Interview with Family of Melvin Thielbar - Part 1

My name is Ethan Clinchard, and I work with Dr. Beth Dotan as an intern researcher for the Nebraska Stories of Humanity. Today's date is April 13, 2024, and we are conducting this interview in McCook, Nebraska. Thank you both for participating in this interview, as your stories and insights will preserve the legacy and life of Melvin Thielbar for students in Nebraska and beyond to learn from for generations. So first, please state your name and your relationship to Melvin, and if there are any other immediate family members not present, please state their names as well.

I'm Candy Simmons. He's my father.

I'm Pam Messinger. He's my dad. We also had one other brother who's older. His name is Chris, and a younger brother who drowned right out of high school. His name was Larry.

Can you tell us a little bit about Melvin's childhood?

He grew up down in Danbury, which is, I don't know, if there's 300 people there, they were all home and the animals were there when they counted. So, graduated right after high school. He signed up and went to the service.

Can you tell me if Melvin had any siblings and what his relationship with them was like?

He did. Do you want to talk about it?

No, go ahead.

He had two sisters. One was Iris. She was the baby of the family. One was Joyce. She married a farmer. But she was also a school teacher when she graduated from high school. And he had a brother named Max. Between my grandpa Guy, Daddy's dad, my dad, and Max, they worked for the State Highway Department of Roads for Nebraska for over 110 years total, between the three of them. Yeah, all pretty close family.

Can you share a little bit about Melvin's family of origin?

As far as I know, we're German. Thielbar is one of those names that it's not... but most of our ancestors, I believe, came from Germany.

And why did Melvin join the Army?

I think because he felt that was the thing he needed to do. He felt the call and he answered it.

And in your opinion, what is Melvin's legacy?

I don't know that either. I would have to say my opinion of what his legacy is. He saw so much inhumanity during the war that when he came back, he came back a totally changed man who was bound and determined to make life better for anybody that he happened to meet. He was always, well, he was one of the founding members of the local Eagles Club down here, FOE, fraternal order. And their motto was "People helping people." And I would just have to say that was my dad's legacy, to help as many people as he could.

What was his favorite way to help others? What did he often do?

Anything that was needed. He raised much money for charity through the Eagles Club and they donated to all of the local charities. I know the last few years that I helped him with the charities, we raised anywhere from $5,000 to $7,000 a year and it stayed in McCook for the charities that were here.

And do you think Melvin had a message you would want to convey from his wartime experiences?

My opinion on that is, I think he would say, learn from the past. History will repeat itself if you don't learn the lessons. We don't need any more Holocaust. We don't need any more wars. I think that's what he would say.

And how do his grandchildren perceive his legacy?

A lot of them don't know much about this part of dad. I think they'll be shocked when they do realize everything that he had and where he had been. But I know every one of them will tell you that his heart was as big as all outdoors. He would do anything for you. A handyman, he'd work on your car, whether it was take a spring off the garage door, put it in your car. He fixed her car one time with a spring from the garage door, the transmission. And if they needed anything, he would step right up to help anybody. So that's what I think they'd say.

Are there any other stories that you think best exemplify Melvin's spirit?

He went to a lot of his reunions. And even though he didn't talk at home a lot about the war, when they got to the reunions, the men would go in one corner. And it was like you'd have thought they were a group of women, just couldn't shut them up. They were just all talking. And I think it was because they knew the people they were talking to knew what they were saying and understood totally. And he enjoyed every one of those. We went to several. And then he got to go to the Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. And [it] absolutely just rocked his world. He was so, I mean, we're a small town. And he did some traveling, but never anything like Washington, D.C. He was very impressed with all the monuments and his treatment by the people who did the Honor Flight. So that's what I think he would do, in my opinion.

And as a family, how do you feel about continuing to share his story?

I think it's important. I think it needs to be out there. People need to know, for all those people in the world that say the Holocaust did not happen, that indeed it did. And if we don't get our world straightened out pretty soon, we might be right back in the same situation. I don't think that's anything that we really want to happen.

Well, thank you so much for participating in this brief interview. Your stories help preserve Melvin's legacy, and he's a liberator and a hero. So thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Appreciate it.