Good day Ladies and Gentleman! The diary of Helmut Horner. This is part 10. Here is the playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLyuEmb1VavZARAG13NojLWW1yBVb-E4j7.html
@@Mike-wr7om Quote: "Horner, an enlisted man in Hitler's army, served on both the Eastern and Western fronts and was wounded four times before being captured in 1944. After a highly unpleasant stayok? in a French POW camp, he was turned over to American authorities and sent to the U.S., where he spent a comparatively comfortable 14 months in several POW camps--earning money working for sugar-beet farmers in Colorado and harvesting peaches in New Jersey. However, on the psychological level his sojourn in the States was an ordeal: Horner coped with homesickness, accepting or 'accepting'? aa Germany's defeat in the war, his growing shock over the revealed lies and brutality perpetrated by the Third Reich, and his seemingly dismal prospects in postwar Germany. The author's observations on Americans are his journal's least interesting feature, but he has noteworthy things to say about maintaining dignity, pride and hope as a prisoner of war. Repatriated in 1948, Horner worked as a dental technician until his death last year." Source: www.amazon.com/German-Odyssey-Journal-Prisoner-War/dp/1555910777
Quote: "Horner, an enlisted man in Hitler's army, served on both the Eastern and Western fronts and was wounded four times before being captured in 1944. After a highly unpleasant stayok? in a French POW camp, he was turned over to American authorities and sent to the U.S., where he spent a comparatively comfortable 14 months in several POW camps--earning money working for sugar-beet farmers in Colorado and harvesting peaches in New Jersey. However, on the psychological level his sojourn in the States was an ordeal: Horner coped with homesickness, accepting or 'accepting'? aa Germany's defeat in the war, his growing shock over the revealed lies and brutality perpetrated by the Third Reich, and his seemingly dismal prospects in postwar Germany. The author's observations on Americans are his journal's least interesting feature, but he has noteworthy things to say about maintaining dignity, pride and hope as a prisoner of war. Repatriated in 1948, Horner worked as a dental technician until his death last year." Source: www.amazon.com/German-Odyssey-Journal-Prisoner-War/dp/1555910777
His description of seasickness reminds me of when I came by ship from Bremerhaven Germany to New York New York. It was November 1965 I was 7 years old and we were returning to the United States from Nuremberg. The ship I was on was the General Maurice Rose. Not quite Mid-Atlantic we ran into a November Gale. Being 7 years old I was totally impressed by The towering seas and the ships and the distance disappearing in the troughs. I did not get seasick then and here I am at age 65 I've never been seasick. My mother and my worthless sister took turns commandeering the bathroom so that they could throw up everything that they hadn't eaten. Dad and I on the other hand didn't miss a meal. I love being in about whether it's rough or calm. At the same time I do respect to sea because if you don't it'll eat you.
German POWs were helping to run the saw mill in a Louisiana saw mill town where my mother lived. She was a child during WWII & was always making sandwiches for the POWs working at the mill to make sure they didn't go hungry. One of those POWs either remained in or came back to the saw mill town & lived there after the war was over. He always made a children's rocking chair for each child born in the town. He made a rocking chair for my sister when she was born & one for me when I was born a year later although my mother no longer lived in the town. My grand- mother still lived there. I visited her for a month every summer & got to know the "rocking chair man". One day I asked him why he made rocking chairs for my sister & me even though we didn't live there. He said it was because my mother brought him a sandwich every day.
I was stationed in Germany in the early 80s. One night on a train we ran into an older gentleman who asked if we were American soldiers. Apon hear that we were he gave each of us a bottle of beer and toasted to America. He explained that he loved america after being a POW there during the war. He wanted to always return the kindness that received there. The incident was a real eye opener for four entirely too young Americans.
I was also stationed in Germany in the early 80s , B Company 1/15 3rd Infantry in Harvey Barracks next to Kitzingen. The most meaningful things I remember was when on occasion an elderly German WW2 Veteran would come up to us and speak to us , they would thank us and were grateful that we are now friends and often would bring us a bottle of Wine and the Sgt's would always let us drink a cup even out in the field. It always made our day .
My father was stationed in Germany in 68. He said a number of Germans came up to him and apologized for WWII. He said he never quite knew what to say to them, because most of them weren't even 20 years old themselves (nor was my father). How could one man who wasn't even a year old during WWII apologize to another man who hadn't been born yet? It just goes to show you how deep some cultural scars can run. On a more happy note, my father said that there was a healthy trade between Germans and Americans while he was stationed there. He and the other Americans loved the German beer, and Germans loved their American smokes. Quite 'healthy' trade indeed, hah!
Americans treated Germen Pow really well, almost 100% according to geneva convention. but I think once the NAZI atrocity got out there were some resentment. overall unless you were a troublemaking hardcore nazi, you were fine being a pow in America.
My parents are from Germany. My father was one of the few Germans who returned from Stalingrad. One of my uncles was in a POW camp in Texas. In the chow line, he asked "Why are you giving me two pork chops?" The guard responded "This is the land of plenty! One to eat and one to throw away!" He later applied for American citizenship
I think of this as the arrogance of plenty. Kindness is a luxury where you don't even need hate to keep you motivated. Like a potlatch, you show off your wealth by even throwing it away on your enemies. It is good to be able to afford not be vicious, but it sets us apart from those who had to be. The point of money is a gated community from troubling thoughts.
@@RocketPropelledGuy yeah... i believe paul pinecone's comment/reply was negative attention seeking behavior... it's a fairly common trait of a limited/broken socialization learning cycle during childhood/teen years
I met Karl, he was a POW in Kentucky. The camp took a photo of him so he could mail it to his mom back in Germany. Her reply letter asked if he was being beaten at the camp due to his face looking so swollen. He humbly replied to his mom, no, no beating, but I've gained 35 pounds on all the food they give us. Great story. Karl was shipped back to Germany but ended up in the Detroit area and retired from FORD.
Interesting. How did mail from the US get to Germany? I hear you had to know someone from a neutral country in Europe and then they had to forward the letter from their place to Germany.
@@nunyabeezaxe2030 He said the international Red Cross was able to deliver mail for German prisoners here in the US...not sure, but the Allied prisoners probably did not have that same courtesy allow them. It was a one time thing, and there was an actual for letter that was filled out by the prisoner here and then sent overseas and the RED Cross took it from there.
I'm alive today because my German grandfather came over after WW2 and ended up retiring from Ford motor company. He passed away a few years back and received a 21 gun salute at his funeral. He'd joined the American army after emigrating here and serving in the Korean War.
I read a book called Stalag USA about German POW camps around Paola, KS. I've seen the remains. One story was funny. A POW escaped and made his way to Chicago. In the 1960s he contacted the FBI and wanted to surrender. His children were in college and everything was good for him but he felt guilty. The FBI agent asked him if he was still a Nazi...NO. Was he committing criminal acts....NO. Then go and sin no more. Have a good life.
@@pegatheetoo1437 the fbi was started with the stated goals from many of the higher ups to be enemies to the rights of the people of the US in the name of protecting them
The man was a piece of s*** but I tell you what he was smart cuz he knew America with would kill him if he didn't the man was a piece of garbage anybody that would fight for Adolf Hitler has 0-0 nothing more than sorry piece of s***
During the bombing of Berlin, there was a joke passed among the citizens heading to bomb shelters: "You know what the pessimists are bringing into the shelters? Russian dictionaries. You know what the optimists are bringing? English dictionaries."
My grandfather, a poor peanut farmer, was a scout in WWI. During WWII he had German POWs working his farm. He didn’t like the amount of food that was provided the POWs and so he would drive into town to get them cokes and extra food. Several of the POWs would write him letters and send Christmas cards.
The treatment of POWs in America is fascinating. They received the same rations as GIs which irritated the locals since civilians had less. They had unfettered access to radio broadcasts and most newspapers and magazines. Some completed college degrees from US universities by correspondence. I think this was a wise policy and created goodwill among returning prisoners for the US. A lot didn’t want to go home after the war or emigrated to the USA later. This was possible due to the wealth of America and lack of destruction from the war. As one anecdote says “We could have won the war with what the Americans threw away.
@@procopiusaugustus6231 Yeah I don't think they quite appreciated what America could do if pissed off. I wonder what history would have been like if Hitler had come to the United States for art school....
@@sid2112I often wonder what might have happened if Pearl Harbour hadn’t actively propelled the US into WW2. Anti-war sentiment was strong in the US and western Europe may well have fallen completely, no matter how many Liberty ships got through, letting the Nazis turn all their attention to the Eastern Front.
My mother grew up on a farm in Oklahoma. She got off the school bus one day and saw the frame of their home collapse after burning. There was German POWs that picked cotton. And tended to the crops while armed guards on horses guarded them. As the home started burning many Germans ran into the house to try to save anything of value. After things settled down a German approached my grandfather and gave him his golden watch (the ones on a chain back then that was inside your jacket) and my grandfather thanked him sincerely. My grandpa would buy then coke, 7up, cherry soda etc…The Germans were very thankful to be treated kindly. As bad as WW2 was, sometimes the worst things brings out the best in people. I wrote a story to my 5th grade class about this, my teacher said he didn’t believe it. My mom chewed his ass and made him apologize to me in front of my clsss.
People everywhere are mostly good and want a happy life getting along with each other. It’s the power drunk leaders that force good people to kill each other.
A story I heard, a German soldier saw that an American GI's standard rations included chocolate and coffee, and that was the moment he went "Yep, we're finished." Only senior German officers had access to such luxuries. The moment they realized that the American logistical supply chain was so sophisticated and impenetrable that everyday random soldiers got luxuries normally restricted to German elites, that was the end. Like, imagine starting a game of Doom and you start off with a fully loaded BFG9000, just for enlisting.
Yup. The US military caters to the current generations strengths for fighting. In WW2 it was Baseball which resulted in baseball grenades. These days it's drones.
Similar things from some Japanese. They are literally starving to death, get captured and taken down to the beach. And the American marines have an ice cream ship docked at the landing site.
My grandfather was a dairy farmer in the state of Wisconsin during the war (I am not certain when exactly this account occurred). German POWs could volunteer to help farmers with the alfalfa harvest. According to the Geneva Conventions, they could not be forced to work, but there was incentive to get out of the stockade, especially if the POWs grew up on farms themselves. None of them tried to escape and none committed any crimes to my grandfather's knowledge. This one POW spoke decent English. They were taking their noon meal break. The German POW said to my grandfather, "After the war, I am going to walk on over to Montana to visit a cousin of mine". My grandfather had the hardest time trying to explain the impossibility of walking from the state of Wisconsin to the state of Montana.
@@jadakowers590 Yup, it is definitely possibly, especially if your grandfather was willing to hitch a ride or ride the rails. Quite a few took this approach. The problem with this German, however, is I don't think he understood the difference in sizes of the central American states and the German states. Since Germany was already using the metric system and the US was non-metric, I am sure this played a role in trying to make the German understand the distances. Nevertheless, I don't think this would be an option for the German at the end of the war. I believe they had to be returned to Germany and then emigrate/visit the US afterward,
@@azjim2946 there is also the fact that in europe you can literally drive to another country within a reasonable amount of time. America is a little bit bigger, obviously...
@@selectionn I have found Europeans appreciate the idea of how big the US on a map, but until they get here, it really doesn't "register". Typically, when one European tells another that her/she is flying to the US, it is to the US East Coast. The West Coast is two thirds farther. Hawaii or Alaska? Forget it.
Theoretically, if that German POW served on the eastern front he might have had to walk a similar distance if he participated in Operation Barbarossa. Still, I would imagine the infrastructure in that part of the USA is even worse than the infrastructure of most of Western Russia.
My dad was a US soldier during the end of WWII. He was just 18 years old. I remember him telling me that the German soldiers were seeking out the American soldiers to surrender to because they knew the war was lost. He told me of an experience he had where several German soldiers surrendered to him, but the ammunition clip fell out of his rifle. The German soldiers just stood laughing with their hands in the air waiting for him to put it back in his rifle.
@@user-bl6ne3hc6nthere are some heartbreaking pictures of German teenagers in 1945 surrendering to the Western Allies, either looking broken, terrified, or relieved. What a horrible time that was
@michaelwilson4528 oh ya, I met one ,14 years old captured battle of the bulge, he became a millionaire in the states, nice guy, I got to hold his Hitler youth knife, he told me, he thanked God for the Americans because they all knew what the Russians were doing to the Germans,
One of my family friends was a German POW and loved it here. He had actually surrendered to the first US soldier he saw, he hated Nazis. He became a brewmaster at Coors in Golden
Honestly, being a German POW in America was probably the best place you could be as a 22 year old man in the war. Sentenced to a life enough food and a reasonable amount of manual labor, no threat of being shot if you cooperate with your captors.
yeah, until stories of the concentration camps really started to come in german pow's in europe were often treated terribly, in some cases worse than the nazis treated (western) pow's in the US guards and civilians often soured towards the pow's as well and often the old nzi officers mannaged to take over the camps like gangs often do in prisons today without the guards intervening, but yes
@@Chuckles..haha funny story my grandfather served in ww2 from Texas but his first name was Adolphus which is my middle name but that’s besides the point but he started going by aj bc obvious reasons he was a tanker then became an infantryman he fought all the way from Italy to Germany
I remember a story of a few German POW’s who worked on a farm in the U.S. but one day when the few guards that were there weren’t looking they ran off, however two of them returned in short order after not being able to survive the American wilderness without the kindness of the American people. The third successfully hid his identity and stayed in a small town up north where he was able to make a living. He stayed there all the way up into the 80s or 90s when he finally started feeling guilty about lying to the kind people of the town about who he was. After enough guilt he decided to tell the feds and there amazing response was something along the lines of we no longer care, we has Russians to worry about.
There was a history professor in Texas who received a letter from a farmer. Meeting with him and his wife at their home in the early 80's. After a few minutes of introduction the farmer asked the professor if he understood German. He replied that yes he could and to the shock of his wife he told him in German that he was an escaped POW. Having been captured in North Africa, he escaped in 1943 and just blended in to the mostly German American central Texas. The war ended and he just lived his new life in America. He married a Texas German girl. Had 5 kids and now had 7 grandchildren. Bought and worked a farm. I think he just wanted to tell his story to someone.
I'm from Wales. There was only one escape from a German POW camp in the UK that I know of: - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Farm. In North America only one German POW escaped and got back to Germany. A pilot. He died in action six months later: - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Werra. th-cam.com/video/Wy-_tqv5QkI/w-d-xo.html
That could happen all over the Midwest. It was settled by Germans. My grandparents lived in German-speaking communities in Oklahoma and spoke German at home and church. Their parents were German immigrants. The distinctive Texas German dialect still exists but it’s endangered. Regular German is spoken by about 5% of German immigrant descendants populations.
My grandfather and great grandfather were farmers in South Central Wisconsin and during the summer POWs were assigned to the farm from time to time. There was a story, told in the family, that in the summer of '44 they had four POWs working the farm. The wheat had come off and the field was ready to be plowed and discked, so one POW is on the tractor, there was another bringing in the cattle for afternoon milking, and a third and fourth were working the threshing machine, and the assigned guard was lounging under a tree. The tractor running the disc sputtered out, the POWs came over to help get it restarted. The tractor wasn't having it. It just sat there stubborn and wouldn't catch. Finally the guard realized what was going on and had some familiarity with tractors of the type goes over and the language barrier crops up. Finally the guard huffs and dives into the guts of the engine, as he does this, he'd slung his rifle but he couldn't maneuver with the business end constantly banging off the cowl of the tractor. So he handed his rifle to the nearest person. My great grandfather had heard the tractor go silent and was investigating from the top the hill when he saw the guard hand his rifle to the POW, he called my grandpa over and the two of them sauntered down with a pair of shotguns and asked what was up. The POW w/gun explained what was going on (my great grandpa spoke fluent German and Grandpa could speak passable German), and the guard grabbing a rag off the deck of the tractor started explaining what went wrong turned around and took his rifle back and sauntered back over to the tree. My Grandpa and Great-Grandpa looked each other looked at the POWs and they all just started laughing. Grandpa swore that the guard was just barely containing his laughing as the realization of the absurdity of what happened. Those 5 became a familiar sight through the end of the war.
It really depends on how familiar the guard was with them by then (language barrier aside) and if they were sane and rational. They're on another continent all enemy held with no plausible way to get home. The only likely outcome of turning the gun they'd been handed on the guard and making a break for it would be getting hunted down and likely ultimately shot. Given the circumstances a rational person isn't going to do that when they have every reason to expect repatriation one way or the other once the war was finally over .. so while mildly amusing it's only the expected outcome of the scenario. Still daft of the guard perhaps and certainly against whatever protocols he was supposed to be operating by 🙂
I loved the story. Also, with the Atlantic Ocean in the way, where would an escaped POW go? There is a story about a U-boat commander escaping from a prison in Texas, going to Mexico and somehow getting back to Germany. But that was probably a one off.
What a great story!! Regarding the guard handling his rifle to the nearest prisoner, it doesn't surprise me. When you're dealing with people, at some point intuition takes over. The American guard instinctively felt safe with the prisoners, so he did not hesitate when the rifle got in the way of his repair efforts. We are all able to sense danger, even when it's not visibility apparent, because our subconscious minds are continuously at work in this regard. For this guard, the opposite was true. He sensed no danger from the German prisoners and so didn't hesitate to hand one his rifle. And his instincts were correct. It wasn't until he stopped to think about what he did that the incongruity of the situation became apparent to him. The real danger for many people, especially today, is that we fight our instincts, particularly for reasons of political correctness. Don't do that!! Listen to what your instincts are telling you and act on them!! Immediately!! They just might save your life!!
I was born in January 1944 on a small farm in the north of England, there was a POW called Heinz working on the farm with my father, at some point I don't know the date a horse licked me in the head, my parents were in town so Heinz picked me up and ran the two miles to the cottage hospital, effectively saving my life, by the time I was well Heinz had gone back to Germany and I never had the chance to thank him.
