I used to live in a village called Sudbury in Derbyshire where there was a POW camp.A German POW would come to my grandparents' house to help with the garden. He was allowed to leave the prison unguarded and at midday my grandfather would take him up to the pub and with other locals, would buy him beers. He would stagger back to the camp and be happy. He used to come back on holiday to be with the people he liked. How many other countries can say the same?.
My father also speaks of a similar experience with a German POW. One night he got into a fracas with a local at the pub. The police came round and the other locals vouched that nothing had occurred, and it was made up to get him in trouble. He was much loved by the community.
Im not too surprised, the germans and Brits are related it was a huge shame the germans were led by the nazis, they never shouldve gone to war with eachother.
@@v_cpt-phasma_v689 Hitler never wanted war with the UK, he spoke many times of an alliance as he saw the British as equals to the Germans. It was Churchill who said Britain would never side with the fascists and we could never be allies which then led to Germany bombing London. That's why it's mind-boggling when left-wing liberals in the UK call Churchill a fascist when he had the option to side with the strongest country in the world or stand up for what's right on our own. Most of Europe surrendered without even putting up a real fight other than Poland who fought very hard.
My uncle was a German P.OW. He never went back to East Germany until mid 60s to see family. He didn't want to go back to a Russian occupation after the war. I dont blame him!
My father-in-law told how the German pows were allowed to go to Sunday dinner with German-speaking families in the area. In that area, it was Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking Mennonites in southern Ontario. His family frequently had young men to the house. That was a wise idea, as it showed the prisoners the life of Canadian families. I can imagine many of them would have wanted to stay.
I currently live in Wainwright Alberta which the camp Denwood was the largest camp of German and Italian POWs the guard towers and a few building still survive being repurposed. the chapel on base used to be a barracks for the Italian mountain troops and if you go in the back room on the walls are Italian sayings and I've found a badge in a little bit of a cubby cut into the wall (it was the badge of the 2nd Alpini Regiment)
@Dawud Just looked that book up and the front cover says "An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans after World War II" - what does that have to do with British PoW camps during the war?
My paternal grandfather was captured by the British in North Africa and became a prisoner of war in Britain. After the war he settled in Britain, changed his name to an English surname, met my grandmother and the rest is history.
A good friend of my Nan married a german PoW who was sent to Scotland. He was a lovely guy. I don't know where he was captured, or even what service he was in. It was many years ago.
My Great Uncle served in the Kriegsmarine on a UBoat. Got captured and served out the rest of the war here. While working on a farm, he rescued a young boy who had fell in a river. Met my Great Aunt and became part of the family.
@@737simviator This is the exact story that occurred on my families farm in Nottinghamshire, a crashed pilot spent the war working on the farm and they converted a hay loft into a "proper" bedroom for him. He kept in touch with them for decades after the war with regular visits to come and see his friends.
I know that many German POW's in Canada were actually left to be on their own during the day. The went into town, some even got jobs with locals, but were required to return to camp for the night.
Some prisoners were sent to a military base in southern Wisconsin in the US. From there they were literally farmed out to farm to work. My mother was a child during the war, but rshe remember speaking to the prisoners who loved being there because everyone in the area spoke German (my mother's elementary school taught everything in German. She didn't learn English until she went to high school). She told me the prisoners were very happy to be out of the war. One of my Mom's cousins later married one of the POWs. I remember meeting him and that he spoke English with a thick German accent.
Only one German prisoner of war ever escaped from Canada and made it back to Germany. Hauptman Franz von Werra was a Luftwaffe pilot shot down during the Battle of Britain and deported to Canada. He escaped captivity by jumping from a moving train and stowing away aboard a freighter bound for Sweden, finally reaching Germany in April 1941. He did not survive the war, however, being shot down over the English Channel off the coast of the Netherlands in October 1941. He was the subject of a book 'The One That Got Away,' by Kendall Burt and James Leasor, and was played by the actor Hardy Kruger in the film of the same name.
There were a lot of German POWs in this area that worked for farmers especially in the latter part of the war. They were treated well because it was important that this information got back to Germany through Swiss inspectors. This resulted in Canadian POWs being treated better than those from some other countries, notably Russia. I recently wrote a story about this . A number of families that I know had POW workers and in one case a POW disappeared. The RCMP interviewed the mother years after the war to find out if there was any contact. There hadn't been. Escapees were not a major concern. As some one else pointed out, only one had successfully returned to Germany, and that was while the USA was still neutral and before Pearl Harbor. POWs were required to return to Germany after the war but thousands would return to Canada as immigrants in the following years.
My grandfather used to guard German army POW's. He remembered them as polite, working class men who missed their families. They would often be excellent craftsmen and carpenters who would sometimes make wooden toys for the guards children at Christmas.
They tell me we had lots of WW2 Italian German POWs billeted in the small farming town where I grew up in northeastern Colorado & worked on the farms owned by various friends of my folks, many of whom were either Italian or German immigrants. They taught our high school students how to play soccer. Never caused any problems as far I heard, were glad to be fed and housed with real mattresses, etc.
The Scary Truth Catalyst Not an unusual tale. I hope that you get to the end. It's worth it. There was a great story of a high ranking German Officer..p.o.w who was billeted in a private house in a village in Scotland. Much later, the by then elderly lady described their 'guest' to whom they had given hospitality. "He was an absolute gentleman. He bowed and clicked his heels whenever we encountered him leaving the house or returning home. Spoke excellent English but had to learn our scottish accents. He did ANYTHING heavy about the. house. Wouldn't let me or my ailing husband carry anything heavy. In the kitchen he was limited but did any of the mundane tasks. Eventually he saw that our garden was badly in need of attention and said that at home his love was of gardening (Gartenarbeit) and would love to to tidy it up. The lawn was restored to its former glory and in autumn before he was repatriated, he gave the lawn its last cut before winter. She was asked for permission for him to plant some bulbs in the lawn. "They will be beautiful in Spring when I am gone... Something by which I hope you will remember me." She agreed and chose and financed the purchase of a large quantity of crocuses (croci?) and he spent hours of back breaking working, carefully planting these bulbs. He eventually made his courteous farewell speech. "Vielen Dank für Ihre Freundlichkeit und Gastfreundschaft während meines Aufenthalts in Ihrem schönen Land. Wir hätten wirklich nicht im Krieg sein sollen! " "Thank you for your kindness and hospitality during my stay in your beautiful country. We really shouldn't have been at war!" When the crocuses bloomed in March, before the grass needed cutting again, they read "HEIL HITLER!" in big letters.
@@MauriatOttolink It appears that the German Fascists' had already done a pretty good job of planting some perennial mind speak into his now brain washed thinking process.
My wife’s next door neighbour when she was growing up was an ex German Luftwaffe officer. He was shot down and spent the the rest of the war in England. After the war he settled in England, married an English girl had a had a family and he was one of the nicest guys I had ever met in my life. What he didn’t know about gardening wasn’t worth knowing and he taught me a few things. He’s sadly no longer with us. In contrast, my Grandfather was captured in North Aftrica in 1941 and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in saxony where he was maltreated, beaten and tortured. After he came home, he harboured a life long resentment of Germans and vowed never to go Germany again and had to sleep with a nightlight for the rest of his life. He was a great man too and I miss him. I highlight these stories to show how we treated our prisoners compared to how the Germans did.
HolyDiver73 Fully understand your position about your beloved Grandfather. I'm one generation later and have some sincere and valued German friends of about one and half generations later. They carry this clearly visible National guilt over something which happened about the time I was born and LONG before they were. It was all the result of what always happens when a minority takes control with outrageous views and then has the power to carry them out. WE must beware the same type of growing unscrupulous power-seeking which is happening today! Season's wishes to you and may you have a healthy New Year. Prosperous will have to wait!
Some of the German POW's sent to Canada were housed in camps near the Rocky Mountains. A few of them were so smitten with the beauty of the area, they emigrated to Canada after the war ended.
Bert Trautmann was pow a and was employed to carry out agricultural work. He was surprised to receive regular visits from British authorities to ensure he was being fairly treated and well fed
My step dad lived next to Bert Trautmann near Manchester. Bert was a tough ex-paratrooper and very athletic - he was goal keeper for Manchester City and played in the 1956 FA cup final with a broken neck.
Robert is right for sure. To anybody who wants to get a real insight into all this stuff, read Bert Trautmanns autobiography. The book is ace, the man is fucking legend. I went to school with the kids of Italian ex-pow's who'd worked on the local farms, got to know the local girls, and Antonio's your uncle. My old man was on the troopships that carried them. Great vid.
Yeah Bert Trautmann's story is a good one, Fallshirmjaeger throughout the war, he was captured by Americans but decided to escape from them because he thought they were going to kill him. He ran, jumped over a fence into a field to find a British soldier sitting making tea, He said "Hello Fritz, fancy a cup of Tea?" Which he did. Legend.
One of the reasons that Trautmann and others were surprised was because they had been force fed a false diet of how badly the Allies treated POW's. I'm not saying the Allies were perfect in their treatment of POW's, far from it. But from stories I have read from German, Italian and Japanese POW's, we did tend to treat our prisoners a bit better than they treated ours.
@@philipm06 I remember going to WHL as a kid in 1960 to see Spurs play Manchester City. It was the season of the Spurs double. Bert Trautmann played a blinder and Spurs dropped their first point after eleven consecutive wins.
The grandfather of a good friend of mine was a PoW in England and he said he and his comrades were treated strict but very well and fair by the English. He was so grateful for it and had nothing but much respect and gratitude for England and its people until he died. Thank you for treating our soldiers so nice though they were enemies. Regards from Germany.
My Mum (born 1932) remembers Italian POWs working on farms close to where she lived, that they seemed very happy to do so, and that they were well liked and friendly. My late stepfather was a coal miner in South Yorkshire and worked in the mines with a small number of German POWs who were much appreciated and treated like anyone else. Coal mining is dirty, dangerous work and miners know they're relying on everyone else to get out alive at the end of a shift - the mine itself was a far greater danger than any "enemy".
