Pfc Otto K. Zwingman

PFC OTTO K. ZWINGMAN

First Petition for Naturalization
Otto Zwingman petitioned the Southern District of the U.S. Court of New York in September 1942 to become a naturalized citizen.

In the petition, Otto stated that he was 27 years of age and had been born in Hamburg, Germany on July 21, 1915.

He had arrived in the U.S. on December 2, 1924 aboard the SS Andenia and was currently living at 1278 Grand Concourse, in the Bronx section of New York City, NY. He was employed as a plumber.

In addition, Zwingman had married a woman named Helen on June 5, 1941. Helen was an American citizen and native of New York City, born there on September 27, 1919.

Second Petition
On 25 June 1943, Otto again petitioned the courts four months after he enlisted.
He showed up this time with two military witnesses who, like himself, were members of Company A, 37th Infantry Training Battalion at Camp Croft, SC. They were Cpl Monroe Baer of Pennsylvania and Cpl Edward Porter of Massachusetts, significant representation for a mere Private in those days.

Cruel Injustice
Despite his personally sworn Oath of Allegiance and entry into the U.S. Army in February 1943, page two of the first petition was marked "DENIED" on 10 August 1944.

This was just two months after Otto was taken prisoner. The action may have been precipitated because of his German origin although the fact of his capture was probably not known to the court.

Hopefully Otto never learned of the denial before he was killed while in service of the United States. It is of little consolation that he was laid to rest in an American Battle Monuments Cemetery.

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(photos courtesy Emmanuel Charles Fleurus, Belgium)
Grave marker for Pfc Otto K. Zwingman at Plot B Row 44 Grave 52 in the Ardennes American Cemetery, Neupré, Belgium Pfc Zwingman was originally thought to have killed in action, probably due to his date of death, 23 December 1944 which was early in the Battle of the Bulge. On the night of 5 June 1944, his third wedding anniversary, Zwingman was a member of Chalk 16 led by 1st Lt. Lynn C. Tomlinson, Hq 2nd. The following morning the men soon found themselves in an intense firefight. In an order from XVIII Airborne Headquarters (undated), three members of Company D: Pvt John A. Lockwood, Cpl Ernest T. Roberts, Jr., and Pfc Otto K. Zwingman; were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor. The citation for the award stated, in part: "After landing by parachute before dawn on D-Day and joining a composite group which proceeded to carry out a battalion mission, [The three men] served as an outpost in a building on the edge of Guetteville. When a battalion of German infantry, reinforced by tanks, approached from the west and placed machine guns and mortars in position, those three valiant men immediately opened fire on the enemy. Ordered to leave the post, they determined to hold out until the 30 men in the town had withdrawn. [They] assisted in holding the hostile force at bay for two hours, killing 15 Germans and wounding many others. [Their] voluntary and courageous action delayed the enemy sufficiently to permit the main body of parachute troops to establish defensive positions to the east from which they were able to deny overwhelming German forces the opportunity of crossing the Merderet River. [Their] superb heroism and unselfish devotion to duty exemplifies the highest traditions of the United States Army." Pvt Lockwood, Cpl Roberts and Pfc Zwingman were all logged as missing in action as a consequence of this action and were subsequently determined to be POWs. Roberts was returned to U.S. Control on 28 March 1946 and Lockwood was handed over on 6 June 1945. The names of their POW camps are unknown. Zwingman, however, died in captivity according to National Archive records, in Stalag 12A to 9B Limburg An Der Lahn Hessen-Nassau, Prussia 50-08. In fact, various records document what may have been hundreds of American POW deaths attributed to a raid of 52 British Lancaster bombers on the Diez railroad marshalling yards. A POW train standing in the yard was apparently hit as were some buildings in the nearby XIIA Limburg POW camp. Pfc Zwingman was apparently one of the casualties. In a cruel twist of fate, Otto died in his native Germany, just 300 miles from where he had been born.