My father was one of the few Germans who returned from Stalingrad. He almost never talked about it. He was "Old German" Who ran his house with an iron fist. He died of cancer when I was 9 and my dominant memory of him was terror. One memory was when we were playing with our toy guns. My father gave the typical combat veterans lecture on how war is not the glorious adventure we think it is. I responded "But you were a Nazi! You should love war!" He immediately "Bitch slapped" Me into next week and not tell me what day I landed in frantically yelling "WEHRMACT! WEHRMACT! KEINE NAZI! WEHRMACHT!" He went on to lecture me how the Nazis were those assholes from Berlin who would make outrageous demands without providing the resources needed to carry the out. How the Nazis were cowards who shot women, children, and unarmed men in the head for being Jews but would shit their pants and run to the rear whenever the red Army showed up. I was only 9 when he died and looking back today, after serving 26 years in the Navy would love to trade stories with him. Today, my dominant thoughts of his are summarized in the song by Mike & the Mechanics "The living years" Specifically "I wasn't there that morning, when my father passed away, I didn't get to tell him, al the things I had to say." Yes, I was terrified of him but in the end, he packed 18 years of parental discipline into 9. Because of him, I never took up drinking, drugs, or any other vices of the times
That is an incredible insight into the mind of a non-Nazi, German soldier and from a primary source. Truly valuable to the historic record if I may say so. 🙏
My grandfather and platoon mates outran Soviets to surrender to Americans. He was shipped to Maryland and assigned field/herd work on a dairy farm. Soon, the farm owner visited the prisoners and struck up a conversation with Pappi. Neither spoke the other’s native language, but each spoke French, and they soon developed a friendship. When the war ended, the owner offered Pappi employment and asked if he could help sponsor bringing Pappi’s wife and three children to America. Thus began a lifelong friendship. Pappi lived and worked on the farm keeping all the equipment in top order for the rest of his life, ever thankful for his good fortune. A little kindness goes far, and I believe a few other former prisoners also chose to remain there.
This is beautiful. Its the warmongers that highjack the humanity of us all and turn it into hate and even worse, a blood thirsty desire to kill. Damn the Kaiser and Hitler and throw in Stalin too.
@@Gopniksquat Thank you. We are all thankful for his escape from Europe, for him only being lightly wounded, for him ending up here in the States. Thanks again. It sure would be nice to talk with him again.
My father, injured in 1944, spent the last year of WW2 guarding German pows in Wales. No trouble he claimed, none of them wanted to go to the Russian front, building things things in Wales was much preferred.
I bet they would have loved to stay forever. at least the ones who were still normal people and not all out nazi brainwashed.... wales is so pretty, if you look out of the bus at the wrong moment you'll just never want to return home anyway (been to keeston, newgale and up north)
One of the POW's married a lass in Porthcawl (I think) and lived there after the war. They got on well with the locals too, while they helped to work the land.
When I was in college I got to interview two former German POWS. Both were thankful that they were captured by Americans and not by the Russians or French.
According to my dad, we had some German POW's helping on the family farm in Central Nebraska. Great great grandparents moved to Nebraska from Holstein Germany in 1880, and Great grandpa had the farm until his passing in 1943, when Grandpa took over. Dad was a kid then, and said everyone got along, because our family still spoke German, and the Germans were happy to have lived thru the war and being able to do something other than sit in a POW camp. Apparently, a few of the Germans were from the same area our family came from, and they knew some of the same people. Small world, separated by fate....
The German soldiers still in the war also found out they never had a chance when they captured American soldiers and learned they had cake in their rations. Logistics keeps armies fighting and Americans could bake a cake, ship it across the Atlantic and distribute it to the troops before the cake went bad. Meanwhile German troops waited weeks for basics like ammo and fuel.
Everything in the us military has been built around logistics first for 100 years now. There are countries with better pilots, better special forces, better tank crews, whatever. The us logistic train and military industrial complex is unrivaled.
One other thing they realized is that the Americans used only trucks to move shit around. In WW2, Germany used a lot of horses, so that meant logistically the Americans can supply enough resources to use only trucks from an entire ocean away while the germans on the same continent had to use Horses.
The poor logistic capabilities of the Germans was a revelation to me only a couple years ago. Many debates are had over which and such point in the European theater was the turning point. The truth is there was no real battle that was the turning point, as once the Americans decided they were going to supply the soviets, the outcome was already determined. Between the British naval supremacy able to maintain an effective blockade of the continent, Germany had too few places to turn to for resources. Once the US threw its industrial capacity into the equation, there was never a hope for Germany of turning the tide. Considering their need to rely on horses for transport and the dwindling supply of oil throughout the war, it's honestly impressive the Germans were able to stay in the war as long as they did. They lacked the raw materials and production to win, but their technological prowess likely prolonged the war a good bit.
@@Typexviiib Is that still true, though? Most logistics is contracted out these days. Certainly we are better than the Russians! But then Zimbabwe is probably better than the Russians. We ran out of ammo in the Iraq war and are short now in Ukraine, as is NATO. Two years after the pandemic our civilian domestic supply lines are still crap.
My mother always told me stories about the German POWs assigned to my Grandfather's farm in the mountains of western NC. How hard they'd work and how much they loved our food. My Grandmother would bring them lemon cake, pound cake, and pitchers of hot coffee. They were actually sad when the Germans went back home. The Germans were always extremely grateful for what they received. They especially liked warm cornbread and a glass of milk. That was my Grandfather's favorite too.
My long passed Father and Mother married prior to the Depression. On their small farm they had two water springs, one of which they stored milk, butter and such for preservation. Often, their treat at late meal times was cold milk and corn bread right from the skillet. Supplies were limited but my Father trapped so they had wild meat, and traded furs for dry goods and flour. Such times......
My grandpa called the thing that water ran through the house made of rock and cement, a spring race and the made butter and cream and kept that and the milk in it, they killed a hog 1 time a year and salted and pepper cured the meat they only went to town to get the corn ground and get some sugar and that was In Todd NC 20 minutes from Boone the way the crow flies.
My Dad killed hogs about the 2nd week of November most years. Afew neighbors timed their killings around that, shifting help along to each butchering as needed. his tradition lasted till 1960. It would how things were done; you only bought from the store when needed in the true rural areas.
I've read that only one in ten of the German POWs made it back to Germany from the USSR post war. Considering what the German army did to countless Russians (no Geneva Rights for them, especially the citizens of Leningrad), surprised that many survived.
@@graceskerp A German commission headed by historian Erich Maschke found that about 3,060,000 German soldiers had been taken prisoner by the Soviets, and 1,094,250 died in captivity. By comparison, the death rate for Soviets in German custody was about 57%(over three million dead).
In 1986 my husband and I visited Germany for the very first time. While we were on a boat that took us down the Rhein river, we met a friendly German couple. The gentleman told us in his broken English that he was a P.O.W. during W.W.II and was sent to Arizona to work. To be frank, he took us quite by surprised with his story. We asked if he liked Arizona and his reply was that it was too hot for him. Later they surprised us with souvenirs _ 2 shot glasses with pictures of Koblenz. He said he wanted to repay back with kindness for the kind treatments that he received while he was a P.O.W. in the States. We were so touched by their friendliness and kindness.
Logistics wins wars. If your enemy can afford to give you as a POW a proper three meals a day, while your side can't as one of their soldiers, your side is in trouble.
In the panhandle of Nebraska there were a large number of German immigrant farmers who were fluent in German, There was a large German prisoner of war camp in Douglas Wyoming. During the war regular German soldiers, no SS troops, were paroled to these German farmers as farm hands. They became a part of their families. Many of the them returned after the war and married the daughters of these families.
Where exactly in the Nebraska panhandle? I ask because I am from there. I know there was a small POW camp in my hometown, Ogallala, but I don't think much is known or said about it.
My father was one of these POW. Captured in France regular para trouper. Was sent to POW Camp in Maine. He was well treater and thankful as later he and his family emigrated to Canada, where we all live now on a farm near Montreal. My father said very little of his time as a POW. So now i understand and relive and relate to my father more. Thankyou so much Thankyou
There was a lengthy article written about the German POWs in Houlton Maine. It was in a local magazine published in Houlton in the 90s I think. You may be able to get the information from the Houlton Library. They have a small town friendliest about them. I don't remember much detail except the POWs were well liked by the town.
I was a caregiver for a gentleman who served during WWII as a PoW guard in America during the war. His job was to track down any escapees. He said there werent many - and every one that did hid in barns or near farms. RIP Walt. Blessed Be.
A few pows would escape out of boredom. They would usually get tired and hungry after a few days and turn themselves in to the local police. As long as they did not commit a crime they were only given a minor punishment for escaping.
My Grandfather had a farm in Georgia. He had German POWs working there , picking peaches, and other crops. They were not given enough salt , on purpose , to keep them weak. My Grandfather fed them lots, including Virginia ham, loaded with salt, they felt better, and worked well. His family had come from Germany in the 1820's, and because of his name, many people harrassed my Mom during the war.
My grandfather had 6 German pows working his farm. They lived in a barn and he let them go into town. They always came back and worked hard. The few that knew some English would say they'd rather be working the farm then back in the war. A few of them cried when they had to go back and kept in touch with my grandfather till they all passed away.
I remember my mother telling me that our family doctor was from Germany. He got caught in something called "the war" and was a "prisoner in Canada". I asked if he was a bad man, to be put in jail. She told me that I would understand it all when I got older. Evidently he liked Canada so much that he immigrated here and set up his practise after the war. He passed away when I was still quite young and we never found a better doctor! My clearest memory of him was that he sounded just like Inspector Kemp from Young Frankenstein.
Well, to tell you the truth, since he was a doctor, he can't have been a "bad man" as it would have been against the Geneva Conventions. Dr. Mengele doesn't count.Of course,we now have a Dr. Mengele reincarnate...Dr. Fauci. We need to rename CoVid Fauci's Virus and Fauci needs to be thrown into Hess' old cell and his bathroom mirror needs to be exchanged for a picture of the real Dr. Mengele for that's what he is.
Similar story one of my father's doctor collegues had been a German POW and settled in the U.K. after the war, he was an absolute gentleman and a gentle giant. RIP Dr. Anton Wolff.
The father of one of my classmates was a German pilot captured early in the war. He spent most of his time interned in the US in the mid west. After the war he was able to emigrate back into the US where he married and raised a family. I've often wondered how many other POW's decided that America was a better place for them to live than their own native country?
Many did. Their love of America they developed and gratitude they were brought here compelled them. Besides, much of their previous lives were but heaps of bricks.
@@ibeetellingya5683 A great many had very little to return to, back in Germany, I imagine. Towards the end, boys were being sent to the front, so you can imagine the average family unit must have been decimated, on top of Germany's economy being by and large decimated.
I got to know several that returned to Southern Cook County, Illinois where their POW camp was located. Most had lost all of their family and friends along with homes and farms. They didn't feel like staying in Germany to have a family only to see their children or grandchildren fighting in another European war. Those had a bad habit of occurring every 20 to 40 years so felt the US would be a safer place to live.
@@kaufmanat1 True. But not my wife, her ancestors were already here. There were a numb er of reasons German prisoners looked at the US as a better place to live than Germany. One reason that hasn't stated yet is that both Germany and England pre WW II still held to laws that only allowed the eldest male child to be the heir to any family property or wealth. If you were boy #2 you didn't much going for you as far as prospects. Education was also stratified, so that your family's name is what qualified you for a good school and little else. The US wasn't that way, and a lot men that got to see that first hand decided that was the place for them.
So many POWs that were in wisconsin ended up never wanting to leave or went back to germany and brought their family back with them. Several familys in my very little town came to America that way.
Pretty common story. After the War of Independence a very large portion of Hessian (German) soldiers chose to remain in the US at the end of their service.
My best friend growing up in North Carolina had a German next door neighbor. He was a U-boat sailor who was captured along the NC coast. After the war he stuck around, married, worked, bought a house, etc. We never thought much about it...just Mr. So and so, "that old German guy next door"
Lol, that sounds almost identical to the story of my high school German teacher. Sailor on a U-boat that was captured somewhere near France I think. Got sent to a PoW camp in the states and then immigrated after the end of the war. Only other thing I remember about him is that his car engine looked like it just rolled off the factory floor even though it was about twenty years old.
My family history might interest someone. My grandfather and his brothers all fought for Germany in WW2. I joined the USAF in 1984 and was assigned to an air station in Wiesbaden, 1985 - 1987. I had to learn German to hear all the war stories and family hardships because of WW2. Nobody was pro-Nazi, but all were glad the war was past and they had survived. They also cried for the loved ones and friends who were lost in the war. Starvation, sickness, and death spares no one during such times. My German relatives and their friends loved me as family and never took issue with politics. I was born first generation American but will always be German at heart. Most Americans will never know the personal horrors of war in their home town or neighborhood as my family had seen.😮 Nations may win wars and glory in victory, but people ALWAYS lose in those same wars. My family's scars will never be healed nor forgotten.
My grandfather was an accountant at one of these POW camps in Pennsylvania. He would joke that the Germans were hard workers but the Italians were too lazy.
Funny you should say that. My father was an officer running the salvage yard at Ft. Devens in Massachusetts during WW2. He had German and Italian POWs working under his command. He also said the Germans were hard working but the Italians were lazy.
I can vouch for the Italian POW's being lazy. My late Aunt lived near a big farm south of Glasgow, Scotland..she was in Land Girls Army..and Italian POW's were there and were lazy.
Texas had over 70 German POW camps. Cutting pine trees mostly. Many POWs returned to Texas after their repatriation to Germany. Most became American citizens
Compare this with my uncle. My uncle was a Jewish American soldier captured at the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to Stalag IXB. The SS came to Stalag IXB looking for the Jews. They selected out the Jews to be sent to a Work-Death Camp. He was sent to Berga in February 1945. By April, he was dead. This story is in the book Soldiers and Slaves by Roger Cohen and in the PBS documentary Berga: Soldiers of Another War. It was also part of the Buchenwald War Crimes Trials [Berga was a sub-camp of Buchenwald].
Was it a work or a death camp? Was the work like death related? Or did they put to death anyone who worked? I'm so confused. So many cookies, so little time.
Thousands of German POW's had fond memories of their incarceration in Canada and many applied to become immigrants after the war. One U-Boat crewman's autobiography I read told the tale of his great disappointment at not being allowed to join the Canadian Navy after the war.
My Father learned German as a boy because my grandfather built POW camps throughout the Southwestern USA. The POWs all loved talking to him and making little handmade gifts for him, like model airplanes and ships. He and his family were always happy to be invited to eat in the prisoner's mess. The food was MUCH better than the US Army mess. The same ingredients were given to both kitchens. But, the German chefs were much better cooks than those created by the US Army.
I worked with a lady in the 70's in Alberta who's father was a German POW in Southern Alberta .After the war he went back and found nothing to come back to so he came back to live here .She grew up in Lethbridge.
I read the story of one German POW who was captured and sent to Canada. His first meal was Canadian bacon and he decided right there and then that he would not be going back to Germany. Lol
Quite true! Twenty-five years after his release, I met a former Wehrmacht soldier in his Lebensmittel store in northern Germany. He asked if I was American, "Nein, Ich bin Kanadier!". He asked what I was doing in Germany & I told him I was on vacation & practicing my German with "echte Deutsche". He was amused at this and told me in English that he learned English in Canada during the war as a POW in Ontario not too far from Toronto where I was born. I said in German, "Well, I hope you were well treated during your vacation in Canada!". He smiled & answered in English, "Yes, yes! I was very well treated. For me, those were the best years during that miserable war." He was just a nice small town guy in a bad situation then. The grey (no NAZIs) camp he stayed at didn't even have a barbed wire fence! Just a few guards & lots of wolves & bears in the sticks! 🇩🇪💪🇨🇦
@@lupusdeum3894 I love stories like this. My dad was too young for WWII. His dad was in the trenches but I only heard one story with a letter to back it up. I have a picture of him with some German POWs after a soccer game. When he got back in 1918 he bought himself an expensive pocket watch with a 10K gold case which I now have still in its original box.
This guy was a fantastic writer. He survived the war and we get to read his writing, but think of the millions that didn't survive and all the skills the world may have lost...
Absolutely. The British, I believe, never recovered from their manpower losses in WW1. The same for the rest of Europe after WW2. So much energy and drive and intellect were lost in both world wars, and all that made Europe great before them seemingly vanished afterwards. I suspect a key reason why Europe lags so far behind the US in its NATO military capabilities is that the will to fight and defend one's country is simply not there anymore. Certainly not for the population as a whole. Much of that died between 1914 to 1945 and what now remains is a mere shadow of what once was.
Other stories I've read about German soldiers realizing they stood little chance of winning: A few days after D-DAY a soldier noted that the allies had no horses, totally mechanzed. This was mentioned in "Band of Brothers". An "oh, $hit!!" moment " Another: a POW on a train on the way to prison camp in the USA looked at extensive the newly harvested fields and herds of animals. All untouched by war and aimed at Germany. Oh Scheiße!!
My Pappy was in the post-war occupation army in the early '50s, & we, as his family, were with him. The Germans were still using horse-drawn wagons during the time we were there.
Hermann Goring was reported to have said in a post-war interview "As soon as I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the gig was up." I would imagine ADM Donitz had a similar reaction when he realized that the US was building merchant hulls far faster than his ever-more-harried U-boats could sink them.
My father-in-law was a German POW captured in North Africa. He worked on farms in Arizona, built roads in Wyoming, and worked in the lumber industry in Washington. He said they were paid 50 cents a day, given clean clothes, and well fed. He said the worst part was when they were being repatriated and they were loaded on LST's in Seattle for the trip back to Europe. A long miserable trip on a flatbottomed boat in the ocean.
My mother worked on the westside of Manhattan during the war. She recalled seeing the German P.O.W.s disembarking from the ships. In February of 1943 my father left Staten Island, N.Y. aboard a troop transport (SS Brazil) for North Africa. He recalled, the Merchant Seamen crewing the ship were very happy about the rough weather they encountered. One Seaman told him, "the rougher, the better." U boats could not easily target a ship in such weather.
@@user-sm3xq5ob5d Rough seas made using the periscope much harder to use, as well as bouncing the sub around. It also made the snorkel almost useless as water would go down the pipe.
@@tomb7942 Snorkels were not necessary to do an attack. The periscope would be engulfed in spray and waves., ok. So the sub had to come out farther to see and aim. But it was also better disguised due to the waves. But I am not a U-Boot captain.
@@user-sm3xq5ob5d If the waves were rough, the sub had to adjust not to need to recharge. They would fire and then dive. If they are short on battery power, firing that torpedo in bad weather could be fatal. I've been in a small fishing boat in rough weather (2 foot white caps) on a lake (I'm in Michigan, lake Erie) and it made even fishing perilous. I can't even imagine the crew trying to do everything needed to hit a target while being bounced around in the north Atlantic. Its not just aiming and firing, its engine room and the torpedo room. Some guys had to get sea sick with all that. I'll bet Captains just waited it out and tried to follow the convoy until the weather was better rather than deal with all that and possibly wasting those very valuable torpedoes.