@@o00nemesis00o It was more about destroying communities because they didn't vote Conservative. And mines are not evil, just dangerous, but men were proud to call themselves miners.
@@TheWtfnonamez Exactly. I was an RAF medic and did several deployments on Op Herrick and Op Telic. During my time on the ground I actually patched up more Taliban fighters, insurgents and Afghan and Iraqi civilians, than Coalition casualties. Some of the more zealous combatants would fight us as we tried to administer them aid, and would scream at our translators, demanding to know why we were trying to save them. They had been told by their leaders that British and American forces executed injured combatants via bullet to the head, or crucify them in the desert. It sometimes jaded me, but my Boss put it into perspective one day for me; "By doing the exact opposite of what they would do if the roles were reversed is how we know we are better. Just because that guy now laying on the ground was shooting at us not five minutes ago, doesn't give us the right to decide if he lives or dies, and that's why when he's in our hands he's not the enemy, he's a casualty of war." Always stuck with me, and helped me keep my faith in humanity despite experiencing some horrendous situations.
Agreed with one exception. Line up the fanatical SS murderers and shoot them. That's what the U.S. army did with the ones they captured at the concentration camps. Every Nazi concentration camp was manned by SS troops, and each individual volunteered for duty at the camps.
I remember one German POW being amazed at being asked by a British leason Officer , if he was being well treated on the farm he was working on . I can also confirm that my German relatives prayed that it would be the British or Americans who marched into Berlin and not the Russians .
Unfortunately the Americans treated POWs disgracefully in Germany herding hundreds of thousands into open fields without shelter and very little food. Google Eisenhowers Death Camps.
@@desbrittain9952 the American prisons were still better than the soviet prisons. Many German soldiers retreated to American/British positions during the very late stages of the war. (not sure if the second sentence is true but I heard it in many videos)
@@angelinazavala980 soldiers as well as civilians marched for miles west in order to surrender to British forces, i'm not 100% on the details but i was told that the soldiers would still wear their Nazi uniforms but had white armbands or other symbols of surrender when they approached allied bases.
Wow.! I had no idea it was that many, my Mum's walk to junior school near Coventry took her past Italians working the fields, she always said how friendly they were and used to make the children corn dolls and toys. My friend's German father a POW, stayed in England at the wars end, his home was in the Russian zone. I used to work at GEC Rugby and there were ex German POWs working there in the 70's along with Poles, Latvians, & Lithuanians, their stories were well worth listening to. One man I remember called Paul told me he had been as far east as Moscow. Always amazes me that these all these men were accepted, I wouldn't necessarily say all these men were buddies but they rubbed along without any actual trouble.
@@nigelmitchell351 Thank you for your reply. The dark part is German POWs we’re kept in the U.K. till 1948 to work on the farms, and as Labourers. Due to Women’s Land Army wanting to return to civilian life. Clement Atley Of Labour has a lot to answer for.
@@skylongskylong1982 I see nothing wrong with that, call it reparations, many of these men would stay anyway as their homes were in the East. Compared to how many survived internment at the hands of the soviets they were very bloody lucky. Also there were no Dachau's in Britain, no executions of airmen in forests. I don't believe any Germans were forced to perform engineering roles such as bomb disposal. You might consider the treatment of Polish prisoners at the hands of the soviets. My neighbour, a Polish officer captured by the Russians, was in forced labour, which meant eradication through starvation in Siberia, before the nazis saved his life by invading Russia and turning the poles into their allies by default. These men and women were offered the chance to join the Red army, which they declined, or be marched all the way to the middle east and j join the British, which they accepted. No comparisons are valid.
@@margaretbell5028 They also actively committed genocide in occupied Soviet lands and raped and pillaged a lot. Most Red Army soldiers probably knew someone that had been killed and/or raped as a result of actions carried out by the Wehrmacht and SS
During wars soldiers are essentially just willing or unwilling tools for their leaders, so I do respect how fair they were treat and not just as an enemy to be punished.
I'm suprised a former luftwaffe pilot who could potentially have been flying over England hoping to bomb the country perhaps even civilian areas could become a priest years later in an English church etc
@@charliezz6746 He was a fighter pilot. They had nothing to do with bombing england. They just escorted bombers that were actually going to bomb civilian areas.
@@conor1940 Northern Ireland, Scotland and Gibraltar all have had referendums rejecting independence and on my last trip to Gibraltar I remember there being a lot of British flags flown round the country and outsides peoples homes ..
WELL WORTH A GOOD READ! There was a great story of a high ranking German Officer..p.o.w who was billeted in a private house in village in Scotland. Much later, the by then elderly lady described their 'guest' to whom they had given hospitality. "He was an absolute gentleman. He bowed and clicked his heels whenever we encountered him leaving the house or returning home. Spoke excellent English but had to learn our scottish accents. He did ANYTHING heavy about the. house. Wouldn't let me or my ailing husband carry anything heavy. In the kitchen he was limited but did any of the mundane tasks. Eventually he saw that our garden was badly in need of attention and said that at home his love was of gardening (Gartenarbeit) and would love to to tidy it up. The lawn was restored to its former glory and in autumn before he was repatriated, he gave the lawn its last cut before winter. She was asked for permission for him to plant some bulbs in the lawn. "They will be beautiful in Spring when I am gone... Something by which I hope you will remember me." She agreed and chose and financed the purchase of a large quantity of crocuses (croci?) and he spent hours of back breaking working, carefully planting these bulbs. He eventually made his courteous farewell speech. "Vielen Dank für Ihre Freundlichkeit und Gastfreundschaft während meines Aufenthalts in Ihrem schönen Land. Wir hätten wirklich nicht im Krieg sein sollen! " "Thank you for your kindness and hospitality during my stay in your beautiful country. We really shouldn't have been at war!" When the crocuses bloomed in March, before the grass needed cutting again, they read "HEIL HITLER!" in big letters.
@@StillAliveAndKicking_ It is actually true. There are stories of POWs being smuggled to local dances for a night out. Comrie as a small town did very well from German gratitude to their treatment during WW2 after 1945.
My (German) grandmother grew up on a farm in Bavaria, where they "employed" a handful of French POWs. She was quite young back then and used to play with them, she told me. They were treated as well as every native worker would have been treated, had their own rooms (she lost all of her four brothers who fell in Russia). Many came years later to visit her a couple of times. She passed away five years ago. I was glad to know my ancestors behaved human under these circumstances.
I served with on a NATO unit in Holland, my boss was German Sergeant Major and many of colleagues were German also, they were a great bunch of guys and our families socialised frequently. I had previously been stationed in Germany and had a smattering of German, whilst these guys had spent 10 weeks in school learning English before being posted to the unit. Inevitably conversations would sometimes be about the wars. The conclusion would be, look at us now and how crazy and tragic the whole damn thing had been. One of the guys told me, his father was the only surviving brother of eight boys, his brothers all died on the Eastern Front, his father, was to young to be conscripted. I have some very fond memories of them all. I particularly remember the guys struggled to understand our, "Brits", sense of humour. In particularly taking the piss out of each other. Mike, our boss, would tell his German comrades, if the Brits take the piss out of you, it means they like you, your considered one of them. The guys struggled getting their heads around that concept. All in our 60's now. often wonder how they and their, now grown up kids are doing.
one of my 4 sons has a partner from Munich, her mother pays for dear Eliga;s private schooling, he is the top skier in his school runs faster than anyone else, speaks German like a native. how we love him.
Hi Brian, coming from Calverley Nr Leeds, I lived adjacent to a POW camp during the war, Italian and later German POW'S The camp near my School was known as Ferncliffe, it was entered via Clara Drive, adjacent to St Wilfred's Church School where I was in the infants class, I'd have been around 8 or 9 by the time all the POWS had left when the camp was taken over by DP's (Displaced Persons obviously avoiding going back to live under Russian rules. I had known prisoners there from being around 4 years of age, Italians were first, Then Germans. There was a Submarine guy there we knew as 'The Captain, and another POW we knew as Hans Sherniman who my 18 years old Brother was to meet up with years later in Germ,any.After the POWS left, the ex Army/POW/ camp became a DP Camp for Displaced persons, Poles and others from Europe, we knew, met, played football/cricket with and many inter marriages took place, all memories about the place were goods, ones.Maybe this short note will jog a few memories.
I don’t think the Italians wanted to be part of the German regime, Mussolini (Italy’s Dictator) made the pact with Hitler (Germany) , but I doubt the people agreed with Hitlers ideology .
During ww2 my great aunt was a member of the "Land Army", working farm land.. one of the farms used Italian POWs, and one day, one of the POWs made the mistake of squeezing her ass... She knocked him out cold with one punch, something he was apparently reminded of and teased by his fellow POWs over for the rest of his time in England. R.I.P. Betty ❤
When I was stationed in England in 1979 I met an ex German POW. He told me that they were sent out to work the farmers fields. Most time with one or no guards. I asked him why he didn't escape back to Germany he said he had it made was being fed well and treated better than in Germany and he would have to go back on the battlefield and he was forced into the army and didn't believe in Hitler's war.
Absolutely true. My old mechanic found his way to a Yorkshire POW camp. They we're forced to work on the farms, but if you did you got better rations and this was an incentive. In fact he said that the food was better as a POW than in the army. There weren't any real guards at the camp either, as none of them wanted to escape. He stayed and married a local lass after the war and set up his own garage business.
Before D-Day my uncle was a sergeant stationed at St Andrews. All the maintenance of their unit vehicles was undertaken by Austrian POWs, and one actually taught my uncle to drive.
Many years ago I knew two former german POWs. One was a work colleague. He had been one of those allocated to a farm and had eventually married a local woman and settled here permanently. He never returned to Germany. He was very fortunate as he had spent much of the war as a soldier on the eastern front but had been in the west when captured by the British. He appreciated the way he had been treated here as a POW. He told me some stories about his experiences of the horrific conditions in the east. The second was a former U-boat officer. He learned good english while in the camps and a few years after repatriation to Germany his employer asked him to help open a branch factory here. He moved his family over here and settled here permanently, where he was a near neighbour.
