WWII Hero Returns Pilfered Books

It may have taken 65 years for him to do the right thing, but a former U.S. soldier has finally done just that.

Robert Thomas was an 18-year-old member of George Patton's Third Army, 90th Division, reports the Associated Press, when he took two 400-year-old law books from a German salt mine vault as World War II was coming to an end.

Thomas, who lives in Chula vista, Calif., delivered the books to German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth in a ceremony Tuesday at the National Archives building in Washington, DC.

In 1944, Thomas and a young lieutenant friend were in Ransbach when they stumbled upon a mine that held some two million historic books. Following the allied invasion of Normandy in June of that year, the Germans hid valuables wherever they could -- in monasteries, castles, salt mines and other hideaways -- to keep them out of enemy hands.

Thomas took the 16th century books as souvenirs of his time in the war. He decided to return them all these years later because he said it was the right thing to do.

Of course, it's not hard to forgive him for taking the books in the first place when you consider his role in world history. After all, he's a war hero, who sustained injuries after being hit with an artillery rocket while fighting to break the Siegfeld line and put an end to the 20th century's worst war.

Photo courtesy of p0psicle via Flickr.