@@tomb7942 Torpedo attacks in heavy weather had considerably poorer odds of success. While a periscope was harder to detect in such conditions, so was getting an accurate course for the target for the sub. The ships speed through the water was a little easier to judge. After launch, most of the torpedoes of that time had to run at a pre-selected depth and a pre-set course. With high enough waves, come deep troughs between. A porpoising torpedo begins to leave it's course. More and more, each time it leaves the water crossing the trough between the waves. Upset the gyro and it might dive deep.
A good number of German POWs wound up getting shipped to the US and Canada, stayed there as prisoners, and were shipped back to Germany at war's end. As soon as it was humanly possible, they got permission to come back, in many cases with sponsor families here that they knew from their time here as POWs. Most wound up becoming US or Canadian Citizens.
In my hometown in Iowa, we had a POW camp for Italian prisoners and they were very well behaved and practically unguarded. They could stroll through town alone during their leisure time. I was told they were hard working and well-mannered with great humility. It's a shame Italy was our enemy at all when we should have been fast friends.
I am 76 years old. We lived near Camp Swiss in Bastrop County Texas. Farmers hired prisoners and paid them $2 dollars a day which was a good amount in those days. Ironically, the prisoners were aiding America by raising foods for our troops. The POWs had their own theatre for putting on plays and an orchestra. My mother and other ladies would take homemade food to them. Only 1 POW tried to escape as far as I know. My grandfather hired them, they were very good hands.
I used to live near Bastrop, Texas. I had heard similar stories from older residents. One minor correction, it's Camp Swift. And it's still used for training by the Texas National Guard.
My grandfather was the butcher in New Ulm MN and supplied the POW camp near there. Since it was a heavily German town (my dad said as a boy you could go all day without hearing english), he had ample stories about the POWs working on nearby farms. One guard got in trouble coming back from farm work on a hot summer day in August, when they came upon a cool swimming pond they all wanted to go swimming. One of the POWs couldn't as he had a cast on, so the guard gave him his rifle and swam with the Germans. Another time one of the POWs had been invited back for dinner with the farmer's family, and they (apparently) not understanding what "prisoners" were about, when he didn't show that evening, drove into the camp to pick him up and honked the car horn waking everyone up. Apparently the gate wasn't even locked. He even said that some of the young men occasionally went on dates with some of the local girls too. Lots of stories like that.
There's quite a few warm and fuzzy stories of German POW's in the US. One of my favorites is one where a German POW in the US gets a letter from his wife informing of their newborn. Seeing his friend tormented, he brought him to an American family he worked for who just had a child of their own and asked if his friend could hold their newborn and the American family permitted it.
My grandfather has stories of being a child with German pows working on their farm. The one that stuck the most was when he was 6 and repeating curses he heard about Germans in front of his dad and some of the pows. His dad then grabbed his arm and said John, we are German. It was a shock to him and was an experience that stayed with him to this day.
My mother visited my father at an Army base somewhere in the South. She said there were German POWs working at the Officer’s Club, and she remembers that one of the prisoners was the pastry chef who made absolutely the best Napoleons. She ofter wondered if he stayed here after the war, or returned to Germany. She said if he stayed here and opened a bakery he would have done extremely well. She said all the POWs seemed content and were very well taken care of. Quite a difference between how the Germans treated American POWs.
Interesting story, but I'm afraid that had the Germans been blowing the sh*t out of the United States, like we were to Germany, I don't think we would have been quite so kind.
Quite a difference? Yeah, when you can barely afford to feed the guards of the prison camp because your prisoners' buddies keep bombing the railways it gets a little fucking difficult.
@chazzyboi_7778 Noooooo, you're not allowed to talk about that. Crazy how many people in these comments talk about how kind and hard working German POWs were but still believe everything about the war Hollywood sells.
American POWs and POWs from Western European countries were treated well by the Germans until near the end of the war when transportation and logistics had completely broken down in the country. They may not have been as well fed as German POWs in the US but they got enough to eat and were treated respectfully. It was the Polish and Soviet soldiers who were basically sent to camps to die.
I was in the Hofbrau House in Munich in the early 80's and seated across from me was an elderly German man that I found out was a POW during WW2. He said he was shipped to the U.S. and put on a train to Sacramento, CA. He said by the time he was half way across the country he and his buddies decided Germany had made a big mistake declaring war on us; the immense industry and food supply that they saw. He also related that in CA they started a garden on the prison grounds that they eventually got permission to cultivate outside the compound; they then began selling their produce at he farmer's market! Very interesting conversation for a young Air Force officer to say the least!
I heard similar stories from older german guys. They had a pretty big impression of the US from what It seems lmfao. Im Canadian. Honestly with the way our housing market going, Im abt to jump the gun and see if I can move to Texas or something. Honestly even though I was borna and raised here, I just dont really fit in. I like America more imo. I love the general outlook/philosophy yall have on life.
I smiled early on when he said the POWs liked the Americans more than the French. My Father-in-law, who fought in Europe said that having been in England, then France and ending in Germany that he and his buddies discovered they liked the German people more than the French.
There is a section in the book Band of Brothers where they discus the peoples and countries the had fought through. As I remember, North Africa was thieves and backstabbers, Belgium/Netherlands they liked and were liked, French sold themselves to the highest bidder and always looking for hand outs. They sat unwashed next to their rubble piles waiting for someone else to fix it. Then Germany was a shock, they were clean and worked together on the rubble piles, sorting good from bad bricks and stacked them neatly in piles. They began to rebuild as soon as they could without waiting for anything or anybody. They found of all the peoples, the Germans were the most like themselves, and the German solder was the only other solders they had met that felt like they did, that the most important personal item they had was toilet paper.
The French national mood was probably not the best, being overrun, occupied, overrun again, and add on all the collaborators and traitors, combined with wartime shortages.
When I was stationed in Wurzburg, Germany in 1970-72 I became acquainted with the gentleman who operated a roadside cafe (sort of) across the street from the kaserne where I was stationed. He had been a POW in Texas during the war. He told us of working on Texas farms. He said they would paint swastikas on tortoises and send them off into the countryside.
Our son was a Cav Scout stationed with the 1st ID in Schweinfurt for six years. We made changes on the train in Wurzburg. That was from 2004-20010. You would not that there had been a war because by that time everything had be rebuilt. Our grand kids when out trick or treating once and sadly the knocked on a door and were confronted by a woman who commented "why are you celebrating a tradition of our enemy. The kids were born on August 1 2004. That was about 2009 when they were so young.
My parents lived in a farming town in western Minnesota during the war. With so many boys off to fight, German and Italian POWs provided vital aid in all aspects of farming. Most of the POWs had been farmers in their homelands, so for them it was familiar work that most of them liked. My dad's neighbors had several POWs on their farm and the used to eat their meals with the family -- one of the girls of the family ended up marrying one of the former POWs after the war and settling down nearby. It didn't hurt that a quarter of the people in the area either spoke German at home or had parents who did.
This is just an amazing and in-depth look at their experiences. This is why I love history - not just the main page turners and those who would control the destinies of men - but all the stories in all the corners and all the tides. Thank you for this gift WW2 Stories.
There's a terrific book called The Last Stand of The Tin-Can Sailors, about the experiences of the destroyers and destroyer escorts of Seventh Fleet at Leyte Gulf. It's full of interesting anecdotes about life aboard ship. You might enjoy it.
My grandad was a guard at a camp in Georgia. The POWs worked the fields. He told me most of them got fat while they were there. I live in SW Florida. We had camps here too. So many Germans came back and lived here. It’s nuts. The German American club here is a multi million dollar operation.
My grandfather was a county agricultural director for Okmulgee county Oklahoma. He directed where German POWs, went to work the fields. My father was 9 when the war ended and would go to the fields and see POWs all the time. He remembered one who asked my father if he had an older sister. It took years for him to understand what he meant. He did say they were all friendly and hard working.
My Dad was conscripted into the German Army at 14, taken from school after Hitler closed Catholic schools.Catholics were next, according to my Oma for work camps( as she thought). Dad was taken POW by Americans in Cherbourg France. He was released in 1948 aged 18 and went home to Berlin .He said his America captors treated them well.Thanking.My Dad migrated to Melbourne Australia in in 1955 and met my Mum ( Irish ).Americans treated the POWs better than what I was at school.Some mean girls at secondary school called me Nazi.This upset me very much.I have family in Ireland, Germa y and the U.S. My beloved Dad past away in 2016 of Alzheimers .Too late to thank the American POW guards Many, many thanks.God Bless your families.xo
German POWs were kept in camps as far west as California. Generally they were well treated and fed luxuriously by wartime standards. This included daily servings of fresh meat, vegetables and (inconceivably) ice cream. They labored in farm fields that produced their own food and spent their off time in multiple crafts and hobbies. The only shadows on their stay were homesickness and certain Nazi zealots that sometimes violently enforced pro-Nazi attitudes at the expense of their war weary comrades. But even those zealots rarely pushed themselves to escape.
Just like the people they suppressed n violently n blindly followed their “feuher” when their fellow Germans were going against Hitlers ideas, everybody’s got a choice.
@@wittkrieg BS. No German soldiers starved in US captivity. And none were kept after the war who weren't accused war criminals. The government wanted their conscripts back in the US ASAP, so they didn't have any to spare for long term POW storage.
@@wittkrieg During the war my father was a supply sergeant for an AAA AW Unit in the 3rd Army under Patton. After the war he was asked to put together a recreation area for military personnel and he was tasked to build baseball diamonds. He said it was on an island in a big river. I don't remember the name of the river. He had studied German in High School so he could speak some German and he understood it better. He used German war prisoners to do the work. The first time he went to the wire fence near the gate and asked if anyone spoke English. He said a man spoke up that spoke very clear English as he had taught English in Germany and had been to the US to study before the war. The man became my father's interpreter. My father asked for volunteers to come and help make the baseball fields. He said her got enough volunteers, but it took a while to get enough men. He drove them back to the area and started to put them to work, but he said all the POWs were very lethargic. They were weak from being underfed. He said they only got two meals a day. If they got less, he never said or knew. He said they were fed on low rations to keep them weak so they wouldn't have the strength to rebel. My dad could see that at the pace these men worked it would take him a long time to complete the work. So, while others watched the POWs work, he went to the local supply depot and filled the truck full of K-Rations and C-Rations. When he returned the supplies were off loaded and stored in the basement of a building nearby. Then he took all the POW's down into the basement and gave each man two rations which they hungrily ate. My dad was told not to feed them, that's why he had to do it secretly in the basement. After that the POW's had the energy, they needed to do the work. Each day my father had to return the prisoners to the camp after the work was done for the day. The next day when he went to pick up the workers, he had a lot of enthusiastic volunteers. When they all got to the rec area, he would feed them all for breakfast, for lunch and dinner. They finished the work on time. My dad would sit in the basement and listen to the Germans talk to each other. He said he knew what they were all saying but never let on he understood German. He always talked to the prisoners through his interpreter. He never talked about his war experiences until a few years before he passed away.
@@daverave3698 Interesting. I've seen hell in my own way, and it lends me to understand the horror before those. As small as it all maybe, Very interesting tho. God bless.
My wife is one of nine Doetzkies left on the planet. Her great-grandfather was a WW1 German Empire machine gunner (that survived by welding a steel plate to his weapon) and her grandfather was a U-boat repair man in Normandy (He would later move to Detroit and work in an automotive factory). They lived in Bremen during the war, occupying one of the few houses in the city that weren't bombed by the Americans (When the GIs arrived, they booted them out and used it as a command post). While neither of those two German military men were never POW's, the stories of those that were are truly inspiring. Such a hardy, wonderful people given over to evil leadership. I'm breaking with tradition and taking her maiden name, and we'll soon have as many kiddos as possible. We'll work towards leaving a legacy worthy of the good German men and women who have come before us. Thank you all for sharing. God bless you all.
A friends of mine who lives in Bavaria tells a family story. At the end of the war there was a shortage of food and people were hungry. They received a letter from an uncle who was a POW in America, imagine their feelings when they learnt that he had so much flour they used it to mark out a football pitch!
When I started work the foreman of the toolroom said that his role in the army was as a guard at a PoW camp near Nottingham. He said the prisoners were no trouble and the biggest problem was the local women trying to break IN!
@@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music If you don't know why I am at a loss as to explain what the women were looking for. Bit of a delicate subject, really.
One of the popular songs in the US during the war was the lament "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old" (refering to the fact that so many of the young men were in the military)
I live a few minutes from POW camp #6 on Emory Grove road in Gaithersburg Maryland. Camp Davis. The German POWs worked on area farms and didn't want to go back to Germany after the war. Some applied to stay and became citizens. Their children still live in the area today. There is one POW still alive at 100 years old. Mr. Winter retired from NASA years ago and still has his German uniform and awards including the Iron cross second class. He is a wonderful human being.
There's actually a sizeable German community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Many of them came freely before the war to work timber or the mines, and they got along well with the POWs interned at the five camps in the UP during the war. They were well treated and more than a few returned after the war to live the American dream.
Was at Camp Shelby MS about 25 years ago and a German man and his family stopped by. He wanted to show them where he had spent most of WWII. He had been captured in North Africa and was a POW at Shelby.
@@bongdonkey Yes indeed. I’ve listened to the lectures of retired American colonel David Glantz, and others. The eastern front in WW2 was undoubtedly the most brutal, terrifying conflict in history, on a gigantic, almost incomprehensible scale.
@@davidpryle3935 Youre correct. And even U.S. forces did very bad things. Its just covered up or altered to make it look like U.S. does no wrong. The fact its a war should be looked at for what it really is. Otherwise humans are bound to repeat the mistake. Salut!
My great grandma spoke German because her husband spoke it. She was put in charge of overseeing some German POWs. She loved how surprised they always were when she revealed she could understand them. She especially loved chewing them out for swearing in German.
A German POW was assigned to help my grandfather with his farm. He wrote to my grandpa a couple times after returning home after the war. Grandpa said he was a good worker and never caused any trouble. While checked up on at first, eventually checks dropped off until one day soldiers came to return the man to Germany.
Since I went to study in Stuttgart when I was 18 in 1988 I have been fascinated with all things German. What has always perplexed me besides the seemingly inhuman task of not just learning but also retaining a functional ability to speak German is the complete disconnect between the Germany that I came to know and love and the Germany of just a half a century before. Learning the language was more of a personal challenge than my first rodeo in being multi-lingual as I grew up speaking both English and Portuguese from a young age but more important to me was understanding the history of Germania as Caesar called it. Nothing about the Third Reich jived with the people or the country that welcomed me and treated me so well when I was young. For 35 years I haven't given up on my German whether it be the language or the fascinating history. Here's a conclusion that comes to mind from all of this. It's not Germany or Germanic people that are uniquely subject to radicalization but humans in general given the right circumstances and rhetoric. This is in my opinion the only real political struggle, the recognition and resistance to radicalization because if it can happen to a logical and intelligent people like them it can happen to any people anywhere very quickly.
Your exactly correct. Intelligent people can be radicalized, It’s happening as you read this. With fear and distrust of the Gov. Hate groups have gained a foothold, with many followers on social media. Not good.
You only mention the danger of radicalisation itself, not the danger of the things that always precede it, such as Weimar Germany and the destruction of European nations over the past half century
Yes, WW2 Japan was no different. Warlords twisted samurai behaviors and the stratified society to justify that even others who sort of looked like them (just like in Europe) were inferior and thus subject to exist only for their benefit. Chinese, Koreans, other asians were often looked at as being subhuman. You surrender instead of fighting to the death, well you deserve to be mistreated. I guess even "rational" or intelligent people can get swept up in this stuff. Or, more worrysome, we are all just lazy asses and would rather be led by the nose than think for ourselves. Now I'm depressed.
My grandfather's brothers, in Kansas, had German soldiers work their farms as help. Their own father had come from Germany and they could still speak German themselves, so could talk to the POWs.
My grandfather's youngest brother was a German POW in Scotland. After the war, he married a local girl and settled in Scotland for the rest of his life.
There is a legend on the railroad: When a German POW being transported west by train saw a passing Union Pacific “Big Boy” locomotive he knew the war was lost because any nation that could build and master such a machine could not be defeated.
Right. Because the Germans never did figure out locomotives. They hand-pushed the behemoth railroad guns (biggest guns ever built) down the tracks. But yeah, a single locomotive let him know they were screwed. I'm fully on board. When do we get to the part about the seven dwarves? Wait... is this the one with the bridge troll?
@@skipdreadman8765 Germany made and still makes very fine locomotives. But American steam locomotives at their zenith made their European counterparts look like teakettles on wheels. Germany had quality. America had quantity. And quantity is a quality all on its own.
I read or heard that late in the Japanese realized they sank or captured an ice cream barge and hid the fact from their populace. Imagine if it became widely know that the Americans had the ability to wage the war and provide treats to their armed forces at the front.
Some guys I worked with on the old Ski Train work/operate the UP Steam Shop in Cheyenne, WY. They rebuilt a Big Boy over a five year period and several millions of Union Pacific’s money. I followed progress over those years. The locomotive is massive. It’s the largest operating steam locomotive in the world. I loaded up a video of it pulling out of Greeley, CO headed to Cheyenne one cold winter day to this TH-cam profile. It’s the only video uploaded if you want to see a Big Boy.
@@maestromecanico597 Okie dokie. Listen, I'm as patriotic as the next guy, veteran, parents both served in WWII. Completely understand about the industrial might being key. I still don't believe your POW fairy tale. Locomotives aren't everything, and Germany made plenty of big pieces of equipment. Like the railroad guns that we didn't have anything to match. Nice story, though. I think it's made up. But keep enjoying telling it, it seems to really please you.
There was a POW camp in Sparta, MI a couple blocks from my uncle Herb's house. There was no sign of it left when I was a kid. I'm told that a couple prisoners helped on my grandfather's farm. The guards seemed to enjoy easy duty. My mom & aunt weren't to talk to the prisoners. I heard a story of a guard who fell asleep while watching a couple prisoners who noted his slumber and helpfully disassembled his rifle. He was abashed when he awoke and they reassembled the rifle to spare him getting into trouble. I wish the oldsters were around to ask about the camp.
@@thedyingmeme6 The site is now a wastewater treatment plant. Years back I asked if there was anything left of the POW camp and was told there was nothing left.
@@thedyingmeme6inquire at your local libraries in the area your seeking information. Then contact the library of congress and military libraries. Almost everything is on line.
A distant relative from a very small, very rural town in Minnesota spent some time guarding prisoners from the Afrika Corps being held in North Carolina. He half jokingly said they really are the Master Race, they were all blonde, all about 6'2" and they all worked together and sang together as they worked in the prison camp. He was impressed. By the way, this guy later became a member of 5th Rangers and was on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
Met a girlfriend's Dad that had guarded captured German troops and he told me they were just ordinary guys like us . There was no Master Race jive and he brought back an absolute mint k98 as a souvenir .