There was a camp in Scotland behind my family home and the prisoners came to help in the garden and fields and often made things for the kids, no one treated them as the enemy, it was what it was.
It’s a bunch of shit. If your father or brother was out fighting and got caught they would be tortured too death if not worked and starved too death. But when they get caught we let them work on the farms and check in on them too make sure they are doing well. I know we’re meant too be the good guys but when are you just letting people off with horrible crimes.
@@ivartheboneless5969 In this video he talked about one of the prisons which held POWs with very little to no Nazi feelings, he said the camps which held real Nazis were way stricter and didn't get the luxuries the prisoners in this camp did. British, French and American soldiers who were captured by Germans were also taken care of well although they treated Soviet soldiers like animals (which they returned to German soldiers who were captured after the war).
My Father "So Nestor how did you come to be a prisoner? Nestor " We were by the sea and it was hot so we went for a swim. When we got back to shore the British were there". Nestor was an Italian who remained in England for all of his life after being captured in North Africa.
In the 1980's I worked with the son of a former German POW who had married an English girl. They settled down and lived the rest of their lives in UK. I am relieved that we treated them decently on the whole. Too many bad things can happen in wartime and it is not easy to keep to an honourable path.
Do you not think it’s a bit weird how if they caught your grandpa they would of worked, tortured and starved him too death, but they get caught here any they get given nice place too live a new job and people checking in on them too make sure they are getting treated well. Even when the Germans where the ones doing the most war crimes, and started the war by not abiding by there reparations.
My UK parents-in-law told a story of an Italian POW that was allowed to travel from one place to another on a bike. Apparently he would sing loudly with a "....lovely voice...." as he pedaled along. This was in Flintshire of N. Wales.
My dad grew up near a POW camp. It had closed long before he was born, but a former POW stayed in the town. He married a local and started his own business. He sold ice cream to people and he was happy. Everyone liked him and he was kind. Not everyone on the opposite side of a conflict are evil. Some are quite nice.
I have met many German people who immigrated either to Canada, then the USA or directly to the United States. Their common remark was "too many ghosts." Many had lost many family members, sometimes their whole family. One German man had lost his wife and children, remarried only to have his second wife and children killed during an air raid. He hated the Nazis. He commonly asked me how we Americans would even allow the Neo-Nazis to even exist in the United States. I simply shook my head and said "We are naively stupid!" He was most grateful to be an American and to be free to remarry and raise children in a free land.
We had a POW camp near our house. When the POWs left, the buildings were turned into home for families that had been victims of German bomber raids and had lost their homes. They continued to be family homes well into the 1970s, until better options were available.
A Former German POW lives in our neighborhood and still on occasional evenings walks by our house. 99 years old. Immigrated to the US and became an exec with Benz. Captured in Africa, sent to the US and worked a citrus farm not too far from where he lives today. "We were well treated, even paid for our work" he once told me.
My old friend Heinrich Kistenmacher was captured in Normandy, he did a stint in a US Camp then transferred to Pitlochry in Scotland, they were allowed out with supervison every weekend where they would bribe their guard with 2/6 pence to get into the local dance .. Here Henry met is wife, she was an assistant in Boots the chemist. They married after the war and Heinrich remained in the UK, where he became a manager at the local theatre and he was well respected by the town. later he taught German at a college in the Midlands.. alas Heinrich passed away very suddenly a few years ago, but we still keep in touch with his widow.
Many Italians were sent to Australia and New Zealand where they endeared themselves to their captors and some even elected to stay after hostilities had ceased.
My grandfather was a German POW in the US.. he always said he was never treated better than there... he actually gained weight and made friendships with the owners of the farms he worked at, getting invited to sit with them at the dinner table and such..
My grandfather had several German prisoners on his farm in Essex that went back and forth between the camp and the farm with just one guard. They were glad to be out of the war and worked well.
Trent Park in London was where all the very highest ranking prisoners were kept, unaware that the British had microphoned the whole place up. That in itself is a fascinating story.
@@Michaelbos They had microphones in some of the trees. Their handler would walk a general around the park, pausing at a tree to ask, "So what do you think of Mr Hitler?"
It was found that treating prisoners well, and allowing them to associate with each other (while listening in) was more effective for gathering intel than torture.
I still have various items given in thanks to my English grandparents by German POW's who assisted on their farm during and after the war. My grandparents treated them like family ensuring they were fed and clothed as well as their own. Many remained after the war and settled locally, others stayed in touch for the rest of their lives. I'm sure this was not at all uncommon.
My grandad told me that early in the war, when groups of POW's were marched to the local camp, people threw stones at them. At the end of the war, when being repatriated, they threw cigarettes at them
You'll find that Glasgow had a large Italian community mainly from POW's who didn't want to go home. They were well respected (mostly) as they usually ran the best chip shops and Ice cream parlours in the area, In fact, locals didn't say 'chippie' but 'Tallies' when referring to them.
An Italian POW camp at Hay in outback Australia was the genesis of the most multicultural city of Griffith in Oz today. The Italian POWs were let out to work as the country was desperately short of labor, friends and relationships were begun as Italians were respected as our allies in WW1. When the war was over all the POWs were sent back home and as Italy was destitute many of them promptly brought their families back to Griffith and turned a sleepy country town into a dynamic modern city bring the best of their culture with them. My sister married an Italian migrant boy so it has touched and made an incredible influence for all of us.
I've been told by several former Italian and German POW's that they surrendered as much to avoid starvation as to avoid dying in battle. For some of the Italians it was the first time in their lives they'd been well fed. Exactly the opposite to what happened to Allied prisoners of the Japanese.
good to hear Manfred, my father was a british soldier, he met my german mother in Braunschweig after the war, they settled in England in 1951, she never had a cross word said against her , i am the result so i love both countries. schone grussen aus england.
@@mikewray6387 My dad once said should you one day meet an english person always treat them with kindness and respect because I was treated that way.Little did he know that one day I would end up living here in Britain.That is now 41 years ago and I haven't looked back since.
Many Italians POW’s were “imprisoned” on the site of the London Gliding Club in Dunstable. They were split into three groups. There were the fascist nutters, disliked by everyone. Then there were the “can’t be arsed” and the majority whom decided to make the best job out what they had. They worked on farms, built houses, did small jobs, baby sitting and were apparently a delight to have around. May did not return to Italy and their descendants are still found in Dunstable, Luton and Bedford.
A family friend ended up in one of those in WW2 at age 18. Had very little to eat & the commandant kept threatening him with beheading, probably just because he enjoyed watching a teenager deal with impending death. Never could get a good night's sleep.
Staved because allies decided to bomb fields and blocked food so the remaining left over went to our own the people to blame for starvation was allies who like to bomb civilians
The British invented pow and concentration camps in the Anglo Boer War , they took the families of the Boers locked them up and starved them and purposely infected them with measles and they were the lucky ones, Kitchener the British General in charge would organize sport styled hunts where British soldiers would be rewarded for killing anything that would deprive the enemy of sustenance including women and children, the Term Scorched Earth was invented in this time and referend to the destruction of houses and farms burnt to rumble. The Germans may be remembered for adopting concentration camps and there ruthless efficiency but it was the British that invented them .
My dad was a rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber in 12 Squadron RCAF in WWll. He was shot down on his 11th mission over the Ruhr and made it as far as Holland before he was captured. He ended up in Dulag-Luft 13B and said several of the guards were guys who were captured in WWl and always treated the prisoners well because of how well they were treated in captivity. His story of the battle around the camp to liberate it (the SS decided to dig in around the camp after the guards fled to ambush the American unit heading for the camp) and the insane conditions in the camp and nearby town while they were waiting to be repatriated home make a hell of a story. He passed away four years ago. He would have loved this video. Thanks. Lance in Canada
@@T-1001 think I was in year 5 or 6 so 2005/6 can't tell but was a cool place I distinctly remember the hut that had fake fire and the fake smoke stinking and the wood fort play area.
@@j_gibbon Oh yeah! I'd forgotten about the smells. Come to think of it my best friend bought a small bottle/vial of some sort of smell that he was very proud of.
So let's take stock... Soviet Union: Lethal conditions & high death rate Nazi Germany: Genocide and racism Britain: Tea, plays, and crumpets Soviet Union: Gone Nazi Germany: Gone Britain: Tea, plays, and crumpets
@@scotts918 Yup, thought not, with such a nonsensical comment like that. Like I have said, you haven't been told the truth about WW2 - only the victor's side of events. Do you know what the 1939 coloured books were? Of course, you don't. Or what the torch man order was? Thought not. How about who AH's bodyguard and chauffeur was - and also a founding member of the SS - Emil Maurice - guess what he was - a J. What about Bernard Baruch and the part he played in British and US politics and the significance of that. Nope - you don't know that either do you? Or what about when Poland invaded Czechoslovakia after the Munich agreement in 1938 - and the British and French said nothing. Or how about the Slovaks inviting the Germans in to prevent a Soviet-style communist government from taking over the country - and the very Slovaks from "Czecho-slovakia" invaded Poland with the Germans in September 1939. How about the persecution of the Germans in 1920s and 1930s Poland - the murdering of innocent civilians. Yep - you haven't heard about that either, have you. Nor will you have heard of the Havarra agreement. I could go on and actually teach you something, but with a silly comment such as "Yeah, I heard backflipping ninja spetznas ISIS members parachuted in from the ISS and used hydra weapons to kill alien zombie jesus" coupled with "🙄🙄🙄" it's quite clear your knowledge has been gained from guff such as the World at War, the movies you watch (bet you have the box set of band of brothers and saving private Ryan), and the school history books, and, sadly for you, you will always believe the lies of WW2, and never have the complete picture - only the picture they want you to have - such as this immature comment "Soviet Union: Lethal conditions & high death rate , Nazi Germany: Genocide and racism, Britain: Tea, plays, and crumpets" How about the 4 million starved by Churchill in the Bengal Famine? 🤦♂️
I can tell you from first hand testimony they were treated very well. My grandad was injured in Italy and was unfit for service so he spent the rest of the war as a guard. He said they all become friends, security wasn't very tight near the end of the war because they were treated so well they weren't going anywhere especially back to Germany and the Russian front.They ate the same food as the guards, got their cigarettes and even on occasions taken to the pub. After the war the guards and the prisoners even wrote to each other.
