In my next two posts, I'd like to update my readers on the experiences of a prisoner of war who made of the most of a difficult captivity.  He emerged from the darkness of World War II to become a valuable contributor to the medical knowledge of our world.

Among the many individual stories in my book, Guests Behind the Barbed Wire, was that of Hans Kopera who was a young citizen of Austria when German troops entered his country and formed a Nazi government in 1938.  He wanted to become a doctor, but because of the war, he and many of his high school friends enlisted in the German army.   At the age of seventeen, Hans Kopera was assigned to the Second Kradschuetzen (motorcycle) battalion of the 10th Panzer Division.  After action in France, his unit was transferred to Tunisia in northern Africa.  Kopera participated in a number of battles in late 1942 and early 1943.  He was promoted to sergeant and received the Iron Cross for bravery after facing British and American forces at Kasserine Pass, Tebourba, Tebessa, and Medenine.

Because his motorcycle unit was captured on Good Friday morning 1943 in the hills above the Medjerda Valley, Hans Kopera became one of the earliest prisoners of war at the newly opened Camp Aliceville in Pickens County, Alabama, on June 3, 1943.  As a nineteen year old POW, he found some solace in his situation when he became an interpreter and was able to work and study with both the German and the American doctors in the camp hospital.  Hans had a talent for drawing, and during his time at Camp Aliceville, he created hilarious caricatures of other POWS and even of American officers in the camp.  These sketches were often in demand as simple wartime gifts for birthdays and other special occasions.  During his last year at the camp, Kopera spent his mornings on a small chair he had made, studying everything from basic chemistry to histology.  In the afternoons he interpreted for the doctors, and at night, he visited the x-ray lab to make medical sketches.

After his release in the spring of 1945, Hans Kopera spent time in several other camps, including one near Washington DC where he ran a dispensary for POW patients.  He cared for the mildly ill and sent those with serious medical issues to Walter Reed Hospital for treatment.  When he left the United States, he spent time in a camp in Bolbec (France) before being discharged at Corinthia in Austria in July 1946.  Kopera has commented that his treatment in these subsequent camps was "distinctly worse" than his experiences at Camp Aliceville.

When he was accepted into medical school at the University of Graz in September 1946, he received a full year of credit for his studies and medical experience while a POW at Camp Aliceville.  Dr. Kopera received his MD degree from the Medical School at the University of Graz in 1951.  After three years' practice in hospitals and several months as a general practitioner in Basel, Switzerland, he specialized for four years in Pharmacology, partly at Graz and partly at Oxford in England.  His connection to Camp Aliceville might have ended there as he went on to become Head of clinical research for the pharmaceutical company N. V. Organon in the Netherlands and then returned to the University of Graz as Head of the Clinical Pharmacology unit where he was also a lecturer and a professor until he retired in 1986.  During his professional career, Dr. Kopera held leading positions at the International Health Foundation in Geneva and with other scientific organizations in Rome and at Oss in the Netherlands.  His scientific work was concentrated on Endocrinological Pharmacology–specifically Gynecology, Anabolic Steriods, Neuropharmacology, and Contraception.

In Guests Behind the Barbed Wire, I wrote briefly about Dr. Kopera's first return trip to Aliceville, Alabama in February 1975.  I mentioned "a doctor from Birmingham" who drove him to Aliceville to visit what was left of the camp.  Two weeks ago, I was delighted and surprised to receive an email from Dr. Kopera offering additional specific information about this internationally known "doctor from Birmingham" and that visit.  In my next post, I will share with you the rest of this story, Part II, about how Dr. Kopera came to visit Dr. Charles Kochakian in Birmingham and then revisit Camp Aliceville with him.

** Please check back in a day or two for (as Paul Harvey would have said) "the rest of the story."