WINONA, Minn. — The big framed photograph hung within the hallway between the lounge and bedrooms of the Kurt and Mabel Schellhas dwelling in Lacrosse, Wis. — highschool commencement portraits of their beloved sons.

By all accounts the three Schellhas boys have been well-liked — tall and good-looking basketball gamers blessed with movie-star beauty however destined to star in their very own real-life household tragedy.

Two of them wouldn’t dwell previous their twenty fifth birthdays, and the third would dwell to 96 haunted by being the one surviving Schellhas son.

On Memorial Day yearly, we bear in mind those that have died in service to our nation. Sadly, some folks face a better burden than others. What occurs to a household once they lose a couple of soldier to struggle? How does it have an effect on the dad and mom and surviving kids and the trajectory of the complete household?

It is a story concerning the Schellhas household of Minnesota who confronted the unthinkable throughout World Battle II, however managed to outlive, thrive and now bear in mind years after making an attempt to neglect.

Heidi Schellhas remembers the day as if it occurred yesterday. She was 4 or 5 years outdated and staying at her grandparent’s home in Wisconsin when she noticed the photograph of three good-looking younger males amid the handfuls of different pictures on the hallway wall. She requested her grandmother who they have been.

“She stated, ‘That is Billy and Buddy.’ And I stated, ‘Nicely, who’re they?’ She stated, ‘‘Nicely, they have been your dad’s brothers.’” Heidi stated. “I didn’t know he had brothers.”

Heidi’s father was the youngest son — the surviving son — Gordon Schellhas. He died in 2020, on the age of 96 after a life Heidi stated had been “racked with grief” over the lack of his two brothers in World Battle II.

Lengthy earlier than World Battle II, the Schellhas identify was well-known locally of Winona, Minn., due to the household enterprise, Schellhas Brewing Co. In keeping with a newspaper commercial from 1893, the brewery’s “Bottle beers are unexcelled for household use.” The brewery closed throughout Prohibition, however household patriarch Kurt grew to become a grasp brewer at Fountain Metropolis Brewery and later G. Heileman Brewing in LaCrosse.

At any regular time in historical past, it might need come to go that Kurt and Mabel Schellhas’ three strapping boys would additionally go into brewing like generations of German Schellhas males earlier than them, however not lengthy in spite of everything three graduated from Winona Excessive College, World Battle II would change everybody’s plans.

Eldest son Invoice was attending Winona State Instructor’s School when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Lower than a month later, he joined the service and went to coaching in Texas.

He finally grew to become a second lieutenant with the U.S. Military Air Forces the place he served as a bombardier with the 701st Bomber Squadron, 445th Bomber Group.

In July 1944, Kurt and Mabel have been notified that Invoice’s aircraft had been shot down over France and he was lacking in motion. The household was devastated.

“Mother and father all the time say they do not have favorites, however I do suppose that Invoice was most likely my grandmother’s favourite,” Heidi stated.

Invoice’s youthful brother Kurt (the household known as him Buddy) was stationed in Europe identical to his brother and wrote of Invoice’s MIA standing in a diary he stored.

“Worst information of my life got here from dwelling. Invoice is lacking over Europe. He was solely in England a couple of month. No official information about it but… I hope he’s alive and properly.” 

Summer time light into fall. Then Christmas got here and went with no phrase of Invoice. However the scenario was about to get much more dire.

“All that point, my grandmother simply stored holding out hope that her son was nonetheless alive. And whereas she’s grieving about him being lacking in motion, inside six months, Kurt was killed,” Heidi stated.

In January 1945, simply months after masking information of his brother, The Winona Each day Information reported, “Kurt Schellhas, Liberator Pilot, Killed in England.”

Like Invoice, Kurt was additionally a second lieutenant with the U.S. Military Air Forces. He was a pilot with the 790th Bomber Squadron, 467th Bomber Group when his aircraft was shot down.

The daddy of a fellow crewman, who additionally died within the crash, wrote a letter to the Schellhas household to inform them what he heard had occurred. He wrote that the early morning of Dec. 29, 1944, was foggy when Kurt’s aircraft took off on its mission.

“It rose to the heights of the timber, two motors lower out they usually crashed within the timber, additionally the bombs exploded. Jim (an airman who witnessed the crash) stated when he heard the bombs exploded he knew there was no hopes for the crew. He went to the hospital they usually advised him they have been all useless. They have been buried of their winter uniforms facet by facet and the English folks put contemporary flowers on their graves every single day. Jim stated your son was pretty much as good a pilot as there was within the A.A.F.”