I know this one guy in my secondary school who’s grandfather was a POW, who left the camp after the war, settled down in Britain and married a British woman.
That's a fantastic story mate, it was more of a common thing than you'd think following the Second World War. As the restrictions tended to be relaxed for the prisoners, naturally they became more sociable with people in nearby towns and villages. Infact within a few years after the war had ended, many Briton's had a great degree of sympathy for the POWs. Thanks again for the comment mate.
TheUntoldPast You’re welcome for the comment! I also heard about this Scottish village where most of the people there were descendants of German POWs. Forgotten it’s name sadly.
My father was captured in Caen, France in 1944 after D. Day. He was transported to London to a transit camp and then to Eden Camp, Malton in Yorkshire. His surname began with C so I am not sure about your information about where prisoners were sent. My father seemed to suggest that prisoners captured by the British were sent to Britain and those captured by Canadians to Canada and so on. My father stayed in Britain after the war and became a naturalised British citizen. He always spoke well of his captors and the local people who generally were kind to the prisoners. During the 1980s my father assisted Stan Johnson, owner of the museum, with publicity for Eden Camp when it was being converted to a museum. There were articles at the time in the Yorkshire evening press, der Speigal, national press etc. There were also radio interviews with Westfalia Duetches Radio, Radio Tees where he told his story. Eden Camp museum is well worth a visit once covid restrictions are eased.
Hello Tim As a child I grew up knowing your Dad , He lodged two doors away at Mrs Williams in Jubilee Rd. He was working at Weitheimer's (local farmer) and locals called him Arthur . He was a frequent visitor at my home and would write his sermons very late at night as he was a lay preacher at the chapel.. Quite often he hired a big limo and took us all over the country side . In the '60's Eden camp was divided in two Derwent cast stone Headley Wise grain storage. You could still see the art work in some of the sheds. I still have the press cutting and that's how I found is real name was Ham .If you've seen the film "the one that got away " Franz Von Werra was taken from U K. to Canada were escaped , hence the title . Prost David
@@davidatkinson3887 Hi David. Thank you for your reply, My dad moved to York after he married Sheila who was from York. I recently found some photos of him before I was born. Some could be from that period in Jubilee Road. He often mentioned he rode a motorbyke and talked about borrowing and driving a vauxhall velox car. He had a bad accident riding his motorbike and had a serious head injury. Do you know how long he lived at Jubilee Road? I think he lived in Five Beeches at Rillington Fields at one time but am not sure of dates. In the 60's, he used to take us to Yeddingham as children to visit an couple he knew. I cannot remember who they were. My father passed away in 2003 aged 78. My mother died 10 years later aged 80. His youngest sister died in Germany at the beginning of last year. I think she was the last of his siblings. Prost! Tim
@@timothycremer3585 Hello Tim lovely to hear from you. As far as I recall "Arthur" must have being in Jubilee road for most of the 50's . We would get a ride on the tractor and trailer he brought to number 18 during summer hols and we would visit him in the fields ploughing. Wardroppers were the car hirers that took me my mum and me on those joy rides . If there is any photos of Jubilee rd then it is recognised as being a cul de sac. . I do know someone else who lived next door to him so I will try and find out what she members.My last recollection was getting a german army haircut. I right proper basin cut . Regret to say I can't recall your dad leaving as I lived at 23 'til '68. If you have time any photos to davidatkinson30@gmail.com that would be great. Prost. David
I used to work in a factory (making engine parts)with a guy who was captured by the Japanese, one day a group of japanese came around the factory , I've never seen someone so scared in my life. RIP john .
Not surprising. My great uncle hated them to his last day after what they had done to him. Tortured while building railways, survived a death march and as they retreated he was jammed into transport ships and was twice torpedoed by the Americans. First time he was picked up by a Japanese ship. Second time, he was pinned in the hold when some timber the ship was carrying fell on him as a result of the explosion. He nearly went down with the ship but the wood floated off him as the ship sank. He was picked up by the Americans after that. He weighed somewhere in the region of 5-6 stone.
@@T-1001 For those unfamiliar with the British "stone" as a measure of weight -- one stone equals 14 pounds. A person weighing 5-6 stone would weigh anywhere from 70 to 84 pounds.
Very heartwarming. Working class people all over the world, from any country, will always find they have a lot in common in terms of values. Its the people at the top who are at odds with each other. The irony is, as it will always be, it's never them at the top who have to kill each other.
To hear how PoWs were treated in the UK during WW2 makes me proud to come from Oldham, and to be British, too. It's not often, if ever, that I say that. I used to love hearing my father's stories about the air-raids on, and PoWs in, our town. Since his passing earlier this year, his accounts are now fading into history. A superb video, rich in content, expertly narrated. Thank you.
There were also several thousand German paratroopers in British camps in 1940. They had been taken prisoner by the Dutch in the Netherlands and shipped off to Britain.
I had an old friend back in the 80s who ran a café in Hammersmith. He was born in Italy and came to Britain as a babe in arms. When Italy entered the war on Germany's side he was arrested as an enemy alien and interned on the Isle of Man. His brother on the other hand was born in the UK a few weeks after the family arrived. As a British citizen he was drafted into the British army almost at the same time as his brother was interned. Strange things happened at that time but I am happy to say that my friend was released from internment after about 7 months and returned to London.
The moral of the story; the Brits, guided by morality and rational thought, treated the Germans with human respect which minimised the human and economic costs to the point the prisoners became ongoing friends and turned a slight economic profit. The Russians, driven by the emotion of revenge, treated the Germans inhumanely which maximised the human and economic costs to the point the prisoners became ongoing enemies and the whole exercise became an ongoing economic burden to Russia. The greater lesson; morality is more pragmatic and practical rather than righteous or religious.
To confront brutality with kindness has shown to be mutually progressive and constructive for all concerned and yet again reinforced egalitarianism and magnanimity as an example of how to actually win a war when the fighting stops
THE German doctors in concentration camps killed kids by special injections which caused a diarrea 150 babies and kids every day And you speaks on morality? THERE ARE SOME THINGS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN MINEY IT IS JUSTICE
Not really, in warfare the truth is it’s far more productive to shoot prisoners. You don’t have to feed them, neither waste precious manpower maintaining security. Morally it’s not right, but don’t be delusional about it.
My father was a German POW in Essex, the States and where ever they were sent. He said they were treated good, except in the USA when Belsen was liberated. They all had to watch the film to show what had been done in the concentration camps.
My German ancestors settled in Texas in the 1850s -- my grandfather was born around 1908 and grew up speaking German. When a German POW camp was built near his home, my dad told me that Grandpa would often stop and talk to the German POWs behind the wire. My dad, as a little boy, was terrified but Grandpa found some joy in speaking to them. The Germans there and at other POW camps in the U.S. were mostly well treated, and many came back to the U.S. to live after the war. But I imagine that when the Americans learned of the horrors of the concentration camps, some would have been angered by what the Germans had done.
My Grandfather was a P.O.W. from 1940, after the end of the war he returned to Germany, packed up everything and moved his family to Scotland where they settled down, a decision they never regretted.
Don’t know about you but I love old war stories plenty of family ones as-well, just shows the commitment and shear will our ancestors had massive respect to them
@@explosivefiend9008, Unfortunately my Grandfather never talked about his experiences during the war, either before or after his capture by the Royal Navy, my Grandmother on the other hand was quite happy to talk about what it was like to be on the receiving end of R.A.F. bombing attacks on Hamburg.
@@mrjockt I get you all I know is basically from my gran as-well, He was part of the Yugoslav partisans and later became disillusioned with communism and made his way to Scotland (know some stuff that happened during the war) but most of what I know about him is form post war. Similar to you he never liked talking about it
In the mid 1990s I worked for a large agricultural society (The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland) and amongst other things they issued medals for long-serving farm workers. At that time many applicants were Germans who had stayed on to work on Scottish Farms, had married and started families.
My great grandfather drove German POWs around during WWII. My nan remembers being left with them momentarily a few times and they were apparently kind to her. One of them even made her a little toy.
Thank you, a very interesting video. I was born in Ayr Scotland in early 1945. In perhaps 1948/9, my family and I lived in a Nissan hut that was part of a large village of huts on the Ayr outskirts. In the 1970's, an uncle wrote a story of his life in Ayr during the war years (He was 18 years old at this time.) and of the Italian POW's that would regularly venture into town to visit cafes, cinema and such, and were made welcome my the greater Ayr population. He even mentioned that the Nissan Hut that I lived in as a 3 - 4 year old, was a former POW hut that had been transported to Ayr for local accommodation. (Citation needed.) 15 years ago, I played a German camp commandant in a stage production dealing with British POW's in Germany, doesn't fate have a sense of humor?
I met a German prisoner of war , he was interned in Cornwall and said he was treated very well.he was a circuit judge in osnabroxand a really nice person.
I think that most POWs were treated very well in this country. The fact that more than twenty-five thousand of the German POWs chose to remain after the war is testinmony to that. I have seen interviews with many German POWs and all of them speak about the generosity of spirit they found here. As stated in the film, many spent Christmas with British families after the cessation of hostilities and this was very moving for many of them. There was also a choir that actually toured the country giving recitals. In all wars there are attrocities, but there is a huge difference between this being government policy towards prisoners, as in the USSR and Japan, and the actions of a tiny minority of individuals. We should not feel ashamed of our treatment of POWs, we did the best we could under extremely trying conditions.
As a German born in the mid 80ies, I have never heard real complaints about the conduct of the British and the Americans in or after the war from the old timers when I was young. Russia was always a topic though and I remember a priest (who was taken prisoner as a normal solider and only later ordained) and gave some lessons in my primary school telling us how he had to run bare feet over ice when not meeting some quota in a shoe factory in Russia where he had to work as a POW. Maybe this sentiment was exaggerated by the the cold war that was on when I was told the story in the early 90ies. In fact, my father and my mother told me how they fondly remember all the chocolate bars that the allied soldiers gave them or threw to them from their vehicles when driving through their respective Bavarian villages.
