ROCHESTER, Minn. — For Albert “Ken” Axelson, April 2 has all the time been a really big day.
Axelson, a World Warfare II fight medic, turned 21 on the identical day he was liberated from a Nazi prisoner of battle camp in 1945 within the waning months of the battle. The 2 anniversaries have been intertwined ever since.
So on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, it was a day of double-barreled significance, it being Axelson’s one centesimal birthday and the 79th anniversary of regaining his freedom.
Within the foyer of Rochester West Well being Providers in northwest Rochester, the place Axelson is a resident, members of the Kenyon-Wanamingo Excessive College band performed patriotic songs. A six-member honor guard from each Kenyon and Wanamingo VFWs offered nationwide colours and native media recorded all of it by taking movies and footage. Axelson is a Wanamingo native.
Residents and workers, space veterans and neighborhood members watched as Axelson was offered with one of the best present of all: a brand new pair of brown leather-based soar boots made to Axelson’s 10 1/2 EE specs, like those he wore within the battle.
“He is all the time talked about these boots, how they had been one of the best boots he ever had,” stated Jon Axelson, Ken’s youngest son.
The present was offered to Axelson by 10-year-old Declan Watson. His mother, Georganne Watson, and Declan had flown in from Philadelphia, the place the Army-issued boots had been procured, to current the present. Watson is a good friend of Brian Danielson, a Kenyon veteran who served as grasp of ceremonies of the anniversary celebration.
The boots held particular significance for Axelson, as a result of it was throughout his captivity {that a} younger Nazi guard, coveting the boots, demanded at gunpoint that Axelson give up them. Axelson refused.
“He stared the guard down and the guard backed down,” Danielson stated. “For a paratrooper, in Germany and Belgium, your soar boots are your factor.”
Axelson wore the identical set of garments and boots for months in captivity. After his liberation, he was compelled to burn his boots for well being and sanitation causes.
Axelson’s service was related to various main battles within the European theater. He landed on Omaha Seaside in Normandy on the afternoon of June 6, 1944, as a part of the Allied invasion of France. After D-Day, he volunteered for parachute soar faculty in England and was reassigned as a paratrooper to the a hundred and first Airborne Division.
After soar faculty, Axelson fought in Belgium in the course of the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler’s failed last-gasp effort to show the tide towards the allies.
Axelson was captured by the enemy on Jan. 3, 1945, and was despatched to German POW camps Stalag XIIA and IXB. Day by day, troopers in captivity had been dying of hunger and illness.
After his liberation, Axelson despatched off a telegram to let his household know that he was OK. His dad obtained the telegram — and discovered that his son was alive — as he was getting ready his son’s funeral on the native church.
“The submit workplace particular person gave him the telegram to let him know that Ken was alive and coming residence,” Danielson stated.
Jon Axelson stated that his dad had been wanting ahead to this present day. As quickly as he turned 99, he was already speaking and planning for it, Jon stated.
“He was planning it. He was in cost,” Jon stated.
However then it isn’t each day you get to have a good time each your one centesimal birthday and liberation day on the identical day.
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