School pays tribute to WWII veteran
Students at Endeavour Schools gained a special lesson in history last Friday when they met 105-year-old World War II veteran Eric Roediger.
The veteran and former prisoner of war was chosen for the school's Adopt a Digger program and presented a plaque at its commemorative Anzac Day assembly.
For more than a decade the Port Kennedy school has adopted a Digger, one who shares a link with its community, to educate the students about Australia's war history.
Eric's daughter, Dawn Burr, said her father had lost his memories of the war but she had grown up hearing his stories.
Mrs Burr said her father volunteered for the army in 1941 and was sent to Palestine where he and his brother Claude were part of the 2nd/3rd Machine Gun Battalion.
"As they were returning to Australia via Java they and their battalion were captured by the Japanese," she said. "They spent 12 months in Java, 18 months in Thailand working on the Thailand-Burma railway and another 12 months in Japan working in a coal mine under the sea."
She said her father was a PoW for three-and-a-half years and was in Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped.
"He never told us anything bad, he talked about the war a lot and it was all the funny stories - how they tricked the Japanese to get food, by hiding eggs under their hats," Mrs Burr said.
"He learnt to keep his head really low very early on and he always said if you did the wrong thing you paid for it.
"I remember people asking him 'did you ever lose hope?' and he would say 'no, I always thought we'd come home'.
Mr Roediger chose a life as a farmer south of Cunderdin and spent 35 years farming wheat and sheep before he retired in 1981 and moved to Waikiki, where he lived for 25 years.
Mrs Burr said she and her sister Wendy were touched by the school's invitation.
"We are very moved by it and very thankful they have taken the interest in Dad; it is lovely," she said.
Endeavour Schools ESC principal Jayne Gorbould said having Mr Roediger at the school was a special event and helped the students put war into context.
