On this day 4th August 1945. German prisoner of war Kurt Rossmeisl escaped from imprisonment in North Carolina, United States and evaded the immediate search.

On this day 4th August 1945.



German prisoner of war Kurt Rossmeisl escaped from imprisonment in North Carolina, United States and evaded the immediate search. 

He would later board a train for Chicago, Illinois, United States, established a false identity as "Frank Ellis", and remained at large until 1959.

Kurt Rossmeisl, who had escaped from a North Carolina prison camp in 1945, made a life in Chicago under the alias Frank Ellis. 

After 14 years of looking over his shoulder, he walked into an FBI field office and surrendered in 1959.

2,222 German POW’s escaped from their camps, most of these were recaptured quickly. Seven POW’s were unaccounted for when the repatriation operation concluded.

The record for the German prisoner who evaded capture for the longest period was Georg Gartner, who escaped from captivity on September 21st 1945.

He assumed a new identity as Dennis Whilesand lived quietly in California, Colorado, and Hawaii before coming forward in 1985. 

The FBI had ended its search for Gärtner in 1963 and the federal government could not prosecute or deport him.

 Whiles became a naturalised US citizen in 2009 and wrote a memoir, Hitler's Last Soldier in America.

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