, seems to say, 'I love you too, Dad.'"