This is a well written account of life as a prisoner, and one you don't hear very often. The author must have been an educated and observant young man. I look forward to hearing the next episode.
Camps in Michigan too. I read an account by a few POWS who lived in the Thumb area. The Thumb has a 😅large percentage of German ancestory citizens & a hugh farming culture. The POWS liked their time there. Everyone spoke German, the food was very familiar( like back home), the girls were pretty & they were allowed to attend Church where services were spoken in German.
In Arizona, there was a legendary incident known as the "Great Papago Escape" (see Wikipedia article by that name). Twenty-five German POWs secretly tunneled out of the camp -- then comedy ensued. Their meticulous plan included fabricating makeshift rafts and taking the Salt River to the Colorado River and then to Mexico. The locals know that the Salt "River" is actually a dry wash 99% of the time (only becoming a river after an unusually severe "monsoon" storm). They too were pleasantly surprised by the accommodating treatment they received during their brief period of freedom. Anyway, the incident would make for an amusing comedy film.
There's a similar story of a couple of German POWs at labor camp in Northern Minnesota who got a hold of a map and figured out it was an easy float down the Mississippi to Mexico and then back to Germany. They didn't even make it to the Mississippi, the guards were worried about them dying in the bush, escape was impossible without a ride the whole way.
My mom told me that as a little girl in the 1950s in Louisiana she knew a lot of German pows from the war that stayed in the States after the war and became American as apple pie(those were her words).
The Liberty ship Thomas Marshall was named after Woodrow Wilson 's Vice President "Marshall was known for his wit and sense of humor. One of his most enduring jokes provoked widespread laughter from his Senate colleagues during a floor debate. Responding to Senator Joseph Bristow's catalog of the nation's needs, Marshall quipped that, 'What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.'" 🚭🚭
I'm amazed and appalled by the unmitigated gall and arrogance of German POWs. They are fortunate they weren't prisoners of the Red Army because they would have been paid back in kind for how they treated Allied POWs.
I felt the same as you but as you listen to this series you start to understand the ignorance of this soldier and how there’s no way he could have seen what we know today. Hell, some of them actually thought Germany still had a chance at this point.
@@deadlyoneable There is a way he could have known. He could have known that Hitler was a maniac if he actually listened to and understood what it meant. He could have known Germany could not win a war against all the major industrial powers in the world. He could have known that the theory of "aryan supremacy" was just a cover for enslaving everyone (including even himself). He could have understood that the Nazi regime was barbarism, treating other human beings like *literal* garbage. In order to understand all of these things, all you had to do was use your brain. A whole bunch of people *did* see what the Nazi regime was all about - before the catastrophe.
This is what you get after years of brainwashing, conditioning and propaganda where information is controlled by a small group in power. Although we see the same effect today in the world, although it is more difficult with the easy availability of information on the Internet, there are still people who simply choose one source of news and opinions, fully aware that this creates the same stubborn rejection of reality
My daddy was a paratrooper with the 82nd. He told us the ones he dealt with had respect and polite. But that might have been because his group were the devil's in baggy pants.
@@robertbarlow6715 tp the facts are that the Germans had been at war for almost five years prior to the Allies in the West,, their their enemy in the East was not the Russian and many Germans will tell you that the enemy was the Bolshevik communist,,, who happened to be Jewish... through years of the attempted communist takeovers in Germany,, and the border crisis,, meaning the poles we're killing ethnic Germans along the border,, every Jew was a communist to them... Even though 98% of the Communists were Jewish not all the Jews we're communist,,, what history fails to mention is Stalin Holocaust started way before and he killed a lot more jews then Hitler ever thought of doing... The radical communist zionist we're willing and able to kill their own,, and blame it on AH.. Stalin would win europe , at least that was JSs final solution as he seen it
I worked for a German woman in the US for years. She got three houses but still complained all the time about the USA. I finally quit and told her how I was sick of her attitude.
Im sure if the germans fire bombed your country, killed your family thru deprivation, starvation, and general lack, then you went to live in Germany post war, you might have somethings to complain about too.
There has been a long and persistent attitude in much of the world about German tourists. All of it generated post-war. Generated by the German tourists.
I married a German and stayed in Germany 7 years after getting out of the army. An elderly neighbor was a POW in Alabama. He told me that the Americans never checked or opened their mail, their Red Cross rations were always on time, fed well, allowed to play soccer, roam freely, and some even worked in town. He loved the Americans for the humane treatment and thanked God he was captured and got out of the war.
A co worker of mine was dating a woman from Germany. I enjoyed practicing my German with her. When they broke up, I asked her out. She declined because I was too old German for her. My response was "How can this be? I have never even been to the Fatherland!" She frantically responded "Fatherland?! Fatherland!? See? Your parents taught you well!"
My grandfather was German-speaking and owned a farm in Manitoba and my dad told me stories about how the Canadian government would bring German PoWs there to serve as day laborers. The guards would give him a list of the various rules the PoWs were supposed to follow - no firearms, obviously, but also they weren't allowed to operate heavy equipment and vehicles. And then the guards would leave them for the day and my grandfather would immediately have them driving the tractor around and whatever else needed doing regardless. Never had any trouble.
When I was a kid in the late 1960`s my Mother bought roses from a local grower named "Fred". He was a lovely grey haired man with a strange accent but was always friendly and welcoming. I learned some years later that his name was Fritz and he had been a navigator on a German bomber that was shot down in 1940. He was a POW in North Wales and finally settled in England in 1948 having married a Woman from North Wales.
The German POWs were scattered to camps all over the US. Here in Dothan, AL, there still exists the POW compound that has served as a flea market for years. To the west, at Ft.Rucker, the POWs crafted wood work panels and figures and stained glass in the post’s chapels.
During war time most soldiers are conscripted. All had jobs, trades or skills - many of which could possibly be traced back as a family business because of the long history of Europe. I guess what I'm getting at is the fact many of these people had amazing knowledge and skills compared to their industrialized American counterparts.
My grandma always goes on and on about how when she was a child she would watch the German POWs take out the trash. In her little suburbia in Oklahoma it was common to see these POWs do necessary civil labor that was considered too hard for the women to do. Her family eventually got to know this one German in particular who always took out their garbage for them and on one occasion helped their father mend their fence. He spoke good English and would always have little bits of candy for the kids (apparently the POWs were afforded chocolates, even when the citizens of the US were not.) Eventually when the war ended, and the germans were sent back to west Germany, her family never thought she would get to see the kind german again. Imagine their surprise when he moved in next door! The house had been vacant for a very long time, so the German bought it and after a few months acquired citizenship. Apparently there wasn’t much in Germany that was keeping him there, so he opted to just stay in the U.S because he enjoyed it so much! Unfortunately my grandma has dementia, and though she still remembers him she can no longer recall his name. The last she saw of him was when they were moving out of Oklahoma to Abilene, and he helped them move some heavy boxes to the car etc. She says the Germans POWs were always very kind people, which made the discovery of the concentration camps even more shocking to her.
It's been said that for centuries Germany was a country that had two faces. The face that was faced west was kind and cultured while the eastern face was an angry snarl. Because the US is in the West the Germans were friendly while Poles, Soviets and Jews got to see the other face.
My parents lived in Brooklyn and they kept Italian POWs there in Fort Hamilton. On Sundays they were allowed to leave base with my grandparents who found men from their home town. They were taken out for church and dinner. They were brought back in the evening. I don't think our troops were given as much as these pow's.
They couldn't give even if they wanted to. They didn't had enough for themselves. To think they went to war on an empty stomach & no other supplies. That's what propaganda & cult mentality does to ppls.
The house I was in as a new-born was built by POW's. Mostly out of North Africa. Some structure was hand--carved by Europeans happy to get appreciation for non-military skills. My parents refused to assist their return in post-war years .
I was on a passenger ferry travelling from Lyttelton to Wellington in New Zealand. I sat at the midpoint of the vessel on the outer deck so I had fresh air and minimal pitch....it was a pretty rough sea state. As I ate a meat pie from the paper bag it was sold in, washing it down with a soda drink....two young guys nearby watched me eat and immediately threw up and left the area. I couldn't smell it as the wind blew the stink away.. The pie was good. By chance I met up with them hours later...they still were miserable and couldn't face food. Seasickness can be rough especially others vomiting in enclosed areas with no ventilation.
My Father lived next to a German POW camp. He could speak German so he visited them often. He said some of them were boys only 14 or 15 years old; although, at the time, they seemed like grown ups to a 9 year old. They shared their care packages from their German Mamas. I now realize my Father must have reminded them of their own little brothers. Also, my Father had recently lost his Mother, and they were eager to show kindness. My Father's dog was even allowed inside, but the rifle had to rest outside against the fence. Any of those POWs could have grabbed the gun and held my Father hostage but why? For what? They were fed and had to work neighboring farms, but were were treated with respect. They walked to the farms on their own recognizance. There were no escapes or issues of violence. Some of them stayed and married the farmer's daughter! This time in American history sounds like a fairy tale. ❤️
I remember my mother, who is 88, now telling me a story about German prisoners riding by their house in East Baltimore when she was a kid , at first I didn't believe her because I didn't think they came to Baltimore but I was looking at a book about Baltimore during WW2 , about Martin State Airport, the Dundalk Marine Terminal and yes the German Prisoners who where taking to a prison camp off of Holadbird Avenue in Dundalk, Southeast Baltimore.
I wouldn't think of our east coast as that kinda place during WW2. From what I read, a lot of the German POWs helped farmers out west where there were less people around.
@FreshTillDeath56 yeah true ,, but perhaps there were other things for them to do ,, I know the Eastern Shore on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay is known for the tobacco farms , & Southeast Baltimore known for the steel mills 🤔 which was very big during the Second World War along with Martin's Airport known to make a lot a airplanes, Bomber plains during the war.
My father was a guard in a German POW Camp. I asked him what it was like, what the prisoners were like. He told me that the job wasn't difficult for him. The prisoners would do repairs on clothing, watches, and anything else for the guards. The guards would get them cigarettes, chocolate, etc.. My mother's German ancestors came to New York in 1710, and my father's German ancestors came in the 18th century, but later. My maternal great-grandfather hid the fact that he was of German descent due to the fact German-Americans were not popular during WWI or WWII.
Stories from the German enlisted are some of the best. This was almost a poem, very succinct but infinitely descriptive.. Theres a metaphor for german engineering in there somewhere. I love the bravado and badassery you seem to get from the Russian and American veteran writers, but its almost a romance novel coming from the German perspective. Is there a part 2? This ended quite abruptly. EDIT: Just saw the pinned comment- PART 10?!? Oh boy, this is going to be a lovely saturday spent on the fronts of the fatherland. Great work narrating these stories.
I was born in 1937. I lived with my grandparents on a farm in Tennessee. In 1943-44 a former American training camp in Tullahoma Tennessee was converted to a German POW camp. Since most able bodied men were in the armed forces, farmers could hire the pow's on a daily basis to help with harvests. We used the pow's numerous times and at age 7 I was the water boy. I carried the water bucket with one dipper. The German word for water was vasser (and since they had been demonized to all children) i was terrified but ran with the bucket when I was called. I was of Irish descent and therefore was blond headed and blue eyed. The prisoners made a big deal out of my appearance. It scared me to death but one of the G.I guards spoke German and assured me that they were complimenting my appearance as being like their own. They were very kind and always thanked me after I carried the water to them. I soon found out that only ordinary people suffer from war. The older politicians who start them rarely ever do. I am now 86 and a veteran of the USAF 1955-1959.
When fighting a Foren nation, the best way to demoralize them, is to treat POW's and civilians well. POW's are more likely to give up information, and less likely to try to escape. If you let them write home, they might tell there family's that they are fine and are being treated nicely. It encourages soldiers to give up rather than fight to the death. It makes them possibly doubt their own viewpoints on the war. when it comes to civilians, they are more likely to resist fighting for said nation. They are also more likely to cooperate with your nation. It helps get rid of propaganda. Being nice is always a strategic win.
My Maternal Grandmother (an Oklahoman by birth) lived for a period In Philadelphia where I spent a summer or two with her during my childhood. I will NEVER forget being in the kitchen with her German lady friends as they chatted and prepared food! It was the first time I tasted German potato salad, sauerkraut, and so many other wonderful things. I do not remember one negative word passing between them about the war or anything else. It really was lovely and I must say I don’t know if they were Americans of German descent or women who had married American service men and had emigrated after the war. I remember it so very fondly. Lest we forget we should remember to understand that despots make impossible for ordinary people to live in peace. KNOW HISTORY, it has SO MANY lessons to offer as these things tend to repeat!
Good day Ladies and Gentleman! The diary of Helmut Horner. This is part 10.
Here is the playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLyuEmb1VavZARAG13NojLWW1yBVb-E4j7.html
This was interesting I hope to hear more of this solder's life
@@Mike-wr7omI'm thinking the same thing. This thing is way too detailed and well written. A writer has to have written this .
@@Mike-wr7om Quote: "Horner, an enlisted man in Hitler's army, served on both the Eastern and Western fronts and was wounded four times before being captured in 1944. After a highly unpleasant stayok? in a French POW camp, he was turned over to American authorities and sent to the U.S., where he spent a comparatively comfortable 14 months in several POW camps--earning money working for sugar-beet farmers in Colorado and harvesting peaches in New Jersey. However, on the psychological level his sojourn in the States was an ordeal: Horner coped with homesickness, accepting or 'accepting'? aa Germany's defeat in the war, his growing shock over the revealed lies and brutality perpetrated by the Third Reich, and his seemingly dismal prospects in postwar Germany. The author's observations on Americans are his journal's least interesting feature, but he has noteworthy things to say about maintaining dignity, pride and hope as a prisoner of war. Repatriated in 1948, Horner worked as a dental technician until his death last year." Source: www.amazon.com/German-Odyssey-Journal-Prisoner-War/dp/1555910777
Quote: "Horner, an enlisted man in Hitler's army, served on both the Eastern and Western fronts and was wounded four times before being captured in 1944. After a highly unpleasant stayok? in a French POW camp, he was turned over to American authorities and sent to the U.S., where he spent a comparatively comfortable 14 months in several POW camps--earning money working for sugar-beet farmers in Colorado and harvesting peaches in New Jersey. However, on the psychological level his sojourn in the States was an ordeal: Horner coped with homesickness, accepting or 'accepting'? aa Germany's defeat in the war, his growing shock over the revealed lies and brutality perpetrated by the Third Reich, and his seemingly dismal prospects in postwar Germany. The author's observations on Americans are his journal's least interesting feature, but he has noteworthy things to say about maintaining dignity, pride and hope as a prisoner of war. Repatriated in 1948, Horner worked as a dental technician until his death last year." Source: www.amazon.com/German-Odyssey-Journal-Prisoner-War/dp/1555910777
His description of seasickness reminds me of when I came by ship from Bremerhaven Germany to New York New York. It was November 1965 I was 7 years old and we were returning to the United States from Nuremberg. The ship I was on was the General Maurice Rose. Not quite Mid-Atlantic we ran into a November Gale. Being 7 years old I was totally impressed by The towering seas and the ships and the distance disappearing in the troughs. I did not get seasick then and here I am at age 65 I've never been seasick. My mother and my worthless sister took turns commandeering the bathroom so that they could throw up everything that they hadn't eaten. Dad and I on the other hand didn't miss a meal. I love being in about whether it's rough or calm. At the same time I do respect to sea because if you don't it'll eat you.
German POWs were helping to run the saw mill in a Louisiana saw mill town where my mother lived. She was a child during WWII & was always making sandwiches for the POWs working at the mill to make sure they didn't go hungry. One of those POWs either remained in or came back to the saw mill town & lived there after the war was over. He always made a children's rocking chair for each child born in the town. He made a rocking chair for my sister when she was born & one for me when I was born a year later although my mother no longer lived in the town. My grand- mother still lived there. I visited her for a month every summer & got to know the "rocking chair man". One day I asked him why he made rocking chairs for my sister & me even though we didn't live there. He said it was because my mother brought him a sandwich every day.
Kindness and decency repaid.
Im sure he would much rather be making rocking chairs and working a saw mill, even in louisiana, than being on the east front in russia.
Samiches are currency for hungry men.
There's an OLD saying about there being 2 ways to a man's heart... one being through his belly.
@@blueduck9409 He must have liked Louisiana because he was free to go anywhere in the US. I like Louisiana also.
I was stationed in Germany in the early 80s. One night on a train we ran into an older gentleman who asked if we were American soldiers. Apon hear that we were he gave each of us a bottle of beer and toasted to America. He explained that he loved america after being a POW there during the war. He wanted to always return the kindness that received there. The incident was a real eye opener for four entirely too young Americans.
thanks for your service-I loved going through Germany after both of my deployments.
I was also stationed in Germany in the early 80s , B Company 1/15 3rd Infantry in Harvey Barracks next to Kitzingen.
The most meaningful things I remember was when on occasion an elderly German WW2 Veteran would come up to us and speak to us , they would thank us and were grateful that we are now friends and often would bring us a bottle of Wine and the Sgt's would always let us drink a cup even out in the field.
It always made our day .
My father was stationed in Germany in 68. He said a number of Germans came up to him and apologized for WWII. He said he never quite knew what to say to them, because most of them weren't even 20 years old themselves (nor was my father). How could one man who wasn't even a year old during WWII apologize to another man who hadn't been born yet? It just goes to show you how deep some cultural scars can run.
On a more happy note, my father said that there was a healthy trade between Germans and Americans while he was stationed there. He and the other Americans loved the German beer, and Germans loved their American smokes. Quite 'healthy' trade indeed, hah!
Americans treated Germen Pow really well, almost 100% according to geneva convention. but I think once the NAZI atrocity got out there were some resentment. overall unless you were a troublemaking hardcore nazi, you were fine being a pow in America.
grew up in the 80's also. Its so weird to me that WW2 vets are no longer around every corner
My parents are from Germany. My father was one of the few Germans who returned from Stalingrad. One of my uncles was in a POW camp in Texas. In the chow line, he asked "Why are you giving me two pork chops?" The guard responded "This is the land of plenty! One to eat and one to throw away!" He later applied for American citizenship
I think of this as the arrogance of plenty. Kindness is a luxury where you don't even need hate to keep you motivated. Like a potlatch, you show off your wealth by even throwing it away on your enemies.
It is good to be able to afford not be vicious, but it sets us apart from those who had to be. The point of money is a gated community from troubling thoughts.
@@paulpinecone2464 What a perverse reading
@paulpinecone2464 you do realize there's no way the second pork chop was actually getting thrown away?
