South County Author Debuts Historical Fiction Novel

South County resident David Fiedler never thought he would write a book when he was in the Army Reserves in 1997.

But when he was serving at Fort Leonard Wood, motivation struck. Not exactly for a book, but with a topic that would hold his attention for the next 14 years.

“I was looking at the black and white photos of German soldiers working on farms in Rolla and St. James,” he said. “It was something that defied sense; how could there be German soldiers in WWII and we’ve got them out working on farms?”

Fiedler began researching the topic. During the war, American soldiers captured more than 500,000 German POWs and took them back to the U.S. to prison camps.

The country needed the soldiers for labor and with so many able-bodied workers drafted, Fiedler said, there was a great need for workers in agriculture.

More than 15,000 soldiers were put in Missouri and sent to work in small towns.

Originally pitching the story to magazines, Fiedler realized he could write a book off the years of research he had accumulated. His first book was a non-fiction account, Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During WWII.

But Fiedler didn’t think that was enough, hearing stories about romances between the German soldiers and the townspeople.

“You’re trying to capture these details about them. You imagined how they could have played out with the human emotions,” he said. “The relationships were always forbidden but the reality was that the prisoners that worked on farms interacted with the townspeople naturally.”

A historical fiction novel resulted from the stories. My Enemy, My Love has been a 10-year progress, finally coming together this fall.

Fiedler said the most satisfying experience of writing the book is the reaction of people who lived in that time period.

“It’s rewarding to see their gratitude in their stories coming back to them,” he said. “It reminded them about things they’ve forgotten. There were a number of terrific friendships that developed and lasted decades after the war. A real satisfying angle of this was uncovering a very positive side of WWII that isn’t widely known.”

Fiedler is hosting a book signing and reading Sunday at the Sunset Hills Community Center (3915 S. Lindbergh) at 4 p.m.

Although not immediately on his agenda, Fiedler said the book is written so that there is a possibility for a sequel.

“It took 10 years for this to come around, and it may take 10 years more,” he said. “I don’t have a burning list of projects and nothing teed up to tackle next. Who knows when it comes or where it comes from?"