Plaque honoring Scranton airman killed in WWII placed at courthouse
Mar. 20—Three years after a German city honored a West Scranton airman killed during World War II, a plaque outside the Lackawanna County Courthouse memorializes his sacrifice.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Eugene Prokop, then 22, was among three Americans taken prisoner when Nazis shot down their aircraft Feb. 17, 1945, and then executed in the city of Hanau after a Gestapo officer learned one of the men was Jewish.
In early February, the county's Veterans Affairs Office quietly erected a plaque telling the three men's story — in both German and English — on the granite wall at the front of the courthouse.
It is identical to a plaque dedicated in Hanau at the site of their killings on Feb. 17, 2020, the 75th anniversary of their deaths.
Members of Prokop's family always were told he and the two other Americans, Tech. Sgt. Charles Bernard Goldstein and Tech Sgt. Warren George Hammond, died in the crash of their B-17 bomber.
It was only when German historians in Hanau were doing research for an exhibit commemorating the end of World War II that the truth about their deaths was revealed: Prokop and the other airmen survived the crash but were ultimately shot because of Goldstein's Jewish faith.
David Eisele, the county's veterans affairs director, attended and spoke at the 2020 plaque dedication in Hanau as the representative of Ann Spearmint of Covington Twp., Prokop's last surviving sibling.
During the Hanau ceremony, which coincided with a local remembrance service at Prokop's gravesite in Cathedral Cemetery, Eisele was given a duplicate of the plaque honoring the three airmen to bring back to Lackawanna County.
"They wanted it to be placed somewhere in Scranton," Eisele said.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic hit shortly after Eisele's return from Germany, the plaque remained in his office until last month, when he made arrangements to have it placed outside the courthouse.
"We wanted the public to be able to see it instead of just veterans coming into the office," Eisele said, adding the Prokop family requested that there not be another ceremony.
Spearmint, 94, still struggles to understand why her family was never informed about the circumstances of her brother's death but said she is happy the plaque remembering him has found a home on Courthouse Square.
"I'm so proud of him," she said.
Eisele said it is important for the public to know about people like Joseph Prokop.
"The younger generation has to remember what our greatest generation fought for," he said. "We are living the way we are living today because of them."
Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9132.