In keeping with the Winona newspaper report, by this time Invoice had additionally been declared useless.

Two sons killed inside six months, the unimaginable taking place to the Schellhas dad and mom.

“I as soon as requested my dad, ‘How did Grandma maintain going?’” Heidi recalled. “I imply, how did she address that grief? And he simply took a protracted, deep breath, and stated, ‘She simply put one foot in entrance of the opposite. And soldiered on.’ My grandparents lived by way of the Prohibition and the Melancholy they usually have been simply actually robust nuts.”

However now, that they had just one son left.

When Gordon bought phrase of his center brother’s dying, he was a naval aviator flying PBYs (patrol bombers) out of Puerto Rico, Cuba and Curacao. Heidi discovered a photograph of her father along with his mom very possible taken following the deaths of the older sons.

“My dad is extraordinarily skinny within the photograph and you’ll simply see the vacant look on his face. I imply, I simply suppose he was form of shell-shocked,” she stated.

The struggle ended simply months later, and whereas Gordon got here dwelling bodily unscathed, Heidi stated the lack of his brothers was a painful, lifelong wound.

“I actually suppose my father was completely simply racked with grief most of his life. Severely, I simply do not suppose he healed,” Heidi stated.

She recollects Christmases when her father would expertise excruciating ache simply earlier than they have been prepared to take a seat down for dinner.

“You possibly can inform he was simply grimacing. You possibly can inform that he was simply clenching his enamel. He was simply in ache and he would not open his mouth and I might say to my mother, ‘What’s flawed with Dad?’ And he or she stated, ‘Oh, he will get these pains. I feel as a result of he simply remembers.’”

Whereas the pains might need been a bodily manifestation of Gordon’s grief, Heidi stated her dad didn’t discuss a lot about his brothers. As a dad he was agency, however affectionate, loving with an ideal humorousness.

After the struggle, he labored briefly for his father, then a brewmaster at G. Heileman Brewing. He married his spouse Jean Morcomb and finally earned a bachelor’s diploma in chemistry from the College of Wisconsin.

He labored for Paul Lewis Laboratories in Milwaukee and later, Heidi stated, maybe due to his well-known final identify, he was recruited by Rahr Malting Co. the place he labored for 35 or 40 years as a malt salesman.

He and Jean have been the primary to encourage and nudge their three kids towards high-achieving careers. Eldest little one Kurt grew to become a diagnostic radiologist; Heidi, the center little one, grew to become a decide, together with an appointment to the Minnesota Courtroom of Appeals in October 2007; and Gretchen, the youngest, is a working towards lawyer and accomplice at a legislation agency in Minneapolis.

Gordon’s 96 years have been full, nearly as if he have been making an attempt to dwell a life worthy of three males.

“I actually suppose my mom was the one who compelled him to take pleasure in life. Which needed to be exhausting for her. My dad liked life. They have been lively within the American Legion in Nisswa, Minn. My dad liked our nation, and he was a patriot,” Heidi stated.

Even so, Heidi stated he shied away from speaking concerning the struggle and by no means visited his brother’s graves in Europe, one thing Heidi and different members of the family have carried out.

It was solely in his later years that he began speaking about Invoice and Kurt, even cherishing pictures Heidi had taken of her uncle’s grave in Europe.

“I feel he lastly began to have some peace about every thing. And felt that perhaps his brothers would not be forgotten.”

In truth, based on the household, in Gordon’s ultimate days, he questioned aloud about whether or not he would see his brothers once more. In his 2020 obituary, they shared an entry from Kurt’s diary from Oct. 31, 1943, when Kurt occurred to run into little brother Gordon whereas each have been in Oklahoma Metropolis. They shared a lodge room, laughed and stayed up all evening speaking. Then it was time to go.

Kurt wrote:

“After I stated goodbye to Gordon, I nearly cried. We shook palms and I climbed on the bus. As I sit right here writing, I nonetheless have a lump in my throat as a result of it would most likely be fairly some time earlier than I see him once more. “

That was the final time Kurt and Gordon would see one another.

Mother and father Kurt and Mabel lived one other 40 years after the deaths of their first two boys, each residing into their mid-80s. Gordon lived one other 75 years.

All that continues to be from that painful chapter within the household’s life are outdated letters, diary entries and pictures — all of which we are able to hope will assist future generations bear in mind not simply the ache and sacrifice, however the heroism and love of three brothers from Winona.