Volume 10 , Issue 45

1945 - Nazis Flee Alva POW Camp

Three Nazis Flee at Alva -- "Escape of three German prisoners of war Thursday from the Alva internment camp, where a German soldier was shot and killed while attempting escape Thursday, was announced Friday by Kenneth Logan, special agent in charge of the Oklahoma City FBI office.

Logan said the prisoners escaped some time between 10;30 and 11 p.m. Thursday and were not known to be armed.

Col. Murray Gibbons, commander of the Alva prisoner of war camp, said the prisoner, Emil Minotti, was shot and killed there Thursday night. Sporadic machine gun fire was heard in the city of Alva Thursday night from the direction of the compound as well as the sound of alarm sirens, but the camp commander refused to comment on reports of a major disturbance among camp prisoners.

The FBI report said the escaped German war prisoners are Karl Heinz Zigann 22, five feet 11 inches, 188 pounds, brown eyes, dark blond hair, ruddy complexion; Max Wolff, 21, five feet seven inches, 162 pounds, blue eyes, blond hair, light complexion, with a bullet wound in his left leg, and Everhard Wilms, 27, five feet 10 inches, 160 pounds, blue eyes, dark brown hair, dark complexion.

Logan said since one of the group escaped in April and was apprehended in Kansas, it is believed the man may be headed in the same direction.

The Germans are assumed to be dressed in prisoner of war clothing, blue denim, Logan said. Wolff and Wilms are known to speak some English.

The escape and shooting Thursday came less than two days after two young German officers had been caught attempting to escape at Alva." -- The Oklahoman, dated July 8, 1944, page 5
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