John Noble, 84; wrote, lectured about captivity in Soviet camps

John H. Noble, a Detroit native who languished for nearly 10 years in Soviet penal labor camps after World War II and spent the rest of the Cold War lecturing and writing about his captivity, died Nov. 10 at his home in Dresden, Germany, after a heart attack. He was 84.

Noble’s gulag ordeal -- including four years in the Vorkuta coal mine and prison complex near the Arctic Circle -- began in 1945 when he was swept up by Soviet forces in Germany at the end of World War II.

In 1938, the teenage Noble had gone to Dresden to help his German-born father revive a camera factory. At war’s end, they were captured by the Soviet troops occupying the city. Noble’s mother and a brother were released, and his father spent seven years in detention. Noble’s fate remained a mystery until 1953, when he managed to smuggle a postcard to a distant relative.

The Soviets for years had denied knowing anything about Noble. Under pressure from President Eisenhower, he was released to U.S. authorities in Berlin in January 1955.

Noble spent decades on the lecture circuit, usually hosted by evangelical, conservative and human rights organizations. He worked to publicize his belief that countless American GIs were held as ghost prisoners in communist prisons.

As recently as 2005, an American official with the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs estimated that hundreds of U.S. citizens -- service personnel and civilians -- had been incarcerated in the Soviet Union. But a “good number” were Americans who had gone voluntarily in the 1930s, said Larry Greer, a spokesman for the Defense Department’s POW/MIA office.

Noble was the author of three books, including “I Was a Slave in Russia” (1958) and “I Found God in Soviet Russia” (1959). The second, written with journalist Glenn D. Everett and featuring an introduction by the Rev. Billy Graham, referred to Noble’s religious epiphany during solitary confinement.

John Helmuth Noble was born Sept. 4, 1923. His father, Charles, ran a Detroit photo-finishing company.

The elder Noble’s years of exposure to photographic chemicals took a toll on his health and he was ordered by his doctors to a health spa. He took the family to Europe and wound up in Dresden, an eastern German city long known as a camera-production center.

Answering an advertisement, he took over a camera factory.

After America’s entry into World War II, the Nobles were restricted in their ability to travel but retained their company. John Noble said the factory survived the war intact.

Noble said things would get worse under Soviet occupation. Despite the Swiss Consulate’s promises of protection after the German surrender in May 1945, Noble was held in a Dresden prison for 15 months, a period during which he nearly starved.

He later was transferred to other camps, including Buchenwald, the former Nazi concentration camp.

He recalled that at one point, his head newly shaven, he was taken to a courtroom, where a young Russian interpreter told him to sign a statement sentencing him to 15 years of hard labor. After shouting in protest, he was stopped by the interpreter, who told him it was useless to argue because “someone will just sign it for you.”

In 1950, he was transported to Vorkuta, where he worked in the coal mines.

The death of Soviet leader Josef Stalin in March 1953 helped spark a strike among Vorkuta prisoners, including Noble. Soviet troops ended the strike by gunning down hundreds of prisoners.

The next year, Noble spirited a postcard out of the camp through a barber. He signed the note “your noble nephew,” to tip off German relatives. His parents, who had returned to Detroit, received the message and began an ultimately successful campaign for his release.

Noble’s marriage to Ruth Hedstrom Noble ended in divorce. Survivors include a companion, Katherine Forster of Dresden; five children from his marriage; a brother; and nine grandchildren.