@@RocketPropelledGuy yeah... i believe paul pinecone's comment/reply was negative attention seeking behavior... it's a fairly common trait of a limited/broken socialization learning cycle during childhood/teen years
God bless Texas
I met Karl, he was a POW in Kentucky. The camp took a photo of him so he could mail it to his mom back in Germany. Her reply letter asked if he was being beaten at the camp due to his face looking so swollen. He humbly replied to his mom, no, no beating, but I've gained 35 pounds on all the food they give us. Great story. Karl was shipped back to Germany but ended up in the Detroit area and retired from FORD.
I actually live near Detroit!!! What a wonderful story!!!
WW1 and WW2 just destroyed Europe.
Interesting. How did mail from the US get to Germany? I hear you had to know someone from a neutral country in Europe and then they had to forward the letter from their place to Germany.
@@nunyabeezaxe2030 He said the international Red Cross was able to deliver mail for German prisoners here in the US...not sure, but the Allied prisoners probably did not have that same courtesy allow them. It was a one time thing, and there was an actual for letter that was filled out by the prisoner here and then sent overseas and the RED Cross took it from there.
I'm alive today because my German grandfather came over after WW2 and ended up retiring from Ford motor company.
He passed away a few years back and received a 21 gun salute at his funeral. He'd joined the American army after emigrating here and serving in the Korean War.
I read a book called Stalag USA about German POW camps around Paola, KS. I've seen the remains. One story was funny. A POW escaped and made his way to Chicago. In the 1960s he contacted the FBI and wanted to surrender. His children were in college and everything was good for him but he felt guilty. The FBI agent asked him if he was still a Nazi...NO. Was he committing criminal acts....NO. Then go and sin no more. Have a good life.
Yes, back when the FBI were still good guys!
@@pegatheetoo1437 ...I suggest you look up some history of the FBI.
@@pegatheetoo1437 the fbi was started with the stated goals from many of the higher ups to be enemies to the rights of the people of the US in the name of protecting them
@@westrim I guess I should have said, 'when we all still thought they were good guys.' 😅
@@pegatheetoo1437 The FBI is a state apparatus. It is neither evil or good it simply plays a roll
There is an old German saying "Be brave, join the infantry, but once you get the chance, surrender to the Americans immediately"
The man was a piece of s*** but I tell you what he was smart cuz he knew America with would kill him if he didn't the man was a piece of garbage anybody that would fight for Adolf Hitler has 0-0 nothing more than sorry piece of s***
Well when you got Russians on the other front.
@@edgarbanuelos6472In that case it’s “Run back to Bavaria, and then surrender to the Americans.”
@@edgarbanuelos6472 Yea it was probably invented sometime during 1945 lol
During the bombing of Berlin, there was a joke passed among the citizens heading to bomb shelters:
"You know what the pessimists are bringing into the shelters? Russian dictionaries.
You know what the optimists are bringing? English dictionaries."
My grandfather, a poor peanut farmer, was a scout in WWI. During WWII he had German POWs working his farm. He didn’t like the amount of food that was provided the POWs and so he would drive into town to get them cokes and extra food. Several of the POWs would write him letters and send Christmas cards.
The treatment of POWs in America is fascinating. They received the same rations as GIs which irritated the locals since civilians had less. They had unfettered access to radio broadcasts and most newspapers and magazines. Some completed college degrees from US universities by correspondence. I think this was a wise policy and created goodwill among returning prisoners for the US. A lot didn’t want to go home after the war or emigrated to the USA later. This was possible due to the wealth of America and lack of destruction from the war. As one anecdote says “We could have won the war with what the Americans threw away.
@@procopiusaugustus6231 Yeah I don't think they quite appreciated what America could do if pissed off. I wonder what history would have been like if Hitler had come to the United States for art school....
@@sid2112 ....Which brings us to the tail of Austrian Bob Ross.
"Und now ve vill paint zee happy little trees und zee free und lovely clouds...."
@@unnaturalselection8330 😆
@@sid2112I often wonder what might have happened if Pearl Harbour hadn’t actively propelled the US into WW2. Anti-war sentiment was strong in the US and western Europe may well have fallen completely, no matter how many Liberty ships got through, letting the Nazis turn all their attention to the Eastern Front.
My mother grew up on a farm in Oklahoma. She got off the school bus one day and saw the frame of their home collapse after burning. There was German POWs that picked cotton. And tended to the crops while armed guards
on horses guarded them. As the home started burning many Germans ran into the house to try to save anything of value. After things settled down a German approached my grandfather and gave him his golden watch (the ones on a chain back then that was inside your jacket) and my grandfather thanked him sincerely. My grandpa would buy then coke, 7up, cherry soda etc…The Germans were very thankful to be treated kindly. As bad as WW2 was, sometimes the worst things brings out the best in people. I wrote a story to my 5th grade class about this, my teacher said he didn’t believe it. My mom chewed his ass and made him apologize to me in front of my clsss.
Good Mother...
People everywhere are mostly good and want a happy life getting along with each other. It’s the power drunk leaders that force good people to kill each other.
@@madisonhasson8981 bad teacher, right?
@@tiredofallthis7716
BADASS Mom!!!
Old days! If it were today they would have already canceled you as a fascist😆😁😅
A story I heard, a German soldier saw that an American GI's standard rations included chocolate and coffee, and that was the moment he went "Yep, we're finished."
Only senior German officers had access to such luxuries. The moment they realized that the American logistical supply chain was so sophisticated and impenetrable that everyday random soldiers got luxuries normally restricted to German elites, that was the end.
Like, imagine starting a game of Doom and you start off with a fully loaded BFG9000, just for enlisting.
😂 Good wording! 👍🏻👍🏻
Yup. The US military caters to the current generations strengths for fighting. In WW2 it was Baseball which resulted in baseball grenades. These days it's drones.
The Japanese had a similar instance when they found out we had an entire ship in our fleet dedicated to making ice cream for the sailors.
@@VVeremooseDelivering, they didn't make it, but yup!
Similar things from some Japanese. They are literally starving to death, get captured and taken down to the beach. And the American marines have an ice cream ship docked at the landing site.
My grandfather was a dairy farmer in the state of Wisconsin during the war (I am not certain when exactly this account occurred). German POWs could volunteer to help farmers with the alfalfa harvest. According to the Geneva Conventions, they could not be forced to work, but there was incentive to get out of the stockade, especially if the POWs grew up on farms themselves. None of them tried to escape and none committed any crimes to my grandfather's knowledge. This one POW spoke decent English. They were taking their noon meal break. The German POW said to my grandfather, "After the war, I am going to walk on over to Montana to visit a cousin of mine". My grandfather had the hardest time trying to explain the impossibility of walking from the state of Wisconsin to the state of Montana.
After the influenza pandemic in the early 20th century my grandfather walked from West Virginia to Chicago.
@@jadakowers590 Yup, it is definitely possibly, especially if your grandfather was willing to hitch a ride or ride the rails. Quite a few took this approach. The problem with this German, however, is I don't think he understood the difference in sizes of the central American states and the German states. Since Germany was already using the metric system and the US was non-metric, I am sure this played a role in trying to make the German understand the distances. Nevertheless, I don't think this would be an option for the German at the end of the war. I believe they had to be returned to Germany and then emigrate/visit the US afterward,
@@azjim2946 there is also the fact that in europe you can literally drive to another country within a reasonable amount of time.
America is a little bit bigger, obviously...
@@selectionn I have found Europeans appreciate the idea of how big the US on a map, but until they get here, it really doesn't "register". Typically, when one European tells another that her/she is flying to the US, it is to the US East Coast. The West Coast is two thirds farther. Hawaii or Alaska? Forget it.
Theoretically, if that German POW served on the eastern front he might have had to walk a similar distance if he participated in Operation Barbarossa. Still, I would imagine the infrastructure in that part of the USA is even worse than the infrastructure of most of Western Russia.
My dad was a US soldier during the end of WWII. He was just 18 years old. I remember him telling me that the German soldiers were seeking out the American soldiers to surrender to because they knew the war was lost. He told me of an experience he had where several German soldiers surrendered to him, but the ammunition clip fell out of his rifle. The German soldiers just stood laughing with their hands in the air waiting for him to put it back in his rifle.
Ya remember, at the end of the war, the Germans were mostly kids. It was a great story, thanks,
@@user-bl6ne3hc6nthere are some heartbreaking pictures of German teenagers in 1945 surrendering to the Western Allies, either looking broken, terrified, or relieved. What a horrible time that was
@michaelwilson4528 oh ya, I met one ,14 years old captured battle of the bulge, he became a millionaire in the states, nice guy, I got to hold his Hitler youth knife, he told me, he thanked God for the Americans because they all knew what the Russians were doing to the Germans,
@michaelwilson4528 it's always young men who have to sacrifice themselves for old men in suits. Or cheating a** women. Usually, both.
Amazing!
One of my family friends was a German POW and loved it here. He had actually surrendered to the first US soldier he saw, he hated Nazis. He became a brewmaster at Coors in Golden
Now that's a good German soldier!
@@FrommermanI drink to that!
Man won the American dream.
I’d say that too if I was a Nazi soldier taken prisoner
@@danielkeenan1984 Idiotic statement.
Honestly, being a German POW in America was probably the best place you could be as a 22 year old man in the war. Sentenced to a life enough food and a reasonable amount of manual labor, no threat of being shot if you cooperate with your captors.
yeah, until stories of the concentration camps really started to come in
german pow's in europe were often treated terribly, in some cases worse than the nazis treated (western) pow's
in the US guards and civilians often soured towards the pow's as well and often the old nzi officers mannaged to take over the camps like gangs often do in prisons today without the guards intervening,
but yes
As any european during WWII America was a better place lol
I think they get treated pretty well here Down Under too.
If they landed in Texas, they won the pow lotto. There was a well established large German community in Texas during WW2
@@Chuckles..haha funny story my grandfather served in ww2 from Texas but his first name was Adolphus which is my middle name but that’s besides the point but he started going by aj bc obvious reasons he was a tanker then became an infantryman he fought all the way from Italy to Germany
I remember a story of a few German POW’s who worked on a farm in the U.S. but one day when the few guards that were there weren’t looking they ran off, however two of them returned in short order after not being able to survive the American wilderness without the kindness of the American people. The third successfully hid his identity and stayed in a small town up north where he was able to make a living. He stayed there all the way up into the 80s or 90s when he finally started feeling guilty about lying to the kind people of the town about who he was. After enough guilt he decided to tell the feds and there amazing response was something along the lines of we no longer care, we has Russians to worry about.
Wow, there's a movie script here,
The feds didn't know Russia was getting won over by the US, when a wimpy Soviet leader came to power in th 80s!
There was a history professor in Texas who received a letter from a farmer. Meeting with him and his wife at their home in the early 80's. After a few minutes of introduction the farmer asked the professor if he understood German. He replied that yes he could and to the shock of his wife he told him in German that he was an escaped POW. Having been captured in North Africa, he escaped in 1943 and just blended in to the mostly German American central Texas.
The war ended and he just lived his new life in America. He married a Texas German girl. Had 5 kids and now had 7 grandchildren. Bought and worked a farm. I think he just wanted to tell his story to someone.
That's... incredible... I would like to know more.
@@sid2112 th-cam.com/video/BecF_NEWeQ8/w-d-xo.html
I'm from Wales. There was only one escape from a German POW camp in the UK that I know of: - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Farm. In North America only one German POW escaped and got back to Germany. A pilot. He died in action six months later: - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Werra. th-cam.com/video/Wy-_tqv5QkI/w-d-xo.html
That's wild, and it could definitely be done in German speaking Texas then.
That could happen all over the Midwest. It was settled by Germans. My grandparents lived in German-speaking communities in Oklahoma and spoke German at home and church. Their parents were German immigrants. The distinctive Texas German dialect still exists but it’s endangered. Regular German is spoken by about 5% of German immigrant descendants populations.
My grandfather and great grandfather were farmers in South Central Wisconsin and during the summer POWs were assigned to the farm from time to time. There was a story, told in the family, that in the summer of '44 they had four POWs working the farm. The wheat had come off and the field was ready to be plowed and discked, so one POW is on the tractor, there was another bringing in the cattle for afternoon milking, and a third and fourth were working the threshing machine, and the assigned guard was lounging under a tree. The tractor running the disc sputtered out, the POWs came over to help get it restarted. The tractor wasn't having it. It just sat there stubborn and wouldn't catch. Finally the guard realized what was going on and had some familiarity with tractors of the type goes over and the language barrier crops up. Finally the guard huffs and dives into the guts of the engine, as he does this, he'd slung his rifle but he couldn't maneuver with the business end constantly banging off the cowl of the tractor. So he handed his rifle to the nearest person. My great grandfather had heard the tractor go silent and was investigating from the top the hill when he saw the guard hand his rifle to the POW, he called my grandpa over and the two of them sauntered down with a pair of shotguns and asked what was up. The POW w/gun explained what was going on (my great grandpa spoke fluent German and Grandpa could speak passable German), and the guard grabbing a rag off the deck of the tractor started explaining what went wrong turned around and took his rifle back and sauntered back over to the tree. My Grandpa and Great-Grandpa looked each other looked at the POWs and they all just started laughing. Grandpa swore that the guard was just barely containing his laughing as the realization of the absurdity of what happened. Those 5 became a familiar sight through the end of the war.
That is absolutely fantastic, I hope it really happened lol.
what a great story! Thanks for sharing!
It really depends on how familiar the guard was with them by then (language barrier aside) and if they were sane and rational.
They're on another continent all enemy held with no plausible way to get home.
The only likely outcome of turning the gun they'd been handed on the guard and making a break for it would be getting hunted down and likely ultimately shot.
Given the circumstances a rational person isn't going to do that when they have every reason to expect repatriation one way or the other once the war was finally over .. so while mildly amusing it's only the expected outcome of the scenario.
Still daft of the guard perhaps and certainly against whatever protocols he was supposed to be operating by 🙂
I loved the story. Also, with the Atlantic Ocean in the way, where would an escaped POW go? There is a story about a U-boat commander escaping from a prison in Texas, going to Mexico and somehow getting back to Germany. But that was probably a one off.
What a great story!! Regarding the guard handling his rifle to the nearest prisoner, it doesn't surprise me. When you're dealing with people, at some point intuition takes over. The American guard instinctively felt safe with the prisoners, so he did not hesitate when the rifle got in the way of his repair efforts.
We are all able to sense danger, even when it's not visibility apparent, because our subconscious minds are continuously at work in this regard.
For this guard, the opposite was true. He sensed no danger from the German prisoners and so didn't hesitate to hand one his rifle. And his instincts were correct. It wasn't until he stopped to think about what he did that the incongruity of the situation became apparent to him.
The real danger for many people, especially today, is that we fight our instincts, particularly for reasons of political correctness. Don't do that!! Listen to what your instincts are telling you and act on them!! Immediately!! They just might save your life!!
“I will not kiss any Americans behind, but I like them far more than the French.” Some things never change.
Hahahahahaha. Very true. The British are the same way.
@@tzar9395Yep. As a Brit, I can confirm this. 😂
I was born in January 1944 on a small farm in the north of England, there was a POW called Heinz working on the farm with my father, at some point I don't know the date a horse licked me in the head, my parents were in town so Heinz picked me up and ran the two miles to the cottage hospital, effectively saving my life, by the time I was well Heinz had gone back to Germany and I never had the chance to thank him.
I assume you meant "kicked" in the head. ;)
I've been licked by plenty of horses in my life, but NEVER hospitalized from it...
@@dawnrogers58290K
I'm sure your parents probably thanked him profusely, I doubt he went without thanks for a service like that! 🙏
@@dawnrogers5829😅 when I read 'licked' and run to a doctor, I immediately thought horses must have some kind of poison in their mouths. 😅😅
My father was one of the few Germans who returned from Stalingrad. He almost never talked about it. He was "Old German" Who ran his house with an iron fist. He died of cancer when I was 9 and my dominant memory of him was terror. One memory was when we were playing with our toy guns. My father gave the typical combat veterans lecture on how war is not the glorious adventure we think it is. I responded "But you were a Nazi! You should love war!" He immediately "Bitch slapped" Me into next week and not tell me what day I landed in frantically yelling "WEHRMACT! WEHRMACT! KEINE NAZI! WEHRMACHT!" He went on to lecture me how the Nazis were those assholes from Berlin who would make outrageous demands without providing the resources needed to carry the out. How the Nazis were cowards who shot women, children, and unarmed men in the head for being Jews but would shit their pants and run to the rear whenever the red Army showed up. I was only 9 when he died and looking back today, after serving 26 years in the Navy would love to trade stories with him. Today, my dominant thoughts of his are summarized in the song by Mike & the Mechanics "The living years" Specifically "I wasn't there that morning, when my father passed away, I didn't get to tell him, al the things I had to say." Yes, I was terrified of him but in the end, he packed 18 years of parental discipline into 9. Because of him, I never took up drinking, drugs, or any other vices of the times
and then everybody stood up and clapped...
That is an incredible insight into the mind of a non-Nazi, German soldier and from a primary source. Truly valuable to the historic record if I may say so. 🙏
@@aaronpetzel4645 This scene pretty much sums it up th-cam.com/video/pkTGb6Jiimo/w-d-xo.html
Loved that song!
You forgot to mention the biggest two vices out there, coffee and cigarettes.
My grandfather and platoon mates outran Soviets to surrender to Americans. He was shipped to Maryland and assigned field/herd work on a dairy farm. Soon, the farm owner visited the prisoners and struck up a conversation with Pappi. Neither spoke the other’s native language, but each spoke French, and they soon developed a friendship. When the war ended, the owner offered Pappi employment and asked if he could help sponsor bringing Pappi’s wife and three children to America. Thus began a lifelong friendship. Pappi lived and worked on the farm keeping all the equipment in top order for the rest of his life, ever thankful for his good fortune. A little kindness goes far, and I believe a few other former prisoners also chose to remain there.
Great story. I’m happy that your grandfather and platoon made it to American lines
This is beautiful. Its the warmongers that highjack the humanity of us all and turn it into hate and even worse, a blood thirsty desire to kill. Damn the Kaiser and Hitler and throw in Stalin too.
Someone should write all these stories into a mini series.
@@Gopniksquat Thank you. We are all thankful for his escape from Europe, for him only being lightly wounded, for him ending up here in the States. Thanks again. It sure would be nice to talk with him again.
It's a pity this isn't the prevailing tale of modern Americans.
My father, injured in 1944, spent the last year of WW2 guarding German pows in Wales. No trouble he claimed, none of them wanted to go to the Russian front, building things things in Wales was much preferred.
