After 14 years living in his rural New York home, Jason Hurdle thought he knew every inch of his property.
So he was left stunned to discover a previously hidden crawlspace while cleaning his Waterloo garage back in July.
However, his wonder only increased after he plucked a set of files marked ‘secret’ from inside the dusty compartment.
The 300-page tranche contained appeared to contain first-hand accounts from World War II American Prisoners of War.
Hurdle, 74, took the documents to a local library which referred them to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) who came to collect them.
It was subsequently confirmed that not only were the accounts genuine, but they were once classified.
‘I’m in podunk little Waterloo, New York, and this went all the way to the National Archives. We’re kind of in shock here,’ Hurdle told the Washington Post.
Hurdle explained his home has been in his wife’s family for generations, but was stumped as to how the files ended up in the property.
Jason Hurdle found a box of secret files in his garage, which were revealed to be 300 pages of first-hand accounts from World War II American Prisoners of War
Hurdle discovered the historic files in a crawlspace in the garage of his home. The home has been in his wife’s family for generations
He added that a former neighbor had memorabilia from an ancestor, but was still unsure if this explains the find.
The documents describe in horrifying detail the events prisoners of war endured.
The POWs were told to write down their experiences to gather intelligence when they arrived at Camp Lucky Strike in Normandy.
Many documents from this camp were then used as evidence of war crimes in military tribunals.
Historians had no knowledge of the lost accounts. The National Archives told the Post that they did not have the files on a list of missing documents.
‘The discovery of these government records is important and meaningful to ensure preservation and public access to our country’s history,’ NARA spokeswoman Grace McCaffrey told the publication.
One account was from a man named Julian Candelaria, who was held captive in a work camp for months, recalling that he witnessed ’60 men in boxcars,’ with ‘no food no water, no sanitary facilities, crowded, exposed to bombing. Walked 3 days + nights with little food, no medical.’
The Washington Post found Candelaria’s obituary, which read: ‘After returning home he refused to discuss the events that occurred during his imprisonment at [the] hands of his captors, the Germans.’
Another POW named Henry Daly wrote that the conditions were ‘a very sad example of what the US soldier was like.’
Hurdle told the Washington Post that he was ‘in shock’ that he discovered the precious documents
POWs were told to write down their experiences to gather intelligence when they arrived at Camp Lucky Strike in Normandy
‘We ran for cover, but two of my companions [whose] names I do not [recall] were killed by the bombs,’ he added.
His great-grandson, Michael Yanes, told the Post that Daly did not talk about his time in the war with his family, but he often slept in a park because he struggled to stay in his house.
‘Seeing these words written is quite heavy. This is all new to us. The emotions. I can’t even describe,’ Yanes said.
The documents have been placed with similar accounts in the National Archives and will be digitized.
NARA also confirmed over the summer that they discovered 145 US Navy records from an engineer who participated in several Apollo missions, including blueprints and sound recordings.
A pardon signed by President Franklin Pierce and a Congressional Tally Sheet of a secret House of Representatives vote were also recovered at auction houses.
A letter to then-Secretary of War Jefferson Davis from Army 1st Lt JEB Stuart has been recovered as well and will be digitized.
The Daily Mail reached out to NARA for comment.
