Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 5, Number 3, September 1995 Page: 142
[64] p. : ill., ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal
Church in Weimar. After the war, his remains were returned to Weimar and buried in the
Masonic Cemetery there.73
Sgt. Robert Shimek
September 3, 1925 - April 3, 1945
After the German Ardennes offensive was stamped out, the Allies pushed
on to the Rhine River, securing the bridge at Remagen on March 7, 1945. The end was
near for the Nazis. The combined strength of the French, British, Canadian, and American
armies in the west and the Soviet armies in the east, was squeezing the life out of the
German effort. However, Colorado County was destined to lose several more men in the
fierce fighting before the conclusion of the war in Europe.
Robert Shimek was born September 3, 1925 in Rosenberg, the only son of
John and Betty Shimek. He had graduated from Garwood High School, entered the
service on December 14, 1943, and gone overseas in November 1944, shortly after his
nineteenth birthday. Shimek was in the army infantry, and was trained in the use of the
Browning automatic rifle (BAR). On April 1, 1945, he wrote a letter to his parents in
which he stated that he had just received a double battlefield promotion from private first
class to sergeant. Two days after he wrote the letter, and well before his parents received
it, he was killed in action. A straggling German soldier tossed a grenade into Shimek's
patrol as they were retiring from the front. At age nineteen, Shimek was one of the
youngest Colorado County men to die in the war.74
PFC Albert R. Klesel
December 3, 1922 - April 10, 1945
Albert R. Klesel was born December 3, 1922, the son of Willie A. and Martha
Klesel of New Bielau. He was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church there. He
married Alice Shumbera on April 18, 1944, entered the service only nine days later on
April 27, 1944, and was shipped overseas as a rifleman with the 317th Infantry in
General George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army in October 1944. In late April 1945, the Third
Army raced across southern and central Germany, crossing into Czechoslovakia,
stopping only when the political decision was made to order Patton to stop at Pilsen.75
In those hectic days of the European war, Klesel's company attacked enemy
positions near Erfurt in Germany. Resistance, from small arms and mortar fire, was light.
Nonetheless, Klesel was killed instantly by a gunshot. Klesel's wife, along with many
others who were employed in warship construction at the nearby shipyards, was living
in Orange when she received the message that her husband had been missing in action
73 Weimar Mercury, April 6, 1945, April 27, 1945.
74 Eagle Lake Headlight, April 20, 1945; May 11, 1945, Colorado County Citizen, April 26, 1945.
May 17, 1945. According to Shimek's cousin, Lawrence Shimek, the government had a policy against sending
men overseas until they turned nineteen. He also reported that Shimek's body was returned from Europe after
the war and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
75 Weimar Mercury, June 22, 1945.142
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 5, Number 3, September 1995, periodical, September 1995; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151395/m1/34/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.