PVT Rodgers served as a Private in Company L, 3rd Battalion, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division. He arrived at the front line near St. Vith in Belgium on December 11, 1944. On December 17, 1944 the regiment was trapped on the Schnee Eifel and were forced to surrender to the Germans.

Walter was captured December 19 and “was forced to march 50 miles and spent four days traveling by boxcar to the prison camp at Bad Orb, Germany. Stalag IXB was located in Bad Orb approximately 30 miles northwest of Frankfurt. The camp held French, Italian, Serbian, Russian, and American POWs. Conditions in this camp were terrible, and Stalag IXB ranks as one of the worst German camps that held Americans POWs.”

He was then sent to Berga Elster as part of a work detail on February 6, 1945. “Berga an der Elster was a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. The Berga forced labor camp was located on the outskirts of the village of Schlieben. Many prisoners died as a result of malnutrition, sickness (including pulmonary disease due to dust inhalation from tunneling with explosives), and beatings.”

Walter died March 9, 1945 while at Berga Elster. Local newspaper reports state he died of influenza; however, records from the National Archives state he was shot while trying to escape.

He was buried at Berga Elster and later reburied in the Netherlands American Cemetery, Margarten, Netherlands.