REPORTED – Killed in Action
Event Date
06/20/2016
Event Time6:00 pm;
Location
Philadelphia Union League
140 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA
The post Guest Speaker will be Lisa Beichl who has written articles in a variety of journals on the issues in global health management. She holds a B.A. degree from Loyola College in Maryland and an M.B.A. degree in finance from St. Joseph’s University.
Her topic will be “REPORTED KILLED IN ACTION: AN UNEXPECTED SOLDIER, A REMARKABLE LIFE” which focuses on two diaries that her father, George Beichl, PhD kept. The first he wrote as an American student in Munich during the summer of 1939. The second diary he wrote as an American POW in Stalag XIIA in Germany in 1945.
In the 1939 diary he wrote about the opera, the movies, the cost of beer, etc. When Hitler declared war on Poland and the University was formally closed, George wrote about it in his diary. He also wrote about the challenges he faced trying to return to Philadelphia with his mother when all the German boats were being used for the war effort.
In 1944, George had a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, and was teaching Chemistry at St. Joseph’s University. Following the Battle at Normandy, the US Army drafted new recruits and one was George Beichl. In spite of his degree in Chemistry and the need for chemists at the time, he was sent into the Infantry and fought to support the Ardennes Offensive. His last battle was deadly and he was reported KILLED IN ACTION. Miraculously, he survived and so did this second diary. In it he reflected on his prisoner experience, the hunger, delousing, singing, Allied strafing and ultimately freedom. When George returned to Philadelphia after being a POW, he received clearance to work as a chemist on the Manhattan Project, first in Oakridge and then later in Los Alamos.
These diaries were kept a secret from his family until 2010. The stories within these diaries paint a fascinating picture of a time in history we must never forget.
George’s service to his country led to him receiving a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. His subsequent work to repair the tattered relationship between the US and Germany led to the German government awarding him the highest honor given to a non-German, the Commander’s Cross (Grosses Verdienstkreuz).
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