I wanted to read The Strange Story of Tarzan of Manhattan before Jim Siracuse spoke at the Pot of Praise. The event organizer brought me to Jim’s condominium to pick up a copy of his self-published book. Jim insisted that we stay for coffee.
The slender, well-groomed man wore his eighty-nine years well. While he prepared coffee, I read his bio on the last page of his book. He is in good health, exercises six times a week, and prays two hours daily before walking the streets of his community, sharing Jesus with anyone willing to listen. Jim wrote his book for his grandchildren. There are a limited number of copies available.
I read the fascinating 250-page story of this WWII veteran in less than two days and then called Jim for permission to write an article about his spiritual journey.
A doctor introduced Jim’s father to a health fad when Jim became ill. His father embraced the fad to the point of fanaticism. For the first twelve years of Jim’s life, his diet consisted of raw fruits, vegetables, olives, and nuts. To ensure Jim received nature’s sunshine and fresh air naturally, his mother dutifully brought him to play in the woods at the northern tip of Manhattan. She crocheted while he ran naked in the forest from morning until sundown. A 1922 newspaper clipping about Jim titled “New York Has a Tarzan Baby” is included in his book.
Jim’s path to God was as unusual as his childhood. In 1944, as Jim waited to board an A-20 for a bombing mission in Amiens, France, he had a foreboding that he would not return. When his squadron approached its target, the tail of his plane took a direct hit. Then the right engine was blown away, leaving the prop spinning out of control. Jim ordered his gunners to jump. He kept his plane in formation until he dropped his bombs on the German train laden with ammunition.
Flames engulfed the plane as Jim ejected into enemy territory. He hit the ground with greater impact than he anticipated, injuring his ankle. Jim quickly gathered up his parachute to hide it from the Germans. As he hobbled toward the woods, two German soldiers on a three-wheeled motorcycle sped toward him. They sprayed machine-gun bullets at Jim but not one bullet found its target.
The soldiers brought Jim to their field headquarters where an interrogator shoved his machine gun into Jim’s right temple. The ammunition train he had bombed continued to explode, shaking the ground beneath their feet. A tall, blonde-haired German screamed and frothed at the mouth. With each explosion, his anger intensified until Jim feared that he would pull the trigger, if not intentionally, by accident. Desperate to calm the agitated soldier, Jim did the only thing he could think of. He smiled. The soldier abruptly quit screaming and walked away.
The Germans sent Jim to Stalag Luft 3. A few months before he arrived, two hundred prisoners of war sought to escape. Through a team effort, the prisoners had simultaneously dug three tunnels named Tom, Dick, and Harry. They completed tunnel Tom, but it fell twenty feet short of the forest that was intended to provide cover. The Germans discovered their plan, and the desperate prisoners were mowed down with machine gun fire as they exited the tunnel. The few who eluded the rain of bullets were captured. Some were killed. After the war, a film was produced about the event called The Great Escape.
Jim’s unwelcome new home in the infamous Stalag Luft 3 faced the communal latrine. “The latrine wasn’t the best of neighbors, nor was the breeze what you’d call a breath of fresh air. Our room seemed to be the official headquarters or shall we say the favorite hangout for latrine flies, swarms of them!” wrote Jim.
In this place of human suffering, Jim heard about the Bible for the first time. An Army major assigned to Jim’s room constantly talked about the Bible. When Jim questioned him, the major responded, “The Bible is the greatest book ever written.” Jim enjoyed reading Perry Mason books and wondered if the Bible could be better.
The following year, January 1945, the Russians broke through the eastern front. Nervous soldiers screamed at the prisoners to collect their belongings. At 10 p.m., in 17-degree-below-zero weather with a foot of snow on the ground, Jim and 10,000 of his fellow POWs were forced to walk nonstop for 56 hours to Spremberg. They arrived barely alive and were herded like cattle onto a freight train for Moosberg.
Jim’s hope that Moosberg would offer better living conditions proved vain. He wrote, “Moosberg…was overrun by lice and fleas. They walked all over our bodies, 24 hours a day, under our clothes, in our eyes, often in our mouths and on our food. They’d bite and cause bumps and rashes. We couldn’t sleep or rest. That horrible latrine we complained about at Stalag Luft 3 was pure luxury.”
Jim borrowed a Bible from a fellow prisoner, planning to read it from cover to cover. After reading the first six pages of Genesis, he decided the major who highly recommended the Bible was crazy. Three months later, American troops liberated the POWs at Moosberg.
Jim returned to America where he was assigned to Craig Field in Selma, Alabama. He didn’t think about the Bible again until he met Mary in the civilian cafeteria. She wasn’t like the girls he usually dated. “Her personality was vivacious, humorous with a pleasing touch of humility,” wrote Jim. Mary was Baptist. Jim considered himself an agnostic, but he was curious about religion. He willingly listened as Mary shared her faith. “God works in wondrous ways,” said Jim. “He arranged for this slicker from Manhattan to meet an Alabama farm girl to bring me to salvation.”
Jim fell in love with Mary but decided there were too many differences between them for a marriage to work. They agreed not to pursue a serious relationship. A higher power voided their agreement on a Sunday afternoon in February of 1946. Jim and Mary were sitting on the edge of an empty swimming pool when Jim had an experience that convinced him God involves himself in the lives of his creations. Jim wrote:
“. . . something suddenly gripped me! I couldn’t move! The whole sky changed to a deep orange! No clouds, no variation, just a beautiful orange color as far as my eyes could see. I didn’t know what was happening. I couldn’t turn or talk or signal for help. I was totally immobilized, paralyzed! Then a voice said, ‘This is the girl you’re going to marry.’ My heart suddenly filled with an overwhelming love for this girl sitting to my left. I never knew any emotion so strong and so pure and so compelling. The sky returned to normal. I looked at Mary. She was unaware of anything that happened.”
This time Jim read the Bible with different results. When he read John 3:16 something surged within him and the verse seemed to leap off the page. Jim felt that God had reached out to him. Without hesitation or reluctance, he asked Jesus to come into his life. He also decided to make Mary his wife. “We married August 1946, the beginning of a fifty-three-year honeymoon,” said Jim.
God is in the depths of human suffering, in the heights of heaven and in an ancient book that speaks to human hearts. Jim’s first witness of God came in the midst of suffering created by war. His second witness came from the heavens when God gave him direction for his life. But the greatest witness came to Jim through the living word.
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