(WSVN) - The father of a South Florida woman was imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II. Eighty years later, she got to literally walk in his footsteps. 7’s Tavares Jones shines the Spotlight on their story.
Back in her South Florida condo, Marilyn Johansen has time to reflect.
Marilyn Johansen, daughter of World War II prisoner of war: “There were many of us that had an emotional experience. We felt our fathers with us in those moments.”
Moments Marilyn and her son experienced last month, about 5,000 miles away in Poland, and moments that connected generations.
Marilyn Johansen: “My father, Eugene Francis Phillips, was an Air Force officer. He was a major. My father served through World War II, Korea, Cold War and Vietnam. Something in him wanted to fly.”
In 1943, 2nd Lt. Phillips was fighting the Nazis in Italy when his plane was shot down.
Marilyn Johansen: “He was knocked unconscious. The plane was on fire. He was burned.”
Then he was captured.
A telegram sent to his mother in Ohio read: “Your son” is “a prisoner of war.”
Marilyn Johansen: “The Germans fed them rotten potatoes and cabbage and occasionally a piece of meat.”
For 15 months, 2nd Lt. Phillips was imprisoned at Stalag Luft III, an infamous Nazi POW camp. Near the end of World War II, Hitler ordered the camp be evacuated. The airmen were forced to walk day after day in sub-zero temperatures in what would be called “The Long March.”
Marilyn Johansen: “Hitler was thinking he would use these POWs as a bargaining chip. My father’s camp had 10,500 men in it. On the march, some men died.”
That was January of 1945.
Howard De Lester, event organizer: “Long March, 80th anniversary and a very special event.”
This was January of 2025.
Howard De Lester: “To begin the arduous, 60-plus miles through the countryside.”
Relatives of the late POWs joined members of the U.S., Polish and British armed forces to follow their exact route.
Howard De Lester: “The length of the column would represent the prisoners of war in 1945. Conditions were perilous.”
Marilyn Johansen: “This is where he almost starved to death. It was brutal. We all knew that when we marched: That if they hadn’t survived, none of us would have been here.”
Marilyn’s dad did survive and after being liberated, the telegram home read: “Your son … is being returned to the United States.”
Marilyn Johansen: “He was emaciated, and then he had frostbite and he had, you know, burns from his face.”
80th anniversary march video: “The war marks a dark chapter in our history.”
At the end of an event marking the past was a warning about the future.
80th-anniversary march video: “With this march, you also want to warn our world to not repeat our history. As soldiers of different nations, you stand for the protection of freedom and peace.”
Marilyn Johansen: “My father would say to me, ‘If you don’t study history, you’re destined to repeat it.’ He taught me that we learn through adversity, that life is full of lessons. He gave me the silver lining of a horrible, horrible thing that happened.”
Marilyn recently released a memoir about growing up in a military family, called “My Father’s Secrets.” Her father, who was awarded the Prisoner of War medal and a Purple Heart, passed away back in 1990, but his legacy lives on.
Tavares Jones, 7News.
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