A homeowner in Waterloo, New York, discovered a hidden crawlspace in his garage that contained a box of classified documents, later confirmed by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to be first-hand accounts from American Second World War prisoners of war. Jason Hurdle, 74, who has lived in the property for 14 years, found the papers marked "secret" while clearing out the garage in July, and passed them to a local library, which referred the matter to NARA. The discovery is significant because historians and the National Archives had no record of these accounts, meaning they were previously unknown to researchers of the period.

The 300-page collection contains testimony written by former POWs after their liberation at Camp Lucky Strike in Normandy, where accounts were originally gathered for intelligence purposes and some were later used as evidence in war crimes tribunals. Among the writers were Julian Candelaria, who described brutal conditions in boxcars with no food, water or sanitation, and Henry Daly, whose relatives said he never discussed the war and struggled to stay in his own home afterwards. Hurdle remains unsure how the documents ended up in his property, though a former neighbour reportedly had wartime memorabilia from a relative. The papers will now be preserved and digitised by the National Archives alongside similar historical records.