My father was posted to an internment camp at the end of the war. He told me that many of the former POWs were desperate to get back home. Most because they were concerned about the welfare of their families, some because they had formed relationships with ladies by post and he said, some had even got married in that way. Occasionally an internee would escape to try to get home. When these unfortunate people were returned to the camp my father and his comrades would beat them severely to discourage them and others from escaping. My father was a bully who would have, I know, enjoyed his duties. When he told me about this I pointed out to him that these people had committed no crime he just shrugged his shoulders and made no comment. He is long dead now so I suppose he’s in the best place.
Not many people will know in UK and elsewhere is that German and Italian prisoners from the North African campaign were also sent to POW camps in Australia. These were mainly in NSW and Victoria and like in UK many were put to work in the agricultural area. Japanese POWs were already in Australia at the time. A few years back I was able to view an amazing large scale model of a Focke-Wulf Condor airliner in Lufthansa colours made by a Luftwaffe Ju 88 pilot shot down in North Africa and sent to Australia. He made the model during his time at the camp out of wood and bits of scrap. It is truly amazing with working undercarriage and nacelle doors, moving control surfaces from the cockpit!, fuselage access door etc. Just shows what you can do with time on your hands! The Italians were especially popular as workers on the farms and many stayed post-war. As to the Germans, distance wasn't an issue for some, as there were some escape attempts. A fascinating and little known story about WW2 outside Australia.
One of my teachers at school had been a PoW of the Japanese. Every time Japan was mentioned, he would get very upset. His feelings about the Japanese had an impact upon me which lasts to this day. The thing is that PoWs will return home and tell their children about how they were treated, and those feelings will last for decades. It is worth treating PoWs well, as it will effect international relations for a long time in the future. Holding PoWs should not be used for punishing or settling old scores; it is rather a sales opportunity.
The Germans treated the British with some dignity and adhered to the principles of the Geneva Convention. I did work with people who had been PoWs in Japan and yes they were badly treated.
Japanese treatment of prisoners is an outrage and shame that should never be forgotten. We can forgive but never forget. The Japanese lost any claim to honor with their barbaric treatment of the people - particularly civilians - that they captured. The history of imperial Japan is a history of shame.
@@kellybreen5526 I was always amazed that Emperor Hirohito was not forced to abdicate citing the atrocities committed by Imperial Japan during World War II, bearing in mind Kaiser Wilhelm had to abdicate both as King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany as a precondition to the armistice that ended the fighting in the Great War
Years ago I talked to an old guy from the Ukraine region that was captured by the Germans in WWII. Said they treated him well, when he was freed by the Russians they put him in the Russian army which was hell ! He ended up at the first chance surrendering to the Germans again
Comrie in Scotland had a large German prisoners of war, recently a ex prisoner left the village over £500k because in his will because he loved it!!! He had been treated so well with ok food and got to know locals, it’s a beautiful village.
I grew up in Phoenix Arizona and there were both German and Japanese POW camps in the Phoenix area. My grandma was in her teens during WWII. Her and girl friends would always go over to the German POW camps and sit right at the fence and talk to the German POWs for hours on end. And always talked about how her and her friends thought the German POWs were so cute and how nice and polite they were. Then you have the Japanese POW camps and that was a different story. No one, wanted anything to do with the Japanese POWs and how hated they were. My grandparents said the best place you can be a POW was in the US during the war. The German and Japanese POWs that ended up in the US basically won the lottery. Many of them fell in love with the US while being a POW here and stayed or moved back after being released. That and they didn't want to go back to a country that was literally nothing but ashes and ruin.
I lived 2 blocks away from a German POW camp when I was a kid. Many POW's remained in the community after the war. They really liked being interred here in USA as opposed to some European camps.
You could have also mentioned that with the german farm labour that basically helped nearly double our food production, prisoners could send food parcels home to help relieve the german food famine
Why dont you tell people about the "Disarmed Enemy Forces" and the Rheinwiesenlager camps its a hell of a lot more interesting than the official stuff they tell us.
@@stc3145 Apparently they had space. If you count the empty land as a space where prisoners had to dig a hole to sleep in. The Germans never had logistic problems, the Americans also not....at least for their own troops, who were well fed. These soldiers had the right to be treated according to the Geneva convention, but Eisenhower could not starve them, so that status was denied to them. Instead they were called DEF. So the Americans didn't have to treat them according to the Geneva convention.
@@MrFloppyXXX There were about 1-2 million Germans in Rheinwiesenlarger camps. Of those, anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 died. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwiesenlager
My father had many German prisoners sent to work on his farm in England during the War they were treated well and they became life long friends many stayed here and married English girls I have known several of them and they were some of the nicest people you could meet,one of the ones who went back to Germany brought his wife and children over in the 1980s to meet up again and show his family were he worked and the kindness of the the people here when he was a prisoner,my father also went over to Germany in his 70s to meet and stay with a couple of the ones who went back home,those bonds lasted a life time.
I met a guy in the early 80s through work. He heard my accent and asked me did I know Wavertree Rd in Liverpool, which I did. He was German and he went on to tell me that as a young man, he ended up as a POW and was sent to the Isle of Man, there he eventually met a young girl from Liverpool who was working there. After the war ended they both got married and were still happily together with their family.
I still live around wavertree rd up on the High St. I took a cab from Blackpool to liverpool in the mid 70s and the driver was a German who was shot down during the May blitz.
@@billtomo Small world my friend. I drank in the coffee house, the Lamb , The Rose etc, etc. Great Times. The guy I mentioned was sound. My cousin lives in Langton Rd.. I worked in Hereford in the early 80s and an old gent, that was on the gate at a council depot told me , he was shot down in a Lancaster Bomber. He was in convalescence at The David Lewis centre in Liverpool, The guy was amazed when I told him I was Born and bred, just down the Rd. 👍
In the early 90s I worked with an older gentleman who was a very skilled machinist. He had a distinctive accent. When I asked him where he was originally from I got a fascinating story about a young kid drafted to the Wermacht, sent to Africa and taken a prisoner by the US Army in Tunisia. Then he spent some time as a POW in the Southwest but after the war he applied for a residency in the US rather than going back to the ruined Germany and since he was an machinist appreciate and not an ideological nazi he was granted one. He settled, got married and lived a productive life, an enemy turned citizen.
Well done an excellent video . Can I suggest that anyone interested look at 'The Germans we kept ' based largely on a camp in Lancashire . This was made several years ago and has interviews with ex pow's and also local people . It really does give an insight into post war Britain and to a lesser extent Germany .
A friend's father was a German prisoner in the UK, he stayed on after the war so his treatment couldn't have been bad. And yes, his surname began with W!
Yes...I believe there was some that settled in Pietermaritzburg. For what its worth there was a lot of high ranking officers that fled to Namibia then South-West Africa just after the war.
@@tiaanbekker7703 Hulle het op my buurman se plaas gewerk en hulle bouwerk is nog te sien.Ek woon naby Somerset West. Baie van hulle het gebly en hulle was betrokke in die wynbedryf.
Getting sent to Canada 🇨🇦 would have been like being sent to heaven. Many former enemies decided to stay here post war. I am sure the US has a similar experience.
I've read about such things. It was a very tough call for many German & Italian POW's in the U.S. & Canada because they had families back in Germany & Italy.
@@nemo227 There's a good documentary made by a German Canadian lassie...who's dad was a POW... 9,000 applied to stay, with many more who went back home...then brought their families back over in the '50s.
Kelly Breen Well after the pre war Weimar days when they had to ask for their day's wages at lunchtime so that they wouldn't lose the rest of the day's inflation, it isn't surprising.
My grandfather was a guard at a POW camp in Chepstow, South Wales. He was able to have his wife and child (my dad) down there in married quarters. Both he and my grandmother were full of praise for the Germans, and especially the Italians that they met. Can’t have been easy being kept captive far from home, but it really does sound as though that blow was softened somewhat by decent behaviour on both sides.
Lived in Sedbury and remember walking up towards Tutshill and a young man coming the other way stopped to talk. He explained he was German and had been a POW in the Sedbury POW camp. He had hiked back from Germany to see his English friends in the area, This was in 1955 or 1956. I have also worked with many Germans over the years who met English girls, married and remained in Britain. Those were the 'good old days' when we had little money but Britain was a great place to live. My how things have changed.
0.03% fatality rate. Ive seen more people die at school
I've seen more people die in the same apartment building!
I've seen more people die!
In USA at least lmao
PUSB
PUSB
I used to live in a village called Sudbury in Derbyshire where there was a POW camp.A German POW would come to my grandparents' house to help with the garden. He was allowed to leave the prison unguarded and at midday my grandfather would take him up to the pub and with other locals, would buy him beers. He would stagger back to the camp and be happy. He used to come back on holiday to be with the people he liked. How many other countries can say the same?.
The Germans are definitely our twins😂 great story 👍🏻
My father also speaks of a similar experience with a German POW. One night he got into a fracas with a local at the pub. The police came round and the other locals vouched that nothing had occurred, and it was made up to get him in trouble. He was much loved by the community.
Definitely not Germany...
Im not too surprised, the germans and Brits are related it was a huge shame the germans were led by the nazis, they never shouldve gone to war with eachother.
@@v_cpt-phasma_v689 Hitler never wanted war with the UK, he spoke many times of an alliance as he saw the British as equals to the Germans. It was Churchill who said Britain would never side with the fascists and we could never be allies which then led to Germany bombing London. That's why it's mind-boggling when left-wing liberals in the UK call Churchill a fascist when he had the option to side with the strongest country in the world or stand up for what's right on our own. Most of Europe surrendered without even putting up a real fight other than Poland who fought very hard.
My uncle was a German P.OW. He never went back to East Germany until mid 60s to see family. He didn't want to go back to a Russian occupation after the war. I dont blame him!
Orson Kaart.
Sehr Klug!
Well he’s lucky mines was captured by Russians and was a P.O.W and worked in Russia till the 1962 and still was killed
A POW where?
