Alfons E. Janko, 87, a former German soldier who escaped from a Russian prisoner-of-war camp during World War II and came to Chicago with his family in 1955, later becoming a U.S. citizen, died of pneumonia and complications from cancer Sunday, Oct. 1, in Weiss Memorial Hospital, Chicago. His son-in-law, Nicholas Balouris, said Mr. Janko was a common soldier who did not join the Nazi party and did not learn of the war crimes committed by his country until after the war. Born in the German town of Hindenburg, Mr. Janko joined the German army at age 22 and after two years returned to a civilian job as a railroad official. But in 1939, Mr. Janko was called back to the military. He was captured in Poland and spent two years in a Russian POW camp. One night, he and eight other prisoners fled. Six of them were shot by guards during the escape attempt, but Mr. Janko got away. He could not return to his hometown–where he had left behind a wife, who died during the war, and a daughter–because the town had been ceded to Poland in war reparations. He did not see his daughter again until 1965. In Hildesheim, Germany, Mr. Janko married another woman, Maria, and the two found an American sponsor who helped them move to the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago. Mr. Janko got a job at Silvestri Art & Manufacturing, where he created molds for decorative sculptures, said his daughter Sylvia Balouris. Mr. Janko’s daughter said her father was a kind, athletic man who participated in the Senior Olympics well into his 80s. In addition to his daughter, Mr. Janko is survived by two sons, Peter and Edward; another daughter, Ingrid Srebrna; and four grandchildren. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Saturday in St. John Cantius Church, 825 N. Carpenter St., Chicago.
