A map of the Cabanatuan prisoner of war camp #1’s cemetery, sketched by the 111th Quartermaster Graves Registration Platoon in August 1945. Thousands of service members from the U.S. and Philippines died in the WWII camp, including Army Pvt. Erwin Schopp, whose remains were recently identified and are returning to his native Nebraska. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
(Tribune News Service) — Nearly 80 years after he was killed in World War II, the remains of a soldier from Plymouth, Neb., are headed home to be buried alongside family members.
Earlier this month, the Department of Defense said Erwin Schopp’s remains had been positively identified by DNA testing. He died on Jan. 1, 1943, at the age of 30 in a prisoner of war camp in the Pacific Theater, according to historical records.
‘I was speechless’
Schopp, a private in the Army, was known as “Bud” to his family, nicknamed by his mother, Mary Schopp. Karen Mathews was born in 1946 and never got a chance to meet Uncle Bud, but it was her youngest son who was contacted when Schopp’s remains had been identified.
“I was speechless,” Mathews said. “After 82 years, you think, ‘No way.’”
On Memorial Day in 2005, Mathews and her family held a ceremony for Schopp, placing a stone in his honor in the Woodlawn Cemetery of Plymouth. The stone read “Missing in Action,” which will be removed when his remains will be buried July 18.
“(We were) never ever thinking that there would be a body in there, that his remains would come back,” Mathews said.
Twenty years later, Schopp will be laid to rest alongside several other family members including his parents, a brother and sister-in-law.
“It’s sad, but yet, it’s exciting to think that he finally gets to come home,” Mathews said.
‘I’ve been blessed’
This is the second funeral Chris Klingler, director of Fox Funeral Home, has directed for a serviceman whose remains have been identified and returned to Nebraska.
“It’s very rare that someone gets to do one, and I’ve been blessed that I’ve had the opportunity to serve two families,” Klingler said. “It’s very unique.”
In 2018, Klingler said Flight Officer Richard Lane was returned to Nebraska with a military uniform in the casket along with his remains.
Lane died in 1944 during World War II and was originally misidentified.
Services with full military honors for Schopp will be held at 10:30 a.m. July 18 at the Plymouth Community Center.
A burial will follow at the Woodlawn Cemetery of Plymouth with honors conducted by the Nebraska Army National Guard Honor Guard, and Schopp-Ewing-Nispel Post #243 American Legion Post of Plymouth.
Military life
On Jan. 29, 1941, Schopp enlisted in the Army Coast Artillery Corps.
Schopp was a member of the Headquarters Battery, 59th Coastal Artillery Regiment, in the Philippines when Japanese forces invaded the islands in December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942.
A month later, he was on Corregidor Island when it fell to the Japanese in May. Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned at POW camps.
Schopp was among those reported captured.
Japan began the forcible transfer of prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines — the largest being Cabanatuan Prison Camp where Schopp was held among thousands of Americans and Filipinos.
Overcrowding at the camp worsened after the fall of Bataan. Food and water were extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery.
Prisoners were forced to bury the dead in makeshift communal graves, often completed without records or markers.
According to prison camp and other historical records, it was believed Schopp was buried in Common Grave 822. When the camp was liberated in early 1945, about 2,800 Americans were buried in the camp’s local cemetery.
On July 10, 1943, an article in The Plymouth News said word was received about Schopp’s death at a Japanese prison camp at Manila.
A newspaper clipping on the death of Army Coast Artillery Corps Pvt. Erwin Schopp. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
Six years later Schopp was declared nonrecoverable and was buried as an unknown at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. For many years, Mathews and her family sent a bouquet of flowers to be placed next to his name.
For over 70 years, Schopp’s grave was cared for by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Now accounted for, a rosette will be placed by his name at his grave in the Philippines.
In 2018, the remains in Common Grave 822 were disinterred and sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency laboratory for analysis. Two years later, remains associated with Common Grave 836 were disinterred for analysis.
‘I hope they come’
Through dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, the remains of Schopp were accounted for on Jan. 24, 2025. Mathews said her cousin John Mueller, who lives in Rockford, Illinois, was a perfect DNA match.
Mathews later received a booklet explaining Schopp’s identification, which she passed on to the cousins she’s in contact with.
There are still two cousins she hopes to find. Mathews isn’t sure if they’ve heard about the discovery of Schopp’s remains and hope they make to the service.
“I hope they see this information, and I hope they come,” Mathews said.
Klingler has taken care of the majority of the ceremony planning. He even wrote the obituary, which Mathews and one of her daughters were able to add to from family stories. His full obituary can be viewed at FoxFuneralHome.net.
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