Maybe he should Of fought harder
Bombad Scenes bullshit, literally, the last German prisoner of the USSR was released in 1955
Quite a few German pow's at Bowmanville in Ontario, Canada returned as immigrants to Canada. That is how well they were treated.
Yep.
My father-in-law told how the German pows were allowed to go to Sunday dinner with German-speaking families in the area. In that area, it was Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking Mennonites in southern Ontario. His family frequently had young men to the house. That was a wise idea, as it showed the prisoners the life of Canadian families. I can imagine many of them would have wanted to stay.
quite a few that were imprisoned in the USA did the same
AND how little was left to them in Germany when the war was over.
I currently live in Wainwright Alberta which the camp Denwood was the largest camp of German and Italian POWs the guard towers and a few building still survive being repurposed. the chapel on base used to be a barracks for the Italian mountain troops and if you go in the back room on the walls are Italian sayings and I've found a badge in a little bit of a cubby cut into the wall (it was the badge of the 2nd Alpini Regiment)
This sounds like a better place to me than some of the schools i've attended
sound about right
@Starseedspirit i wish i was
It sounds better than my flat.
@Dawud why didn’t they go home, were they ashamed, is there nothing for them at home or something sinister on the allies part?
@Dawud Just looked that book up and the front cover says "An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans after World War II" - what does that have to do with British PoW camps during the war?
My paternal grandfather was captured by the British in North Africa and became a prisoner of war in Britain. After the war he settled in Britain, changed his name to an English surname, met my grandmother and the rest is history.
Damn good story!!
A good friend of my Nan married a german PoW who was sent to Scotland. He was a lovely guy. I don't know where he was captured, or even what service he was in. It was many years ago.
Moggy: I am pre-WW2 and as a kid was amazed that POWs would come to our catholic church every Sunday. Other days they worked on the land.
My Great Uncle served in the Kriegsmarine on a UBoat. Got captured and served out the rest of the war here. While working on a farm, he rescued a young boy who had fell in a river. Met my Great Aunt and became part of the family.
Why not...the queen is German and they changed their name during WWI....
Respect to Britain and Canada from Germany. Thanks for showing humanity in such times and treating our POWs good.
We are brothers, and both of our armies knew that. We have always had mutual respect!
@@737simviator This is the exact story that occurred on my families farm in Nottinghamshire, a crashed pilot spent the war working on the farm and they converted a hay loft into a "proper" bedroom for him. He kept in touch with them for decades after the war with regular visits to come and see his friends.
Your words are so tender and so kind. Clearly, you have been raised by a respectful family. Christmas wishes and blessings from Scotland.
@@chelamcguire merry Christmas my scottish friend
@@johannescampe9684 x
British torture practice:
“Would you like a nice warm cup o’ tea luv?”
“Yaa!”
“Make one yourself!”
“Neeeeeein!”
Harsh, but effective.
🤣🤣
Being forces exposed to British weather is a war crime
Krauts in those days had no idea about tea.
They would even have burnt the water...
Best comment I have seen on RUclips for a long time hahaha
I know that many German POW's in Canada were actually left to be on their own during the day. The went into town, some even got jobs with locals, but were required to return to camp for the night.
Some prisoners were sent to a military base in southern Wisconsin in the US. From there they were literally farmed out to farm to work. My mother was a child during the war, but rshe remember speaking to the prisoners who loved being there because everyone in the area spoke German (my mother's elementary school taught everything in German. She didn't learn English until she went to high school). She told me the prisoners were very happy to be out of the war. One of my Mom's cousins later married one of the POWs. I remember meeting him and that he spoke English with a thick German accent.
Only one German prisoner of war ever escaped from Canada and made it back to Germany. Hauptman Franz von Werra was a Luftwaffe pilot shot down during the Battle of Britain and deported to Canada. He escaped captivity by jumping from a moving train and stowing away aboard a freighter bound for Sweden, finally reaching Germany in April 1941. He did not survive the war, however, being shot down over the English Channel off the coast of the Netherlands in October 1941. He was the subject of a book 'The One That Got Away,' by Kendall Burt and James Leasor, and was played by the actor Hardy Kruger in the film of the same name.
There were a lot of German POWs in this area that worked for farmers especially in the latter part of the war. They were treated well because it was important that this information got back to Germany through Swiss inspectors. This resulted in Canadian POWs being treated better than those from some other countries, notably Russia. I recently wrote a story about this . A number of families that I know had POW workers and in one case a POW disappeared. The RCMP interviewed the mother years after the war to find out if there was any contact. There hadn't been. Escapees were not a major concern. As some one else pointed out, only one had successfully returned to Germany, and that was while the USA was still neutral and before Pearl Harbor. POWs were required to return to Germany after the war but thousands would return to Canada as immigrants in the following years.
well yeah, where you gonna run to? the icy forest, the frozen lake or the atlantic ocean? your choice lol
@@infertilepiggy5667 you obviously have never been to Canada.
My grandfather used to guard German army POW's. He remembered them as polite, working class men who missed their families. They would often be excellent craftsmen and carpenters who would sometimes make wooden toys for the guards children at Christmas.
This just illustrates that the folks most affected by war are the ones who really wanted nothing to do with it in the first place.
They tell me we had lots of WW2 Italian German POWs billeted in the small farming town where I grew up in northeastern Colorado & worked on the farms owned by various friends of my folks, many of whom were either Italian or German immigrants. They taught our high school students how to play soccer. Never caused any problems as far I heard, were glad to be fed and housed with real mattresses, etc.
The Scary Truth Catalyst
Not an unusual tale.
I hope that you get to the end. It's worth it.
There was a great story of a high ranking German Officer..p.o.w who was billeted in a private house in a village in Scotland.
Much later, the by then elderly lady described their 'guest' to whom they had given hospitality.
"He was an absolute gentleman. He bowed and clicked his heels whenever we encountered him leaving the house or returning home.
Spoke excellent English but had to learn our scottish accents.
He did ANYTHING heavy about the. house. Wouldn't let me or my ailing husband carry anything heavy.
In the kitchen he was limited but did any of the mundane tasks.
Eventually he saw that our garden was badly in need of attention and said that at home
his love was of gardening (Gartenarbeit) and would love to to tidy it up.
The lawn was restored to its former glory and in autumn before he was repatriated, he gave the lawn its last cut before winter. She was asked for permission for him to plant some bulbs in the lawn. "They will be beautiful in Spring when I am gone... Something by which I hope you will remember me."
She agreed and chose and financed the purchase of a large quantity of crocuses (croci?)
and he spent hours of back breaking working, carefully planting these bulbs.
He eventually made his courteous farewell speech.
"Vielen Dank für Ihre Freundlichkeit und Gastfreundschaft während meines Aufenthalts in Ihrem schönen Land.
Wir hätten wirklich nicht im Krieg sein sollen! "
"Thank you for your kindness and hospitality during my stay in your beautiful country.
We really shouldn't have been at war!"
When the crocuses bloomed in March, before the grass needed cutting again, they read
"HEIL HITLER!" in big letters.
@@MauriatOttolink
It appears that the German Fascists' had already done a pretty good job of planting some perennial mind speak into his now brain washed thinking process.
@@MauriatOttolink 😂😂😂
To be honest, I bet some were glad to be prisoners, it more or less guarantee that after the war they’d be alive.
Better than the Eastern front
As long as they survived the British weather.
And the British food
So, so true
@@brianclark7412 shut up and eat your rissole!
My wife’s next door neighbour when she was growing up was an ex German Luftwaffe officer. He was shot down and spent the the rest of the war in England. After the war he settled in England, married an English girl had a had a family and he was one of the nicest guys I had ever met in my life. What he didn’t know about gardening wasn’t worth knowing and he taught me a few things. He’s sadly no longer with us.
In contrast, my Grandfather was captured in North Aftrica in 1941 and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in saxony where he was maltreated, beaten and tortured. After he came home, he harboured a life long resentment of Germans and vowed never to go Germany again and had to sleep with a nightlight for the rest of his life. He was a great man too and I miss him.
I highlight these stories to show how we treated our prisoners compared to how the Germans did.
HolyDiver73
Fully understand your position about your beloved Grandfather.
I'm one generation later and have some sincere and valued German friends of about one and half generations later. They carry this clearly visible National guilt over something which happened about the time I was born and LONG before they were.
It was all the result of what always happens when a minority takes control with
outrageous views and then has the power to carry them out.
WE must beware the same type of growing unscrupulous power-seeking which is happening today!
Season's wishes to you and may you have a healthy New Year. Prosperous will have to wait!
@MichaelKingsfordGray well that’s a rubbish counter argument. You dishonour my grandfather by making it. You idiot.
@@holydiver73 that is a very gracious reply. Your grandfather must be proud of you. You was obviously brought up well. Seasons greetings
Jaded Jedi He was well within his rights to tell the idiot to go jump in a laks
@@o00nemesis00o he really was
Some of the German POW's sent to Canada were housed in camps near the Rocky Mountains. A few of them were so smitten with the beauty of the area, they emigrated to Canada after the war ended.
@Con Barber , yes he was a penpal of mine.
Bert Trautmann was pow a and was employed to carry out agricultural work. He was surprised to receive regular visits from British authorities to ensure he was being fairly treated and well fed
My step dad lived next to Bert Trautmann near Manchester. Bert was a tough ex-paratrooper and very athletic - he was goal keeper for Manchester City and played in the 1956 FA cup final with a broken neck.
Robert is right for sure. To anybody who wants to get a real insight into all this stuff, read Bert Trautmanns autobiography. The book is ace, the man is fucking legend. I went to school with the kids of Italian ex-pow's who'd worked on the local farms, got to know the local girls, and Antonio's your uncle. My old man was on the troopships that carried them. Great vid.
Yeah Bert Trautmann's story is a good one, Fallshirmjaeger throughout the war, he was captured by Americans but decided to escape from them because he thought they were going to kill him. He ran, jumped over a fence into a field to find a British soldier sitting making tea, He said "Hello Fritz, fancy a cup of Tea?" Which he did. Legend.
