MACHIAS — A Machias family recently donated a large Nazi banner brought back from Germany after World War II to the Cattaraugus County Museum.
It was brought back as a war souvenir by Pfc. Thomas Leroy Johns, a Freedom native who went to school in Franklinville and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943.
Johns, who died in the Pines Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Machias Oct. 11, 2015, was a Purple Heart recipient, wounded in Germany. He and 14 of his buddies in Company K signed their names in the white circle around the black swastika.
Johns didn’t speak much about the war, said his daughter-in-law, Linda Johns. His family only saw the 6-foot by 9-foot red Nazi banner when Johns auctioned off his farm in Farmersville after the death of his first wife. Her son, Ben, saw the banner and felt it should stay with the family because of its history — his grandfather’s uniform and a German luger had already been sold. He outbid others to get the banner for $125.
Linda Johns said it lay in a cedar chest for the next 20 years. They only took it out to show Johns at his 90th birthday party.
“We didn’t know what to do with it,” Linda Johns said. “It’s a nice piece of family history, but it’s not something you could display.”
Unsure of what to do with the Nazi banner after Johns’ death, Linda Johns mentioned it during a visit to the county museum, where Johns had visited while living at the nearby Pines nursing home.
Curator Brian McClellan said he’d be interested in adding it to the museum’s collection because of the signatures and the local connection.
Johns had told the family it hung outside a building the company came upon, McClellan said — the occupants must have fled in haste as there was still food on the table.
As a history major, Linda Johns said she wished someone had been able to research what happened to those soldiers who signed the banner after the war. Her father-in-law, she said, only had contact with two of the 14 after the war.
“Although he didn’t talk about it much, he was wounded. He received a Purple Heart and had a hearing loss the rest of his life,” Linda Johns said.
“It’s nice to think someone else thinks his history is important,” she added.
McClellan said he has no plans to display the Nazi banner at this time.
However, the next time he plans a World War II exhibit from the museum’s collection, he expects the banner would be displayed in a glass case, folded up with the names visible.
All the signatures are clearly visible, including that of Pfc. Thomas Johns, Franklinville, N.Y.
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