Far better place to be than Stalingrad.
I bet they would have loved to stay forever. at least the ones who were still normal people and not all out nazi brainwashed....
wales is so pretty, if you look out of the bus at the wrong moment you'll just never want to return home anyway (been to keeston, newgale and up north)
😢🎉 4:06 😢🎉. N BB. N
BIG mistake you never bring such an enemy into your own backyard....BIG mistake
One of the POW's married a lass in Porthcawl (I think) and lived there after the war. They got on well with the locals too, while they helped to work the land.
When I was in college I got to interview two former German POWS. Both were thankful that they were captured by Americans and not by the Russians or French.
Who did the French capture anyway!?
@@Ira88881 Free French troops who landed at D-Day were notoriously rough on German POWs.
@@Ammo08Free Poles serving in the British Army and RAF were rougher on the Germans POW’s than even the Soviets.
@@johnblasik9647...ever see the movie about the liner "Laconia"- the Italian POWS were guarded by Poles- and the Poles were BRUTAL-!!!
@@Ammo08 I can't imagine why the Poles and French would be "rough" on German POWs.
According to my dad, we had some German POW's helping on the family farm in Central Nebraska. Great great grandparents moved to Nebraska from Holstein Germany in 1880, and Great grandpa had the farm until his passing in 1943, when Grandpa took over. Dad was a kid then, and said everyone got along, because our family still spoke German, and the Germans were happy to have lived thru the war and being able to do something other than sit in a POW camp. Apparently, a few of the Germans were from the same area our family came from, and they knew some of the same people. Small world, separated by fate....
OH! How amazing to find those connections!
Definitley take a trip to fort robinson! the old camps remains are still there!
Holstein makes me think of a breed of cattle.
Well...separated not by fate, but by governments/state, the most evil institution we humans ever created.
No. The problem is the leaders and other people who do wrong, not the organizations that are necessary to civilized living. @@samirSch
The German soldiers still in the war also found out they never had a chance when they captured American soldiers and learned they had cake in their rations. Logistics keeps armies fighting and Americans could bake a cake, ship it across the Atlantic and distribute it to the troops before the cake went bad. Meanwhile German troops waited weeks for basics like ammo and fuel.
Everything in the us military has been built around logistics first for 100 years now. There are countries with better pilots, better special forces, better tank crews, whatever. The us logistic train and military industrial complex is unrivaled.
The Russians were amazed to enter Germany and find that Hitler had tried to maintain a both guns and butter economy, far different from Russia.
One other thing they realized is that the Americans used only trucks to move shit around. In WW2, Germany used a lot of horses, so that meant logistically the Americans can supply enough resources to use only trucks from an entire ocean away while the germans on the same continent had to use Horses.
The poor logistic capabilities of the Germans was a revelation to me only a couple years ago. Many debates are had over which and such point in the European theater was the turning point. The truth is there was no real battle that was the turning point, as once the Americans decided they were going to supply the soviets, the outcome was already determined. Between the British naval supremacy able to maintain an effective blockade of the continent, Germany had too few places to turn to for resources. Once the US threw its industrial capacity into the equation, there was never a hope for Germany of turning the tide. Considering their need to rely on horses for transport and the dwindling supply of oil throughout the war, it's honestly impressive the Germans were able to stay in the war as long as they did. They lacked the raw materials and production to win, but their technological prowess likely prolonged the war a good bit.
@@Typexviiib Is that still true, though? Most logistics is contracted out these days. Certainly we are better than the Russians! But then Zimbabwe is probably better than the Russians. We ran out of ammo in the Iraq war and are short now in Ukraine, as is NATO. Two years after the pandemic our civilian domestic supply lines are still crap.
My mother always told me stories about the German POWs assigned to my Grandfather's farm in the mountains of western NC. How hard they'd work and how much they loved our food. My Grandmother would bring them lemon cake, pound cake, and pitchers of hot coffee. They were actually sad when the Germans went back home. The Germans were always extremely grateful for what they received. They especially liked warm cornbread and a glass of milk. That was my Grandfather's favorite too.
I always hear of southerners sympathizing with NAZIs..... how odd.
I don't blame them. Southern food is great.
My long passed Father and Mother married prior to the Depression. On their small farm they had two water springs, one of which they stored milk, butter and such for preservation. Often, their treat at late meal times was cold milk and corn bread right from the skillet. Supplies were limited but my Father trapped so they had wild meat, and traded furs for dry goods and flour. Such times......
My grandpa called the thing that water ran through the house made of rock and cement, a spring race and the made butter and cream and kept that and the milk in it, they killed a hog 1 time a year and salted and pepper cured the meat they only went to town to get the corn ground and get some sugar and that was In Todd NC 20 minutes from Boone the way the crow flies.
My Dad killed hogs about the 2nd week of November most years. Afew neighbors timed their killings around that, shifting help along to each butchering as needed. his tradition lasted till 1960. It would how things were done; you only bought from the store when needed in the true rural areas.
This guy really worries about his Geneva Rights. Should count himself Lucky he's not in a boxcar headed to Siberia.
I've read that only one in ten of the German POWs made it back to Germany from the USSR post war. Considering what the German army did to countless Russians (no Geneva Rights for them, especially the citizens of Leningrad), surprised that many survived.
The front-line soldiers only knew their own story.
@@gaoxiaen1
True. But this guy had served in the East in Russia and knew the conditions and behaviors there.
@@douglasturner6153 I must have missed that part. The episodes aren't numbered.
@@graceskerp A German commission headed by historian Erich Maschke found that about 3,060,000 German soldiers had been taken prisoner by the Soviets, and 1,094,250 died in captivity. By comparison, the death rate for Soviets in German custody was about 57%(over three million dead).
In 1986 my husband and I visited Germany for the very first time. While we were on a boat that took us down the Rhein river, we met a friendly German couple. The gentleman told us in his broken English that he was a P.O.W. during W.W.II and was sent to Arizona to work. To be frank, he took us quite by surprised with his story. We asked if he liked Arizona and his reply was that it was too hot for him. Later they surprised us with souvenirs _ 2 shot glasses with pictures of Koblenz. He said he wanted to repay back with kindness for the kind treatments that he received while he was a P.O.W. in the States. We were so touched by their friendliness and kindness.
Logistics wins wars. If your enemy can afford to give you as a POW a proper three meals a day, while your side can't as one of their soldiers, your side is in trouble.
is that why there were so many starving in German prison camps?
@@andrewmclaughlin2701 I don't think he was implying it was the Germans that could give POWs three meals a day.
also meth supply ran low
“An army marches on its stomach.”
@@andrewmclaughlin2701I see what you did there Brother
In the panhandle of Nebraska there were a large number of German immigrant farmers who were fluent in German, There was a large German prisoner of war camp in Douglas Wyoming. During the war regular German soldiers, no SS troops, were paroled to these German farmers as farm hands. They became a part of their families. Many of the them returned after the war and married the daughters of these families.
There was also a camp at Fort Robinson which you can still visit to this day.
Where exactly in the Nebraska panhandle? I ask because I am from there. I know there was a small POW camp in my hometown, Ogallala, but I don't think much is known or said about it.
@@jasonx-ray3921 fort robinson
@@jasonx-ray3921 It was in the area of Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
My father was one of these POW. Captured in France regular para trouper. Was sent to POW Camp in Maine. He was well treater and thankful as later he and his family emigrated to Canada, where we all live now on a farm near Montreal. My father said very little of his time as a POW. So now i understand and relive and relate to my father more. Thankyou so much Thankyou
Do you know where in Maine? I'm from there and I didn't know that was a thing.
I re
There was a lengthy article written about the German POWs in Houlton Maine. It was in a local magazine published in Houlton in the 90s I think.
You may be able to get the information from the Houlton Library. They have a small town friendliest about them.
I don't remember much detail except the POWs were well liked by the town.
@@virginiatozier9957 thanks! I'll look into that
@@virginiatozier9957 I believe there were camps on some of the islands off Boothbay and Wiscasset
I was a caregiver for a gentleman who served during WWII as a PoW guard in America during the war. His job was to track down any escapees. He said there werent many - and every one that did hid in barns or near farms. RIP Walt. Blessed Be.
A few pows would escape out of boredom. They would usually get tired and hungry after a few days and turn themselves in to the local police. As long as they did not commit a crime they were only given a minor punishment for escaping.
My Grandfather had a farm in Georgia. He had German POWs working there , picking peaches, and other crops.
They were not given enough salt , on purpose , to keep them weak.
My Grandfather fed them lots, including Virginia ham, loaded with salt, they felt better, and worked well.
His family had come from Germany in the 1820's, and because of his name, many people harrassed my Mom during the war.
It was probably Georgia ham.
In Alabama at the POW camp they were given salt tablets and told to drink 2 quarts a day. They had work and dehydrated workers aren't efficient.
@@anthonyfuqua6988yes, clearly her story is pure bullshit.
My grandfather had 6 German pows working his farm. They lived in a barn and he let them go into town. They always came back and worked hard. The few that knew some English would say they'd rather be working the farm then back in the war.
A few of them cried when they had to go back and kept in touch with my grandfather till they all passed away.
I remember my mother telling me that our family doctor was from Germany. He got caught in something called "the war" and was a "prisoner in Canada". I asked if he was a bad man, to be put in jail. She told me that I would understand it all when I got older. Evidently he liked Canada so much that he immigrated here and set up his practise after the war. He passed away when I was still quite young and we never found a better doctor!
My clearest memory of him was that he sounded just like Inspector Kemp from Young Frankenstein.
Well, to tell you the truth, since he was a doctor, he can't have been a "bad man" as it would have been against the Geneva Conventions. Dr. Mengele doesn't count.Of course,we now have a Dr. Mengele reincarnate...Dr. Fauci. We need to rename CoVid Fauci's Virus and Fauci needs to be thrown into Hess' old cell and his bathroom mirror needs to be exchanged for a picture of the real Dr. Mengele for that's what he is.
Inspector Kemp. Haha. Thank you, I know just how he sounded then.
I would love to have a doctor that sounded like that!
Similar story one of my father's doctor collegues had been a German POW and settled in the U.K. after the war, he was an absolute gentleman and a gentle giant. RIP Dr. Anton Wolff.
@@neilcorbett5353 Dear Sir, thank you.
The father of one of my classmates was a German pilot captured early in the war. He spent most of his time interned in the US in the mid west. After the war he was able to emigrate back into the US where he married and raised a family. I've often wondered how many other POW's decided that America was a better place for them to live than their own native country?
Many did. Their love of America they developed and gratitude they were brought here compelled them. Besides, much of their previous lives were but heaps of bricks.
@@ibeetellingya5683 A great many had very little to return to, back in Germany, I imagine. Towards the end, boys were being sent to the front, so you can imagine the average family unit must have been decimated, on top of Germany's economy being by and large decimated.
Turns out a lot of people liked the US better than their home land... Seeing as how almost none of us are natives.
I got to know several that returned to Southern Cook County, Illinois where their POW camp was located. Most had lost all of their family and friends along with homes and farms. They didn't feel like staying in Germany to have a family only to see their children or grandchildren fighting in another European war. Those had a bad habit of occurring every 20 to 40 years so felt the US would be a safer place to live.
@@kaufmanat1 True. But not my wife, her ancestors were already here. There were a numb er of reasons German prisoners looked at the US as a better place to live than Germany. One reason that hasn't stated yet is that both Germany and England pre WW II still held to laws that only allowed the eldest male child to be the heir to any family property or wealth. If you were boy #2 you didn't much going for you as far as prospects. Education was also stratified, so that your family's name is what qualified you for a good school and little else. The US wasn't that way, and a lot men that got to see that first hand decided that was the place for them.
So many POWs that were in wisconsin ended up never wanting to leave or went back to germany and brought their family back with them. Several familys in my very little town came to America that way.
Pretty common story. After the War of Independence a very large portion of Hessian (German) soldiers chose to remain in the US at the end of their service.
yep, America welcomed in all manner of NAZI. big ones, little ones, important leaders and nobodies. disgusting
That part of America has many people who came here from Germany back in the 1800s.
This writer is outstanding. It is a shame how expressive writing is no longer taught in school. An art has been lost.
Oh Yes,, some of the on,line and even "Professional " media scribbles would get you a resounding Fail when I was a Lad 😢
My best friend growing up in North Carolina had a German next door neighbor. He was a U-boat sailor who was captured along the NC coast. After the war he stuck around, married, worked, bought a house, etc. We never thought much about it...just Mr. So and so, "that old German guy next door"
That U-Boat sailor was one of the lucky ones. Three out of Four U-Boat sailors died during WW2.
Lol, that sounds almost identical to the story of my high school German teacher. Sailor on a U-boat that was captured somewhere near France I think. Got sent to a PoW camp in the states and then immigrated after the end of the war. Only other thing I remember about him is that his car engine looked like it just rolled off the factory floor even though it was about twenty years old.
I live in NC .l love history and genealogy. On the coast of NC ,German and Swiss people were some of the first inhabitants of NC in the early 1700s.
My family history might interest someone. My grandfather and his brothers all fought for Germany in WW2. I joined the USAF in 1984 and was assigned to an air station in Wiesbaden, 1985 - 1987. I had to learn German to hear all the war stories and family hardships because of WW2. Nobody was pro-Nazi, but all were glad the war was past and they had survived. They also cried for the loved ones and friends who were lost in the war. Starvation, sickness, and death spares no one during such times. My German relatives and their friends loved me as family and never took issue with politics. I was born first generation American but will always be German at heart. Most Americans will never know the personal horrors of war in their home town or neighborhood as my family had seen.😮 Nations may win wars and glory in victory, but people ALWAYS lose in those same wars. My family's scars will never be healed nor forgotten.
My grandfather was an accountant at one of these POW camps in Pennsylvania. He would joke that the Germans were hard workers but the Italians were too lazy.
Funny you should say that. My father was an officer running the salvage yard at Ft. Devens in Massachusetts during WW2. He had German and Italian POWs working under his command. He also said the Germans were hard working but the Italians were lazy.
I know people in the aviation industry that will tell you that opinion has not changed.
All the hard working Italians immigrated to the US before the War.
@@williamjohnson7963but the Italian prisoners made lovely ice cream 💯
I can vouch for the Italian POW's being lazy. My late Aunt lived near a big farm south of Glasgow, Scotland..she was in Land Girls Army..and Italian POW's were there and were lazy.
Texas had over 70 German POW camps. Cutting pine trees mostly. Many POWs returned to Texas after their repatriation to Germany. Most became American citizens
Compare this with my uncle. My uncle was a Jewish American soldier captured at the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to Stalag IXB. The SS came to Stalag IXB looking for the Jews. They selected out the Jews to be sent to a Work-Death Camp. He was sent to Berga in February 1945. By April, he was dead. This story is in the book Soldiers and Slaves by Roger Cohen and in the PBS documentary Berga: Soldiers of Another War. It was also part of the Buchenwald War Crimes Trials [Berga was a sub-camp of Buchenwald].
I had no idea the SS took American Jewish POWs to the death camps. Grim.
I didn't have a problem with the stories of GI's not taking prisoners of all the SS they captured.....even less now
@@Thor_Odinsonthe complexity of your mind is amazing. Can I move in your tiny world? Sounds like holiday for me.
I'm sorry that happened.
Was it a work or a death camp? Was the work like death related? Or did they put to death anyone who worked? I'm so confused. So many cookies, so little time.
Thousands of German POW's had fond memories of their incarceration in Canada and many applied to become immigrants after the war. One U-Boat crewman's autobiography I read told the tale of his great disappointment at not being allowed to join the Canadian Navy after the war.
My Father learned German as a boy because my grandfather built POW camps throughout the Southwestern USA. The POWs all loved talking to him and making little handmade gifts for him, like model airplanes and ships.
He and his family were always happy to be invited to eat in the prisoner's mess. The food was MUCH better than the US Army mess. The same ingredients were given to both kitchens. But, the German chefs were much better cooks than those created by the US Army.
I worked with a lady in the 70's in Alberta who's father was a German POW in Southern Alberta .After the war he went back and found nothing to come back to so he came back
to live here .She grew up in Lethbridge.
I read the story of one German POW who was captured and sent to Canada. His first meal was Canadian bacon and he decided right there and then that he would not be going back to Germany. Lol
Quite true! Twenty-five years after his release, I met a former Wehrmacht soldier in his Lebensmittel store in northern Germany. He asked if I was American, "Nein, Ich bin Kanadier!". He asked what I was doing in Germany & I told him I was on vacation & practicing my German with "echte Deutsche". He was amused at this and told me in English that he learned English in Canada during the war as a POW in Ontario not too far from Toronto where I was born. I said in German, "Well, I hope you were well treated during your vacation in Canada!". He smiled & answered in English, "Yes, yes! I was very well treated. For me, those were the best years during that miserable war." He was just a nice small town guy in a bad situation then.
The grey (no NAZIs) camp he stayed at didn't even have a barbed wire fence! Just a few guards & lots of wolves & bears in the sticks! 🇩🇪💪🇨🇦
@@lupusdeum3894 I love stories like this. My dad was too young for WWII. His dad was in the trenches but I only heard one story with a letter to back it up. I have a picture of him with some German POWs after a soccer game. When he got back in 1918 he bought himself an expensive pocket watch with a 10K gold case which I now have still in its original box.
This guy was a fantastic writer. He survived the war and we get to read his writing, but think of the millions that didn't survive and all the skills the world may have lost...
Absolutely. The British, I believe, never recovered from their manpower losses in WW1. The same for the rest of Europe after WW2. So much energy and drive and intellect were lost in both world wars, and all that made Europe great before them seemingly vanished afterwards.
I suspect a key reason why Europe lags so far behind the US in its NATO military capabilities is that the will to fight and defend one's country is simply not there anymore. Certainly not for the population as a whole. Much of that died between 1914 to 1945 and what now remains is a mere shadow of what once was.
Over 70 million died in WW2. All over the world. And, probably a few million more we’ll never know about.
All because of hatred.
@@Gala-yp8nx it's so sad... I sincerely hope we never see anything near that scale again.
Not just those millions, but the skills of their children and grandchildren too. Who knows what they may have brought to the world?
What a waste.
Other stories I've read about German soldiers realizing they stood little chance of winning:
A few days after D-DAY a soldier noted that the allies had no horses, totally mechanzed. This was mentioned in "Band of Brothers". An "oh, $hit!!" moment "
Another: a POW on a train on the way to prison camp in the USA looked at extensive the newly harvested fields and herds of animals. All untouched by war and aimed at Germany. Oh Scheiße!!