One of the reasons that Trautmann and others were surprised was because they had been force fed a false diet of how badly the Allies treated POW's. I'm not saying the Allies were perfect in their treatment of POW's, far from it. But from stories I have read from German, Italian and Japanese POW's, we did tend to treat our prisoners a bit better than they treated ours.
@@philipm06 I remember going to WHL as a kid in 1960 to see Spurs play Manchester
City. It was the season of the Spurs double. Bert Trautmann played a blinder and
Spurs dropped their first point after eleven consecutive wins.
The grandfather of a good friend of mine was a PoW in England and he said he and his comrades were treated strict but very well and fair by the English. He was so grateful for it and had nothing but much respect and gratitude for England and its people until he died. Thank you for treating our soldiers so nice though they were enemies. Regards from Germany.
My Mum (born 1932) remembers Italian POWs working on farms close to where she lived, that they seemed very happy to do so, and that they were well liked and friendly.
My late stepfather was a coal miner in South Yorkshire and worked in the mines with a small number of German POWs who were much appreciated and treated like anyone else. Coal mining is dirty, dangerous work and miners know they're relying on everyone else to get out alive at the end of a shift - the mine itself was a far greater danger than any "enemy".
And Maggie stuffed the miners! Shame on her.
@@royfearn4345 the miners were being stuffed long before Maggie came to power, she just finished the job
@@royfearn4345 Don't forget the other heavy industries she stuffed. Funny that they were all traditional Labour voting industries, don't you think ?
Roy Fearn how awful, closing down the evil coal mines
@@o00nemesis00o It was more about destroying communities because they didn't vote Conservative.
And mines are not evil, just dangerous, but men were proud to call themselves miners.
Perhaps a good lesson for us all on how to be civil and human even in the worst of times!
Not only civil, which is what I would've expected from the british, even more so than americans, a very wise strategy!! Well done!!
Wise words brother. Our values mean nothing if we do not practise them universally.
@@TheWtfnonamez
Exactly.
I was an RAF medic and did several deployments on Op Herrick and Op Telic.
During my time on the ground I actually patched up more Taliban fighters, insurgents and Afghan and Iraqi civilians, than Coalition casualties.
Some of the more zealous combatants would fight us as we tried to administer them aid, and would scream at our translators, demanding to know why we were trying to save them. They had been told by their leaders that British and American forces executed injured combatants via bullet to the head, or crucify them in the desert.
It sometimes jaded me, but my Boss put it into perspective one day for me; "By doing the exact opposite of what they would do if the roles were reversed is how we know we are better. Just because that guy now laying on the ground was shooting at us not five minutes ago, doesn't give us the right to decide if he lives or dies, and that's why when he's in our hands he's not the enemy, he's a casualty of war."
Always stuck with me, and helped me keep my faith in humanity despite experiencing some horrendous situations.
@@residentelect Thank you for your service. Your words were food for thought and very wise.
Agreed with one exception. Line up the fanatical SS murderers and shoot them. That's what the U.S. army did with the ones they captured at the concentration camps. Every Nazi concentration camp was manned by SS troops, and each individual volunteered for duty at the camps.
I remember one German POW being amazed at being asked by a British leason Officer , if he was being well treated on the farm he was working on . I can also confirm that my German relatives prayed that it would be the British or Americans who marched into Berlin and not the Russians .
Unfortunately the Americans treated POWs disgracefully in Germany herding hundreds of thousands into open fields without shelter and very little food. Google Eisenhowers Death Camps.
@@desbrittain9952 Maybe the Execution of US troops around the time of the battle of the Bulge had something to do with it ??
@@desbrittain9952 the American prisons were still better than the soviet prisons. Many German soldiers retreated to American/British positions during the very late stages of the war. (not sure if the second sentence is true but I heard it in many videos)
@@angelinazavala980 soldiers as well as civilians marched for miles west in order to surrender to British forces, i'm not 100% on the details but i was told that the soldiers would still wear their Nazi uniforms but had white armbands or other symbols of surrender when they approached allied bases.
@@leehotspur9679 "the nazis did it so why shouldn't we?"
20,000 Germans, and Italians decided not to go home, and stayed in the U.K.
Check the statistics, it is eye opening.
Wow.! I had no idea it was that many, my Mum's walk to junior school near Coventry took her past Italians working the fields, she always said how friendly they were and used to make the children corn dolls and toys.
My friend's German father a POW, stayed in England at the wars end, his home was in the Russian zone.
I used to work at GEC Rugby and there were ex German POWs working there in the 70's along with Poles, Latvians, & Lithuanians, their stories were well worth listening to. One man I remember called Paul told me he had been as far east as Moscow.
Always amazes me that these all these men were accepted, I wouldn't necessarily say all these men were buddies but they rubbed along without any actual trouble.
In my early career I worked with both German and Italian ex POW
@@nigelmitchell351 Thank you for your reply.
The dark part is German POWs we’re kept in the U.K. till 1948 to work on the farms, and as Labourers.
Due to Women’s Land Army wanting to return to civilian life.
Clement Atley Of Labour has a lot to answer for.
@@skylongskylong1982 I see nothing wrong with that, call it reparations, many of these men would stay anyway as their homes were in the East.
Compared to how many survived internment at the hands of the soviets they were very bloody lucky. Also there were no Dachau's in Britain, no executions of airmen in forests.
I don't believe any Germans were forced to perform engineering roles such as bomb disposal.
You might consider the treatment of Polish prisoners at the hands of the soviets.
My neighbour, a Polish officer captured by the Russians, was in forced labour, which meant eradication through starvation in Siberia, before the nazis saved his life by invading Russia and turning the poles into their allies by default. These men and women were offered the chance to join the Red army, which they declined, or be marched all the way to the middle east and j join the British, which they accepted.
No comparisons are valid.
Their country was destroyed.
i know there were a lot of cases were german soldiers would actively seek to surrender to the british to avoid being captured by the soviets
Yeah, 3/4 of them surrendered to the Americans/western allies even though most fought on the eastern front
The Germans staved or otherwise killed millions of Russian prisoners of war is possibly the reason for that.
@@margaretbell5028 They also actively committed genocide in occupied Soviet lands and raped and pillaged a lot. Most Red Army soldiers probably knew someone that had been killed and/or raped as a result of actions carried out by the Wehrmacht and SS
During wars soldiers are essentially just willing or unwilling tools for their leaders, so I do respect how fair they were treat and not just as an enemy to be punished.
Its because the British are civilized and dont see every german man (at that time) as an enemy.
@@idfk1123 Bull shit they were civilized.
Churchill deliberately caused a famine in Bengal that killed 4 million
@@anav587 Jesus, no need to be like that!
@@idfk1123 It is however true!
@@iancampbell4373 Well, aside from that he did some amazing things for Britan and its commonwealth nations.
My late local priest was a former Luftwaffe fighter pilot who was shot down during the Battle of Britain and asked to stay in the UK post-WW2.
Fascinating! What was name?
@Notareptile Kiddyfiddler?!
I'm suprised a former luftwaffe pilot who could potentially have been flying over England hoping to bomb the country perhaps even civilian areas could become a priest years later in an English church etc
Science chap
I hear that he said "Pleeze.. Don't sent mee back to zat bloody saurkraut und currywürst!
@@charliezz6746 He was a fighter pilot. They had nothing to do with bombing england. They just escorted bombers that were actually going to bomb civilian areas.
As a British chap this makes me proud. Love can set everyone free. ✌️
Pity ye still occupy parts of the world against their will
@@conor1940 what parts of the world?
@@billybobhouse9559 Gibraltar, ireland, Scotland ect
@@conor1940 Northern Ireland, Scotland and Gibraltar all have had referendums rejecting independence and on my last trip to Gibraltar I remember there being a lot of British flags flown round the country and outsides peoples homes ..
@@abandonedworldgermany that's just false Scotland was the only one lmao
WELL WORTH A GOOD READ!
There was a great story of a high ranking German Officer..p.o.w who was billeted in a private house in village in Scotland.
Much later, the by then elderly lady described their 'guest' to whom they had given hospitality.
"He was an absolute gentleman. He bowed and clicked his heels whenever we encountered him leaving the house or returning home.
Spoke excellent English but had to learn our scottish accents.
He did ANYTHING heavy about the. house. Wouldn't let me or my ailing husband carry anything heavy.
In the kitchen he was limited but did any of the mundane tasks.
Eventually he saw that our garden was badly in need of attention and said that at home
his love was of gardening (Gartenarbeit) and would love to to tidy it up.
The lawn was restored to its former glory and in autumn before he was repatriated, he gave the lawn its last cut before winter. She was asked for permission for him to plant some bulbs in the lawn. "They will be beautiful in Spring when I am gone... Something by which I hope you will remember me."
She agreed and chose and financed the purchase of a large quantity of crocuses (croci?)
and he spent hours of back breaking working, carefully planting these bulbs.
He eventually made his courteous farewell speech.
"Vielen Dank für Ihre Freundlichkeit und Gastfreundschaft während meines Aufenthalts in Ihrem schönen Land.
Wir hätten wirklich nicht im Krieg sein sollen! "
"Thank you for your kindness and hospitality during my stay in your beautiful country.
We really shouldn't have been at war!"
When the crocuses bloomed in March, before the grass needed cutting again, they read
"HEIL HITLER!" in big letters.
Sacre Bleu!
Funny but I don’t believe it.
That’s quality
funny but i doubt its real
@@StillAliveAndKicking_ It is actually true. There are stories of POWs being smuggled to local dances for a night out. Comrie as a small town did very well from German gratitude to their treatment during WW2 after 1945.
My (German) grandmother grew up on a farm in Bavaria, where they "employed" a handful of French POWs. She was quite young back then and used to play with them, she told me. They were treated as well as every native worker would have been treated, had their own rooms (she lost all of her four brothers who fell in Russia).
Many came years later to visit her a couple of times. She passed away five years ago.
I was glad to know my ancestors behaved human under these circumstances.
