Everett man honored by Austrian painting

Published 10:35 pm Sunday, December 7, 2008

Dr. Robert Otto, a retired veterinarian, took a trip back to World War II.

The Everett man was recently contacted by a well-known Austrian artist, Josef Schutzenhofer. The artist was preparing a painting to honor all airmen shot down in Austria during WWII. He wanted to thank them for liberating his country from the Nazis.

Schutzenhofer planned the artwork’s dedication at a large government building in the city of Graz. He invited Otto to come and be honored by the vice governor of the state of Styria.

Otto was the only ex-prisoner of war to return for the dedication.

The government paid for his travel expenses and housing. He was able to bring his three grown children: Regina Cox of Carrollton, Texas; Randy Otto of Anchorage, Alaska; and Robyn Nordsven of Everett.

Otto, 86, was a tail gunner on a B-24 Liberator that went down near the village of Pollau. The crew was bombing an oil refinery near Vienna. Six of the crew were captured and put in jail. Two were killed in the plane and one was missing.

“I was surrounded by civilians with pitchforks,” he said. “They marched me to a little village.”

Survivors were taken to a hospital in Graz for treatment. Otto and the enlisted men were sent to Stalag Luft IV near the Baltic Sea.

“We were loaded on boxcars,” Otto said. “Inside was a miserable, stinking mess.”

In February 1945, they were marched out of the prison camp to keep them safe from the approaching Russian army. Emaciated POWs were marched for 500 miles over 70 days.

They slept in barns, in open fields and wherever they could. Food was limited to boiled potatoes now and then, and the cold was horrific.

Many died of exposure, pneumonia, dysentery and starvation.

“Faith in the Lord kept me plugging along,” he said. “And a desire to get home.”

The camp was rescued by British soldiers.

Otto’s story is included in the book “The Last Escape,” an account of Allied POWs in Nazi Germany, by John Nichol and Tony Rennell.

During his trip to Austria, Otto met people who were children at the time of his capture and remember seeing Otto float down under a parachute. Otto met Herr Adolf Heschl, who was 7 years old when he saw the flyer brought to town.

“He recalled the burns on Dad’s face, which triggered Dad’s memory of looking into mud puddles, trying to see his burns,” his daughter said. “Herr Heschl also remembered Dad’s blue flight uniform.”

The painting was presented in Karmeliterplatz at the Christian Democratic Party Headquarters. Otto was even taken to where his plane fell to earth. They were able to dig up two engine parts buried in a mound of mulch.

It was all big news in Austria and featured in newspaper stories and on the state TV.

“It was hard to say goodbye, having shared a once-in-a-lifetime experience which bonded us in new and deeper ways,” daughter Robyn Nordsven said. “We came to understand each other better. We were able to share in the events which honored our father so well. We walked in places where Dad had walked and saw places with him for the first time. We met people who had seen our father before we were ever born.”

Her father is a pastor at the retirement center where he lives with his wife, Mary Ann Otto, who says she’s amazed her husband survived in POW camps.

They keep some mementoes of his prison days, including a razor and spoon.

“He stores toilet paper,” Mary Ann Otto said. “We have a bathtub full. He vowed to never run out.”

Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.