And the story about German unit driving past a miles long ammo dump, when they had to be mindful of their ammo usage
I once heard a saying that there's two types of Europeans one is German the other is those that want to be
American "foot" infantry divisions could move themselves entirely on wheels by piling everyone on top of their utility vehicles.
My Pappy was in the post-war occupation army in the early '50s, & we, as his family, were with him. The Germans were still using horse-drawn wagons during the time we were there.
Hermann Goring was reported to have said in a post-war interview "As soon as I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the gig was up." I would imagine ADM Donitz had a similar reaction when he realized that the US was building merchant hulls far faster than his ever-more-harried U-boats could sink them.
My father-in-law was a German POW captured in North Africa. He worked on farms in Arizona, built roads in Wyoming, and worked in the lumber industry in Washington. He said they were paid 50 cents a day, given clean clothes, and well fed. He said the worst part was when they were being repatriated and they were loaded on LST's in Seattle for the trip back to Europe. A long miserable trip on a flatbottomed boat in the ocean.
My mother worked on the westside of Manhattan during the war. She recalled seeing the German P.O.W.s disembarking from the ships. In February of 1943 my father left Staten Island, N.Y. aboard a troop transport (SS Brazil) for North Africa. He recalled, the Merchant Seamen crewing the ship were very happy about the rough weather they encountered. One Seaman told him, "the rougher, the better." U boats could not easily target a ship in such weather.
I think that is a seaman's tale.
@@user-sm3xq5ob5d Rough seas made using the periscope much harder to use, as well as bouncing the sub around. It also made the snorkel almost useless as water would go down the pipe.
@@tomb7942 Snorkels were not necessary to do an attack. The periscope would be engulfed in spray and waves., ok. So the sub had to come out farther to see and aim. But it was also better disguised due to the waves. But I am not a U-Boot captain.
@@user-sm3xq5ob5d If the waves were rough, the sub had to adjust not to need to recharge. They would fire and then dive. If they are short on battery power, firing that torpedo in bad weather could be fatal.
I've been in a small fishing boat in rough weather (2 foot white caps) on a lake (I'm in Michigan, lake Erie) and it made even fishing perilous.
I can't even imagine the crew trying to do everything needed to hit a target while being bounced around in the north Atlantic.
Its not just aiming and firing, its engine room and the torpedo room.
Some guys had to get sea sick with all that.
I'll bet Captains just waited it out and tried to follow the convoy until the weather was better rather than deal with all that and possibly wasting those very valuable torpedoes.
@@tomb7942 Torpedo attacks in heavy weather had considerably poorer odds of success. While a periscope was harder to detect in such conditions, so was getting an accurate course for the target for the sub. The ships speed through the water was a little easier to judge. After launch, most of the torpedoes of that time had to run at a pre-selected depth and a pre-set course. With high enough waves, come deep troughs between. A porpoising torpedo begins to leave it's course. More and more, each time it leaves the water crossing the trough between the waves. Upset the gyro and it might dive deep.
A good number of German POWs wound up getting shipped to the US and Canada, stayed there as prisoners, and were shipped back to Germany at war's end. As soon as it was humanly possible, they got permission to come back, in many cases with sponsor families here that they knew from their time here as POWs. Most wound up becoming US or Canadian Citizens.
In my hometown in Iowa, we had a POW camp for Italian prisoners and they were very well behaved and practically unguarded. They could stroll through town alone during their leisure time. I was told they were hard working and well-mannered with great humility. It's a shame Italy was our enemy at all when we should have been fast friends.
I am 76 years old. We lived near Camp Swiss in Bastrop County Texas. Farmers hired prisoners and paid them $2 dollars a day which was a good amount in those days. Ironically, the prisoners were aiding America by raising foods for our troops. The POWs had their own theatre for putting on plays and an orchestra. My mother and other ladies would take homemade food to them. Only 1 POW tried to escape as far as I know. My grandfather hired them, they were very good hands.
I used to live near Bastrop, Texas. I had heard similar stories from older residents.
One minor correction, it's Camp Swift. And it's still used for training by the Texas National Guard.
Our friends have property that borders Camp Swift. Love hearing these stories!
What a mind boggling contradiction. US troops fighting the Germans in EU, feed by the work of German POW in US.
My grandfather was the butcher in New Ulm MN and supplied the POW camp near there. Since it was a heavily German town (my dad said as a boy you could go all day without hearing english), he had ample stories about the POWs working on nearby farms. One guard got in trouble coming back from farm work on a hot summer day in August, when they came upon a cool swimming pond they all wanted to go swimming. One of the POWs couldn't as he had a cast on, so the guard gave him his rifle and swam with the Germans. Another time one of the POWs had been invited back for dinner with the farmer's family, and they (apparently) not understanding what "prisoners" were about, when he didn't show that evening, drove into the camp to pick him up and honked the car horn waking everyone up. Apparently the gate wasn't even locked. He even said that some of the young men occasionally went on dates with some of the local girls too.
Lots of stories like that.
There's quite a few warm and fuzzy stories of German POW's in the US. One of my favorites is one where a German POW in the US gets a letter from his wife informing of their newborn. Seeing his friend tormented, he brought him to an American family he worked for who just had a child of their own and asked if his friend could hold their newborn and the American family permitted it.
My grandfather has stories of being a child with German pows working on their farm. The one that stuck the most was when he was 6 and repeating curses he heard about Germans in front of his dad and some of the pows. His dad then grabbed his arm and said John, we are German. It was a shock to him and was an experience that stayed with him to this day.
My mother visited my father at an Army base somewhere in the South. She said there were German POWs working at the Officer’s Club, and she remembers that one of the prisoners was the pastry chef who made absolutely the best Napoleons. She ofter wondered if he stayed here after the war, or returned to Germany. She said if he stayed here and opened a bakery he would have done extremely well. She said all the POWs seemed content and were very well taken care of. Quite a difference between how the Germans treated American POWs.
Interesting story, but I'm afraid that had the Germans been blowing the sh*t out of the United States, like we were to Germany, I don't think we would have been quite so kind.
There was more incentive to go along and get along when you were separated from friendly forces by an ocean. Where would a German soldier escape to?
Quite a difference? Yeah, when you can barely afford to feed the guards of the prison camp because your prisoners' buddies keep bombing the railways it gets a little fucking difficult.
@chazzyboi_7778 Noooooo, you're not allowed to talk about that. Crazy how many people in these comments talk about how kind and hard working German POWs were but still believe everything about the war Hollywood sells.
American POWs and POWs from Western European countries were treated well by the Germans until near the end of the war when transportation and logistics had completely broken down in the country. They may not have been as well fed as German POWs in the US but they got enough to eat and were treated respectfully. It was the Polish and Soviet soldiers who were basically sent to camps to die.
I was in the Hofbrau House in Munich in the early 80's and seated across from me was an elderly German man that I found out was a POW during WW2. He said he was shipped to the U.S. and put on a train to Sacramento, CA. He said by the time he was half way across the country he and his buddies decided Germany had made a big mistake declaring war on us; the immense industry and food supply that they saw. He also related that in CA they started a garden on the prison grounds that they eventually got permission to cultivate outside the compound; they then began selling their produce at he farmer's market! Very interesting conversation for a young Air Force officer to say the least!
I heard similar stories from older german guys.
They had a pretty big impression of the US from what It seems lmfao.
Im Canadian. Honestly with the way our housing market going, Im abt to jump the gun and see if I can move to Texas or something.
Honestly even though I was borna and raised here, I just dont really fit in.
I like America more imo. I love the general outlook/philosophy yall have on life.
I smiled early on when he said the POWs liked the Americans more than the French. My Father-in-law, who fought in Europe said that having been in England, then France and ending in Germany that he and his buddies discovered they liked the German people more than the French.
There is a section in the book Band of Brothers where they discus the peoples and countries the had fought through. As I remember, North Africa was thieves and backstabbers, Belgium/Netherlands they liked and were liked, French sold themselves to the highest bidder and always looking for hand outs. They sat unwashed next to their rubble piles waiting for someone else to fix it. Then Germany was a shock, they were clean and worked together on the rubble piles, sorting good from bad bricks and stacked them neatly in piles. They began to rebuild as soon as they could without waiting for anything or anybody. They found of all the peoples, the Germans were the most like themselves, and the German solder was the only other solders they had met that felt like they did, that the most important personal item they had was toilet paper.
The French national mood was probably not the best, being overrun, occupied, overrun again, and add on all the collaborators and traitors, combined with wartime shortages.
I've heard the expression, ' the French don't like anybody, not even themselves.'
@@thejohnbeck You think the Germans, Dutch or Belgian civilians had it any better than the French. Well, minus the collaborators and traitors.
@@mike03a3 I was talking about the French
When I was stationed in Wurzburg, Germany in 1970-72 I became acquainted with the gentleman who operated a roadside cafe (sort of) across the street from the kaserne where I was stationed. He had been a POW in Texas during the war. He told us of working on Texas farms. He said they would paint swastikas on tortoises and send them off into the countryside.
That is funny
"Some say the Nazi tortoises are still out there..."
We must round up them turtles and imprison them
Our son was a Cav Scout stationed with the 1st ID in Schweinfurt for six years. We made changes on the train in Wurzburg. That was from 2004-20010. You would not that there had been a war because by that time everything had be rebuilt. Our grand kids when out trick or treating once and sadly the knocked on a door and were confronted by a woman who commented "why are you celebrating a tradition of our enemy. The kids were born on August 1 2004. That was about 2009 when they were so young.
Blitzkrieg Tortoise
My parents lived in a farming town in western Minnesota during the war. With so many boys off to fight, German and Italian POWs provided vital aid in all aspects of farming. Most of the POWs had been farmers in their homelands, so for them it was familiar work that most of them liked. My dad's neighbors had several POWs on their farm and the used to eat their meals with the family -- one of the girls of the family ended up marrying one of the former POWs after the war and settling down nearby. It didn't hurt that a quarter of the people in the area either spoke German at home or had parents who did.
My Dad was from that area, and he and Grandpa both spoke Plautdietsch or Plattdeutch (low German).
This is just an amazing and in-depth look at their experiences.
This is why I love history - not just the main page turners and those who would control the destinies of men - but all the stories in all the corners and all the tides. Thank you for this gift WW2 Stories.
There's a terrific book called The Last Stand of The Tin-Can Sailors, about the experiences of the destroyers and destroyer escorts of Seventh Fleet at Leyte Gulf. It's full of interesting anecdotes about life aboard ship. You might enjoy it.
My grandad was a guard at a camp in Georgia. The POWs worked the fields. He told me most of them got fat while they were there. I live in SW Florida. We had camps here too. So many Germans came back and lived here. It’s nuts. The German American club here is a multi million dollar operation.
My grandfather was a county agricultural director for Okmulgee county Oklahoma. He directed where German POWs, went to work the fields.
My father was 9 when the war ended and would go to the fields and see POWs all the time. He remembered one who asked my father if he had an older sister. It took years for him to understand what he meant.
He did say they were all friendly and hard working.
My Dad was conscripted into the German Army at 14, taken from school after Hitler closed Catholic schools.Catholics were next, according to my Oma for work camps( as she thought). Dad was taken POW by Americans in Cherbourg France. He was released in 1948 aged 18 and went home to Berlin .He said his America captors treated them well.Thanking.My Dad migrated to Melbourne Australia in in 1955 and met my Mum ( Irish ).Americans treated the POWs better than what I was at school.Some mean girls at secondary school called me Nazi.This upset me very much.I have family in Ireland, Germa y and the U.S. My beloved Dad past away in 2016 of Alzheimers .Too late to thank the American POW guards Many, many thanks.God Bless your families.xo
German POWs were kept in camps as far west as California. Generally they were well treated and fed luxuriously by wartime standards. This included daily servings of fresh meat, vegetables and (inconceivably) ice cream. They labored in farm fields that produced their own food and spent their off time in multiple crafts and hobbies. The only shadows on their stay were homesickness and certain Nazi zealots that sometimes violently enforced pro-Nazi attitudes at the expense of their war weary comrades. But even those zealots rarely pushed themselves to escape.
Just like the people they suppressed n violently n blindly followed their “feuher” when their fellow Germans were going against Hitlers ideas, everybody’s got a choice.
Except for the camps in Europe, and especially the soldiers who were captured after the war. There they were starved to death on purpose.
@@wittkrieg BS. No German soldiers starved in US captivity. And none were kept after the war who weren't accused war criminals. The government wanted their conscripts back in the US ASAP, so they didn't have any to spare for long term POW storage.
@@wittkrieg During the war my father was a supply sergeant for an AAA AW Unit in the 3rd Army under Patton. After the war he was asked to put together a recreation area for military personnel and he was tasked to build baseball diamonds. He said it was on an island in a big river. I don't remember the name of the river. He had studied German in High School so he could speak some German and he understood it better. He used German war prisoners to do the work. The first time he went to the wire fence near the gate and asked if anyone spoke English. He said a man spoke up that spoke very clear English as he had taught English in Germany and had been to the US to study before the war. The man became my father's interpreter. My father asked for volunteers to come and help make the baseball fields. He said her got enough volunteers, but it took a while to get enough men. He drove them back to the area and started to put them to work, but he said all the POWs were very lethargic. They were weak from being underfed. He said they only got two meals a day. If they got less, he never said or knew. He said they were fed on low rations to keep them weak so they wouldn't have the strength to rebel. My dad could see that at the pace these men worked it would take him a long time to complete the work. So, while others watched the POWs work, he went to the local supply depot and filled the truck full of K-Rations and C-Rations. When he returned the supplies were off loaded and stored in the basement of a building nearby. Then he took all the POW's down into the basement and gave each man two rations which they hungrily ate. My dad was told not to feed them, that's why he had to do it secretly in the basement. After that the POW's had the energy, they needed to do the work. Each day my father had to return the prisoners to the camp after the work was done for the day. The next day when he went to pick up the workers, he had a lot of enthusiastic volunteers. When they all got to the rec area, he would feed them all for breakfast, for lunch and dinner. They finished the work on time. My dad would sit in the basement and listen to the Germans talk to each other. He said he knew what they were all saying but never let on he understood German. He always talked to the prisoners through his interpreter. He never talked about his war experiences until a few years before he passed away.
@@daverave3698 Interesting. I've seen hell in my own way, and it lends me to understand the horror before those. As small as it all maybe,
Very interesting tho. God bless.
My wife is one of nine Doetzkies left on the planet. Her great-grandfather was a WW1 German Empire machine gunner (that survived by welding a steel plate to his weapon) and her grandfather was a U-boat repair man in Normandy (He would later move to Detroit and work in an automotive factory). They lived in Bremen during the war, occupying one of the few houses in the city that weren't bombed by the Americans (When the GIs arrived, they booted them out and used it as a command post). While neither of those two German military men were never POW's, the stories of those that were are truly inspiring. Such a hardy, wonderful people given over to evil leadership. I'm breaking with tradition and taking her maiden name, and we'll soon have as many kiddos as possible. We'll work towards leaving a legacy worthy of the good German men and women who have come before us. Thank you all for sharing. God bless you all.
God bless you also!
A friends of mine who lives in Bavaria tells a family story. At the end of the war there was a shortage of food and people were hungry. They received a letter from an uncle who was a POW in America, imagine their feelings when they learnt that he had so much flour they used it to mark out a football pitch!
Whoever wrote this captured the scenes so vividly in words it's almost like being there and seeing it.
When I started work the foreman of the toolroom said that his role in the army was as a guard at a PoW camp near Nottingham. He said the prisoners were no trouble and the biggest problem was the local women trying to break IN!
Why?
@@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music They were probably the only young men around.
@@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music If you don't know why I am at a loss as to explain what the women were looking for. Bit of a delicate subject, really.
One of the popular songs in the US during the war was the lament "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old" (refering to the fact that so many of the young men were in the military)
I live a few minutes from POW camp #6 on Emory Grove road in Gaithersburg Maryland. Camp Davis. The German POWs worked on area farms and didn't want to go back to Germany after the war. Some applied to stay and became citizens. Their children still live in the area today. There is one POW still alive at 100 years old.
Mr. Winter retired from NASA years ago and still has his German uniform and awards including the Iron cross second class. He is a wonderful human being.
There's actually a sizeable German community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Many of them came freely before the war to work timber or the mines, and they got along well with the POWs interned at the five camps in the UP during the war. They were well treated and more than a few returned after the war to live the American dream.
A majority of the miners in the Yoop were Finish, but there were also some Germans and Cornish folks as well.
@@oledahammer8393 Ah yeah the Cornish. The pasties!
In southern Indiana as well
@@oledahammer8393 Don't forget the Italians
That's the way it should be. Now they are shipped here by Biden and Soros from all over the world and don't have to work....just vote.
Was at Camp Shelby MS about 25 years ago and a German man and his family stopped by. He wanted to show them where he had spent most of WWII. He had been captured in North Africa and was a POW at Shelby.
Wasn’t he lucky he was captured in North Africa, and not on the Eastern front.
@@davidpryle3935 Certain death from Russian forces.
@@bongdonkey Yes indeed. I’ve listened to the lectures of retired American colonel David Glantz, and others. The eastern front in WW2 was undoubtedly the most brutal, terrifying conflict in history, on a gigantic, almost incomprehensible scale.
@@davidpryle3935 Youre correct. And even U.S. forces did very bad things. Its just covered up or altered to make it look like U.S. does no wrong. The fact its a war should be looked at for what it really is. Otherwise humans are bound to repeat the mistake. Salut!
@@davidpryle3935 Was it worse than the Mongol invasions?
My great grandma spoke German because her husband spoke it. She was put in charge of overseeing some German POWs.
She loved how surprised they always were when she revealed she could understand them. She especially loved chewing them out for swearing in German.
A German POW was assigned to help my grandfather with his farm. He wrote to my grandpa a couple times after returning home after the war. Grandpa said he was a good worker and never caused any trouble. While checked up on at first, eventually checks dropped off until one day soldiers came to return the man to Germany.
Since I went to study in Stuttgart when I was 18 in 1988 I have been fascinated with all things German. What has always perplexed me besides the seemingly inhuman task of not just learning but also retaining a functional ability to speak German is the complete disconnect between the Germany that I came to know and love and the Germany of just a half a century before. Learning the language was more of a personal challenge than my first rodeo in being multi-lingual as I grew up speaking both English and Portuguese from a young age but more important to me was understanding the history of Germania as Caesar called it. Nothing about the Third Reich jived with the people or the country that welcomed me and treated me so well when I was young. For 35 years I haven't given up on my German whether it be the language or the fascinating history. Here's a conclusion that comes to mind from all of this. It's not Germany or Germanic people that are uniquely subject to radicalization but humans in general given the right circumstances and rhetoric. This is in my opinion the only real political struggle, the recognition and resistance to radicalization because if it can happen to a logical and intelligent people like them it can happen to any people anywhere very quickly.
