P. A. Spayd

Patricia Spayd (P.A.Spayd - published Schiffer Military History biographer) is the editor/writer and biographer of a 4 book series on WWII German General Fritz Bayerlein. Patricia left rural Georgia, enlisted in the U.S. AIr Force, serving from 1971-75. She attended Avila College in Kansas City, Missouri. She moved to Virginia in 1990, and retired from federal service in 2002.

Working in her retirement years, going to archives in the US, France, England and Germany provided primary source data for her books. In addition, she traveled throughout Germany visiting many veterans who served in the Afrikakorps, Panzer Lehr Division and 53rd Army Korps. Meeting the General's nephew, Mr. Fritz Dittmar-Bayerlein, and Bayerlein's tenant's daughter, Frau Helga Woods, and Mr. Manfred Rommel, son of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, availed first-hand anecdotes. Tracing Bayerlein from many sources, archives and including Gestapo records, war-crimes files, and the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.

The overall conclusion of General Bayerlein was a surprise - he was 1/4 Jewish - worked actively against mistreatment of Russian prisoners, anti-semitism, saved Jews from deportation in Hungary through the Hungarian Archbishop Seridi in May 1944. Retreating from Allied advances, he kept his Panzer Lehr Division out of French and Belgian villages to avoid their bombardment by the advancing Allies. Bayerlein chose anti-Nazi subordinates for his division's officers and built a loyal cadre to carry out his orders of evade, retreat and save civilian lives in battle zones.