Ohio WWII veteran to be honored by Germany

CLEVELAND -- Germany is bestowing a high civilian honor on an Ohio man for his efforts more than 60 years ago to save German World War II military records.

Ninety-one-year-old Henry Sternweiler, of the Cleveland suburb of Fairview Park, is to be awarded Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit during a Dec. 7 ceremony at the German Consulate in Chicago.   

In 1946, Sternweiler's U.S. military superiors ordered him to burn archives of the defeated German army.

The young lieutenant thought the records were valuable but didn't want to disobey orders, so he notified a French officer assigned to the unit.

The officer was appalled over the order to destroy the files and had it lifted.   

The archives helped notify German families of army deaths and were used by war crimes investigators.