Your exactly correct. Intelligent people can be radicalized, It’s happening as you read this. With fear and distrust of the Gov. Hate groups have gained a foothold, with many followers on social media. Not good.
You only mention the danger of radicalisation itself, not the danger of the things that always precede it, such as Weimar Germany and the destruction of European nations over the past half century
Yes the evils perpetrated are inside all of us.
Yes, WW2 Japan was no different. Warlords twisted samurai behaviors and the stratified society to justify that even others who sort of looked like them (just like in Europe) were inferior and thus subject to exist only for their benefit. Chinese, Koreans, other asians were often looked at as being subhuman. You surrender instead of fighting to the death, well you deserve to be mistreated. I guess even "rational" or intelligent people can get swept up in this stuff. Or, more worrysome, we are all just lazy asses and would rather be led by the nose than think for ourselves. Now I'm depressed.
And yet in 1988 things like the STASI still existed in a place also called Germany.
My grandfather's brothers, in Kansas, had German soldiers work their farms as help. Their own father had come from Germany and they could still speak German themselves, so could talk to the POWs.
My grandfather's youngest brother was a German POW in Scotland. After the war, he married a local girl and settled in Scotland for the rest of his life.
There is a legend on the railroad: When a German POW being transported west by train saw a passing Union Pacific “Big Boy” locomotive he knew the war was lost because any nation that could build and master such a machine could not be defeated.
Right. Because the Germans never did figure out locomotives. They hand-pushed the behemoth railroad guns (biggest guns ever built) down the tracks. But yeah, a single locomotive let him know they were screwed. I'm fully on board. When do we get to the part about the seven dwarves? Wait... is this the one with the bridge troll?
@@skipdreadman8765 Germany made and still makes very fine locomotives. But American steam locomotives at their zenith made their European counterparts look like teakettles on wheels. Germany had quality. America had quantity. And quantity is a quality all on its own.
I read or heard that late in the Japanese realized they sank or captured an ice cream barge and hid the fact from their populace. Imagine if it became widely know that the Americans had the ability to wage the war and provide treats to their armed forces at the front.
Some guys I worked with on the old Ski Train work/operate the UP Steam Shop in Cheyenne, WY. They rebuilt a Big Boy over a five year period and several millions of Union Pacific’s money. I followed progress over those years. The locomotive is massive. It’s the largest operating steam locomotive in the world. I loaded up a video of it pulling out of Greeley, CO headed to Cheyenne one cold winter day to this TH-cam profile. It’s the only video uploaded if you want to see a Big Boy.
@@maestromecanico597 Okie dokie. Listen, I'm as patriotic as the next guy, veteran, parents both served in WWII. Completely understand about the industrial might being key. I still don't believe your POW fairy tale. Locomotives aren't everything, and Germany made plenty of big pieces of equipment. Like the railroad guns that we didn't have anything to match. Nice story, though. I think it's made up. But keep enjoying telling it, it seems to really please you.
There was a POW camp in Sparta, MI a couple blocks from my uncle Herb's house. There was no sign of it left when I was a kid. I'm told that a couple prisoners helped on my grandfather's farm. The guards seemed to enjoy easy duty. My mom & aunt weren't to talk to the prisoners. I heard a story of a guard who fell asleep while watching a couple prisoners who noted his slumber and helpfully disassembled his rifle. He was abashed when he awoke and they reassembled the rifle to spare him getting into trouble. I wish the oldsters were around to ask about the camp.
Sparta, Michigan? Aw shit i was gonna ask where it was to visit it, sad it got torn down
@@thedyingmeme6 The site is now a wastewater treatment plant. Years back I asked if there was anything left of the POW camp and was told there was nothing left.
A couple of cinder block buildings just up the road are said to be POW barracks during the war. In my lifetime they have only stored farm machinery.
@@thedyingmeme6inquire at your local libraries in the area your seeking information. Then contact the library of congress and military libraries. Almost everything is on line.
A distant relative from a very small, very rural town in Minnesota spent some time guarding prisoners from the Afrika Corps being held in North Carolina. He half jokingly said they really are the Master Race, they were all blonde, all about 6'2" and they all worked together and sang together as they worked in the prison camp. He was impressed.
By the way, this guy later became a member of 5th Rangers and was on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
Happy slaves they were.
Man what a life this guy had.
Met a girlfriend's Dad that had guarded captured German troops and he told me they were just ordinary guys like us . There was no Master Race jive and he brought back an absolute mint k98 as a souvenir .
My father also was in the Afrika Corps. They marched into surrender. He was dark-haired and 5'4".
Wow!!!
This is a well written account of life as a prisoner, and one you don't hear very often. The author must have been an educated and observant young man. I look forward to hearing the next episode.
Camps in Michigan too. I read an account by a few POWS who lived in the Thumb area. The Thumb has a 😅large percentage of German ancestory citizens & a hugh farming culture. The POWS liked their time there. Everyone spoke German, the food was very familiar( like back home), the girls were pretty & they were allowed to attend Church where services were spoken in German.
Escanaba, Michigan had both a German and French Catholic church. My ancestors all spoke French.
In Arizona, there was a legendary incident known as the "Great Papago Escape" (see Wikipedia article by that name). Twenty-five German POWs secretly tunneled out of the camp -- then comedy ensued. Their meticulous plan included fabricating makeshift rafts and taking the Salt River to the Colorado River and then to Mexico. The locals know that the Salt "River" is actually a dry wash 99% of the time (only becoming a river after an unusually severe "monsoon" storm). They too were pleasantly surprised by the accommodating treatment they received during their brief period of freedom. Anyway, the incident would make for an amusing comedy film.
There's a similar story of a couple of German POWs at labor camp in Northern Minnesota who got a hold of a map and figured out it was an easy float down the Mississippi to Mexico and then back to Germany. They didn't even make it to the Mississippi, the guards were worried about them dying in the bush, escape was impossible without a ride the whole way.
My mom told me that as a little girl in the 1950s in Louisiana she knew a lot of German pows from the war that stayed in the States after the war and became American as apple pie(those were her words).
Apple strudel.
@@Emanresuadeen As a German allow me to transform that to Apfelstrudel.
The book and movie "Summer of MY German Soldier" is great reading and watching
The Liberty ship Thomas Marshall was named after Woodrow Wilson 's Vice President
"Marshall was known for his wit and sense of humor. One of his most enduring jokes provoked widespread laughter from his Senate colleagues during a floor debate. Responding to Senator Joseph Bristow's catalog of the nation's needs, Marshall quipped that, 'What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.'" 🚭🚭
I'm amazed and appalled by the unmitigated gall and arrogance of German POWs. They are fortunate they weren't prisoners of the Red Army because they would have been paid back in kind for how they treated Allied POWs.
I felt the same as you but as you listen to this series you start to understand the ignorance of this soldier and how there’s no way he could have seen what we know today. Hell, some of them actually thought Germany still had a chance at this point.
@@deadlyoneable There is a way he could have known. He could have known that Hitler was a maniac if he actually listened to and understood what it meant. He could have known Germany could not win a war against all the major industrial powers in the world. He could have known that the theory of "aryan supremacy" was just a cover for enslaving everyone (including even himself). He could have understood that the Nazi regime was barbarism, treating other human beings like *literal* garbage. In order to understand all of these things, all you had to do was use your brain. A whole bunch of people *did* see what the Nazi regime was all about - before the catastrophe.
This is what you get after years of brainwashing, conditioning and propaganda where information is controlled by a small group in power. Although we see the same effect today in the world, although it is more difficult with the easy availability of information on the Internet, there are still people who simply choose one source of news and opinions, fully aware that this creates the same stubborn rejection of reality
My daddy was a paratrooper with the 82nd. He told us the ones he dealt with had respect and polite. But that might have been because his group were the devil's in baggy pants.
@@robertbarlow6715 tp the facts are that the Germans had been at war for almost five years prior to the Allies in the West,, their their enemy in the East was not the Russian and many Germans will tell you that the enemy was the Bolshevik communist,,, who happened to be Jewish... through years of the attempted communist takeovers in Germany,, and the border crisis,, meaning the poles we're killing ethnic Germans along the border,, every Jew was a communist to them... Even though 98% of the Communists were Jewish not all the Jews we're communist,,, what history fails to mention is Stalin Holocaust started way before and he killed a lot more jews then Hitler ever thought of doing... The radical communist zionist we're willing and able to kill their own,, and blame it on AH.. Stalin would win europe , at least that was JSs final solution as he seen it
I worked for a German woman in the US for years. She got three houses but still complained all the time about the USA. I finally quit and told her how I was sick of her attitude.
Im sure if the germans fire bombed your country, killed your family thru deprivation, starvation, and general lack, then you went to live in Germany post war, you might have somethings to complain about too.
There has been a long and persistent attitude in much of the world about German tourists. All of it generated post-war. Generated by the German tourists.
@@jefftheriault3914
Well, they started it.
America is mostly German heritage.
You are not good at research.@@docvaliant721
I married a German and stayed in Germany 7 years after getting out of the army. An elderly neighbor was a POW in Alabama. He told me that the Americans never checked or opened their mail, their Red Cross rations were always on time, fed well, allowed to play soccer, roam freely, and some even worked in town. He loved the Americans for the humane treatment and thanked God he was captured and got out of the war.
A co worker of mine was dating a woman from Germany. I enjoyed practicing my German with her. When they broke up, I asked her out. She declined because I was too old German for her. My response was "How can this be? I have never even been to the Fatherland!" She frantically responded "Fatherland?! Fatherland!? See? Your parents taught you well!"
My grandfather was German-speaking and owned a farm in Manitoba and my dad told me stories about how the Canadian government would bring German PoWs there to serve as day laborers. The guards would give him a list of the various rules the PoWs were supposed to follow - no firearms, obviously, but also they weren't allowed to operate heavy equipment and vehicles. And then the guards would leave them for the day and my grandfather would immediately have them driving the tractor around and whatever else needed doing regardless. Never had any trouble.
When I was a kid in the late 1960`s my Mother bought roses from a local grower named "Fred". He was a lovely grey haired man with a strange accent but was always friendly and welcoming. I learned some years later that his name was Fritz and he had been a navigator on a German bomber that was shot down in 1940. He was a POW in North Wales and finally settled in England in 1948 having married a Woman from North Wales.
....difference... Than unit 731..
The German POWs were scattered to camps all over the US. Here in Dothan, AL, there still exists the POW compound that has served as a flea market for years. To the west, at Ft.Rucker, the POWs crafted wood work panels and figures and stained glass in the post’s chapels.
Fort Rucker, late 68 - June 70, Above the Best
@@alparker8661
I was there 62 - 64, I still reside in the area, still have my Above the Beat patches!
That is so neat!! I would love to see that
During war time most soldiers are conscripted. All had jobs, trades or skills - many of which could possibly be traced back as a family business because of the long history of Europe. I guess what I'm getting at is the fact many of these people had amazing knowledge and skills compared to their industrialized American counterparts.
@@alparker8661did everyone call it Fort Mother? (Mentioned in a book by a helicopter pilot)
My grandma always goes on and on about how when she was a child she would watch the German POWs take out the trash. In her little suburbia in Oklahoma it was common to see these POWs do necessary civil labor that was considered too hard for the women to do. Her family eventually got to know this one German in particular who always took out their garbage for them and on one occasion helped their father mend their fence. He spoke good English and would always have little bits of candy for the kids (apparently the POWs were afforded chocolates, even when the citizens of the US were not.)
Eventually when the war ended, and the germans were sent back to west Germany, her family never thought she would get to see the kind german again. Imagine their surprise when he moved in next door! The house had been vacant for a very long time, so the German bought it and after a few months acquired citizenship. Apparently there wasn’t much in Germany that was keeping him there, so he opted to just stay in the U.S because he enjoyed it so much!
Unfortunately my grandma has dementia, and though she still remembers him she can no longer recall his name. The last she saw of him was when they were moving out of Oklahoma to Abilene, and he helped them move some heavy boxes to the car etc. She says the Germans POWs were always very kind people, which made the discovery of the concentration camps even more shocking to her.
It's been said that for centuries Germany was a country that had two faces. The face that was faced west was kind and cultured while the eastern face was an angry snarl. Because the US is in the West the Germans were friendly while Poles, Soviets and Jews got to see the other face.
My parents lived in Brooklyn and they kept Italian POWs there in Fort Hamilton. On Sundays they were allowed to leave base with my grandparents who found men from their home town. They were taken out for church and dinner. They were brought back in the evening. I don't think our troops were given as much as these pow's.
Not even close.
That’s one of the many things that made the US and Britain better than the Axis.
They couldn't give even if they wanted to. They didn't had enough for themselves. To think they went to war on an empty stomach & no other supplies. That's what propaganda & cult mentality does to ppls.
The house I was in as a new-born was built by POW's. Mostly out of North Africa.
Some structure was hand--carved by Europeans happy to get appreciation for
non-military skills. My parents refused to assist their return in post-war years .
You mean, return to Europe? Or return to visit America after the war?
Wondering too
@@jackmcdouglas4126To immigrate to the US post wae.
I presume jcee meant to assist their return to Germany as they were welcome to stay if they desired. Many did immigrate back to US.
I was on a passenger ferry travelling from Lyttelton to Wellington in New Zealand.
I sat at the midpoint of the vessel on the outer deck so I had fresh air and minimal pitch....it was a pretty rough sea state.
As I ate a meat pie from the paper bag it was sold in, washing it down with a soda drink....two young guys nearby watched me eat and immediately threw up and left the area.
I couldn't smell it as the wind blew the stink away..
The pie was good.
By chance I met up with them hours later...they still were miserable and couldn't face food.
Seasickness can be rough especially others vomiting in enclosed areas with no ventilation.
My Father lived next to a German POW camp. He could speak German so he visited them often. He said some of them were boys only 14 or 15 years old; although, at the time, they seemed like grown ups to a 9 year old. They shared their care packages from their German Mamas. I now realize my Father must have reminded them of their own little brothers. Also, my Father had recently lost his Mother, and they were eager to show kindness. My Father's dog was even allowed inside, but the rifle had to rest outside against the fence. Any of those POWs could have grabbed the gun and held my Father hostage but why? For what? They were fed and had to work neighboring farms, but were were treated with respect. They walked to the farms on their own recognizance. There were no escapes or issues of violence. Some of them stayed and married the farmer's daughter! This time in American history sounds like a fairy tale. ❤️
I remember my mother, who is 88, now telling me a story about German prisoners riding by their house in East Baltimore when she was a kid , at first I didn't believe her because I didn't think they came to Baltimore but I was looking at a book about Baltimore during WW2 , about Martin State Airport, the Dundalk Marine Terminal and yes the German Prisoners who where taking to a prison camp off of Holadbird Avenue in Dundalk, Southeast Baltimore.
Believe Mom
I wouldn't think of our east coast as that kinda place during WW2. From what I read, a lot of the German POWs helped farmers out west where there were less people around.
@FreshTillDeath56 yeah true ,, but perhaps there were other things for them to do ,, I know the Eastern Shore on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay is known for the tobacco farms , & Southeast Baltimore known for the steel mills 🤔 which was very big during the Second World War along with Martin's Airport known to make a lot a airplanes, Bomber plains during the war.
My father was a guard in a German POW Camp. I asked him what it was like, what the prisoners were like. He told me that the job wasn't difficult for him. The prisoners would do repairs on clothing, watches, and anything else for the guards. The guards would get them cigarettes, chocolate, etc..
My mother's German ancestors came to New York in 1710, and my father's German ancestors came in the 18th century, but later.
My maternal great-grandfather hid the fact that he was of German descent due to the fact German-Americans
were not popular during WWI or WWII.
Stories from the German enlisted are some of the best. This was almost a poem, very succinct but infinitely descriptive.. Theres a metaphor for german engineering in there somewhere. I love the bravado and badassery you seem to get from the Russian and American veteran writers, but its almost a romance novel coming from the German perspective. Is there a part 2? This ended quite abruptly.
EDIT: Just saw the pinned comment- PART 10?!? Oh boy, this is going to be a lovely saturday spent on the fronts of the fatherland. Great work narrating these stories.
Is it my imagination or would this story make a great Netflix series. Cheap and quick to make and highly entertaining.
For real though.
If Netflix doesn't mess it all up, I'd pay to watch it.
Your mentioning of Netflix actually confirms, without wanting, your total lack of imagination
As an American grandson of a Polish soldier, I absolutely agree. However Wokeflix is more interested in promoting p*do stuff an PoC propaganda.
@@jed-henrywitkowski6470 and remember kids, woke means BAD.
I was born in 1937. I lived with my grandparents on a farm in Tennessee. In 1943-44 a former American training camp in Tullahoma Tennessee was converted to a German POW camp. Since most able bodied men were in the armed forces, farmers could hire the pow's on a daily basis to help with harvests. We used the pow's numerous times and at age 7 I was the water boy. I carried the water bucket with one dipper. The German word for water was vasser (and since they had been demonized to all children) i was terrified but ran with the bucket when I was called. I was of Irish descent and therefore was blond headed and blue eyed. The prisoners made a big deal out of my appearance. It scared me to death but one of the G.I guards spoke German and assured me that they were complimenting my appearance as being like their own. They were very kind and always thanked me after I carried the water to them. I soon found out that only ordinary people suffer from war. The older politicians who start them rarely ever do. I am now 86 and a veteran of the USAF 1955-1959.
When fighting a Foren nation, the best way to demoralize them, is to treat POW's and civilians well.
POW's are more likely to give up information, and less likely to try to escape. If you let them write home, they might tell there family's that they are fine and are being treated nicely. It encourages soldiers to give up rather than fight to the death. It makes them possibly doubt their own viewpoints on the war.
when it comes to civilians, they are more likely to resist fighting for said nation. They are also more likely to cooperate with your nation. It helps get rid of propaganda.
Being nice is always a strategic win.
My Maternal Grandmother (an Oklahoman by birth) lived for a period In Philadelphia where I spent a summer or two with her during my childhood. I will NEVER forget being in the kitchen with her German lady friends as they chatted and prepared food! It was the first time I tasted German potato salad, sauerkraut, and so many other wonderful things. I do not remember one negative word passing between them about the war or anything else. It really was lovely and I must say I don’t know if they were Americans of German descent or women who had married American service men and had emigrated after the war. I remember it so very fondly. Lest we forget we should remember to understand that despots make impossible for ordinary people to live in peace. KNOW HISTORY, it has SO MANY lessons to offer as these things tend to repeat!