I served with on a NATO unit in Holland, my boss was German Sergeant Major and many of colleagues were German also, they were a great bunch of guys and our families socialised frequently. I had previously been stationed in Germany and had a smattering of German, whilst these guys had spent 10 weeks in school learning English before being posted to the unit. Inevitably conversations would sometimes be about the wars. The conclusion would be, look at us now and how crazy and tragic the whole damn thing had been. One of the guys told me, his father was the only surviving brother of eight boys, his brothers all died on the Eastern Front, his father, was to young to be conscripted. I have some very fond memories of them all. I particularly remember the guys struggled to understand our, "Brits", sense of humour. In particularly taking the piss out of each other. Mike, our boss, would tell his German comrades, if the Brits take the piss out of you, it means they like you, your considered one of them. The guys struggled getting their heads around that concept. All in our 60's now. often wonder how they and their, now grown up kids are doing.
@@bepolite6961We're the only people who will introduce a friend with " This is Bill . He's a knob"
@@jamesguitar7384 lol
one of my 4 sons has a partner from Munich, her mother pays for dear Eliga;s private schooling, he is the top skier in his school runs faster than anyone else, speaks German like a native. how we love him.
I remember the Italian POWs in Leeds. They couldn't stop smiling ,as they were only too happy to be done with the war !
Around Southampton the Italian community is fairly large with guys who chose to stay after the war.
Ditto for Dewsbury, where I grew up!! 6 miles from Leeds.
Hi Brian, coming from Calverley Nr Leeds, I lived adjacent to a POW camp during the war, Italian and later German POW'S The camp near my School was known as Ferncliffe, it was entered via Clara Drive, adjacent to St Wilfred's Church School where I was in the infants class, I'd have been around 8 or 9 by the time all the POWS had left when the camp was taken over by DP's (Displaced Persons obviously avoiding going back to live under Russian rules. I had known prisoners there from being around 4 years of age, Italians were first, Then Germans. There was a Submarine guy there we knew as 'The Captain, and another POW we knew as Hans Sherniman who my 18 years old Brother was to meet up with years later in Germ,any.After the POWS left, the ex Army/POW/ camp became a DP Camp for Displaced persons, Poles and others from Europe, we knew, met, played football/cricket with and many inter marriages took place, all memories about the place were goods, ones.Maybe this short note will jog a few memories.
@@terryofford4977 Hey, are you old?! Please reply to me!!!
I don’t think the Italians wanted to be part of the German regime, Mussolini (Italy’s Dictator) made the pact with Hitler (Germany) , but I doubt the people agreed with Hitlers ideology .
During ww2 my great aunt was a member of the "Land Army", working farm land.. one of the farms used Italian POWs, and one day, one of the POWs made the mistake of squeezing her ass... She knocked him out cold with one punch, something he was apparently reminded of and teased by his fellow POWs over for the rest of his time in England.
R.I.P. Betty ❤
Betty was a liar
Ben x why
Was she northern
@@anonimouse4678 a Stafford girl
When I was stationed in England in 1979 I met an ex German POW. He told me that they were sent out to work the farmers fields. Most time with one or no guards.
I asked him why he didn't escape back to Germany he said he had it made was being fed well and treated better than in Germany and he would have to go back on the battlefield and he was forced into the army and didn't believe in Hitler's war.
Absolutely true. My old mechanic found his way to a Yorkshire POW camp. They we're forced to work on the farms, but if you did you got better rations and this was an incentive. In fact he said that the food was better as a POW than in the army. There weren't any real guards at the camp either, as none of them wanted to escape. He stayed and married a local lass after the war and set up his own garage business.
Before D-Day my uncle was a sergeant stationed at St Andrews. All the maintenance of their unit vehicles was undertaken by Austrian POWs, and one actually taught my uncle to drive.
Many years ago I knew two former german POWs. One was a work colleague. He had been one of those allocated to a farm and had eventually married a local woman and settled here permanently. He never returned to Germany. He was very fortunate as he had spent much of the war as a soldier on the eastern front but had been in the west when captured by the British. He appreciated the way he had been treated here as a POW. He told me some stories about his experiences of the horrific conditions in the east. The second was a former U-boat officer. He learned good english while in the camps and a few years after repatriation to Germany his employer asked him to help open a branch factory here. He moved his family over here and settled here permanently, where he was a near neighbour.
There was a camp in Scotland behind my family home and the prisoners came to help in the garden and fields and often made things for the kids, no one treated them as the enemy, it was what it was.
Your gorgeous
It’s a bunch of shit. If your father or brother was out fighting and got caught they would be tortured too death if not worked and starved too death. But when they get caught we let them work on the farms and check in on them too make sure they are doing well. I know we’re meant too be the good guys but when are you just letting people off with horrible crimes.
@@ivartheboneless5969 In this video he talked about one of the prisons which held POWs with very little to no Nazi feelings, he said the camps which held real Nazis were way stricter and didn't get the luxuries the prisoners in this camp did. British, French and American soldiers who were captured by Germans were also taken care of well although they treated Soviet soldiers like animals (which they returned to German soldiers who were captured after the war).
The Canadians treated there prisoners of war so well they didn’t want to leave
Sorry for taking you prisoner eh
@22 22 umm is this a troll or a neo nazi
@Bradyn Urfer I swear USA were famous for atrocities in ww2. That’s what I learned in chocolate land aka belgium
@22 22 lmao nazi
Canadians are just good people
My Father "So Nestor how did you come to be a prisoner? Nestor " We were by the sea and it was hot so we went for a swim. When we got back to shore the British were there". Nestor was an Italian who remained in England for all of his life after being captured in North Africa.
In the 1980's I worked with the son of a former German POW who had married an English girl. They settled down and lived the rest of their lives in UK. I am relieved that we treated them decently on the whole. Too many bad things can happen in wartime and it is not easy to keep to an honourable path.
Do you not think it’s a bit weird how if they caught your grandpa they would of worked, tortured and starved him too death, but they get caught here any they get given nice place too live a new job and people checking in on them too make sure they are getting treated well. Even when the Germans where the ones doing the most war crimes, and started the war by not abiding by there reparations.
Britain showing their class as per usual.
Well, Brits ARE very hospitable, so I guess that extends to enemy soldiers & airmen as well.
@Alex Snowden "Come on lad sit down and enjoy your tea, after all we dinged your nice fancy air-carriage, it's only fair".
And what did we get for it....
Waste of time.
My UK parents-in-law told a story of an Italian POW that was allowed to travel from one place to another on a bike. Apparently he would sing loudly with a "....lovely voice...." as he pedaled along. This was in Flintshire of N. Wales.
My dad grew up near a POW camp. It had closed long before he was born, but a former POW stayed in the town. He married a local and started his own business. He sold ice cream to people and he was happy. Everyone liked him and he was kind.
Not everyone on the opposite side of a conflict are evil. Some are quite nice.
well said .
I have met many German people who immigrated either to Canada, then the USA or directly to the United States.
Their common remark was "too many ghosts." Many had lost many family members, sometimes their whole family.
One German man had lost his wife and children, remarried only to have his second wife and children killed during an air raid.
He hated the Nazis. He commonly asked me how we Americans would even allow the Neo-Nazis to even exist in the United States.
I simply shook my head and said "We are naively stupid!" He was most grateful to be an American and to be free to remarry and raise children in a free land.
They boiled nat Turner alive and ate him in little jars made news articles about it🤷🏾♂️ were not too far off
We had a POW camp near our house. When the POWs left, the buildings were turned into home for families that had been victims of German bomber raids and had lost their homes. They continued to be family homes well into the 1970s, until better options were available.
A Former German POW lives in our neighborhood and still on occasional evenings walks by our house. 99 years old. Immigrated to the US and became an exec with Benz.
Captured in Africa, sent to the US and worked a citrus farm not too far from where he lives today.
"We were well treated, even paid for our work" he once told me.
If you’ve never been to Eden Camp you are missing a great day out it’s a must see camp....
Point taken. Is it near to ex RAF/USAF Edenbridge ?
@@suzyqualcast6269 No, I believe Edenbridge is in Kent and is some 250 miles from Eden Camp which is in North Yorkshire.www.edencamp.co.uk/
I've been to Auschwitz. I even spent a night sleeping in one of the prison huts. So, going to Eden Camp would just be like going to Butlins to me.
I've been there during a school trip,
visited eden camp a couple of years ago.remember being astounded by the fact that the pow rations were better than what the locals were eating
My old friend Heinrich Kistenmacher was captured in Normandy, he did a stint in a US Camp then transferred to Pitlochry in Scotland, they were allowed out with supervison every weekend where they would bribe their guard with 2/6 pence to get into the local dance .. Here Henry met is wife, she was an assistant in Boots the chemist. They married after the war and Heinrich remained in the UK, where he became a manager at the local theatre and he was well respected by the town. later he taught German at a college in the Midlands.. alas Heinrich passed away very suddenly a few years ago, but we still keep in touch with his widow.
👍😎👌
Many Italians were sent to Australia and New Zealand where they endeared themselves to their captors and some even elected to stay after hostilities had ceased.
My grandfather was a German POW in the US.. he always said he was never treated better than there... he actually gained weight and made friendships with the owners of the farms he worked at, getting invited to sit with them at the dinner table and such..
My grandfather had several German prisoners on his farm in Essex that went back and forth between the camp and the farm with just one guard. They were glad to be out of the war and worked well.
Trent Park in London was where all the very highest ranking prisoners were kept, unaware that the British had microphoned the whole place up. That in itself is a fascinating story.
Wouldn’t you ? 😎
@@Michaelbos They had microphones in some of the trees. Their handler would walk a general around the park, pausing at a tree to ask, "So what do you think of Mr Hitler?"
It was found that treating prisoners well, and allowing them to associate with each other (while listening in) was more effective for gathering intel than torture.
I lived within a mile of that camp and never knew about it until recently!
Here is a YT PBS film of Trent Park.
ruclips.net/video/Pu_-BeKwiDY/видео.html
"A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals."
They were not criminals as such, they were Prisoners of War.
I suspect a few “local” football teams lost games on penalties!
I’ll get my coat.
Lol
Ffs man
😆🤣😂 some habits just don't change
😂😂😂
Made my day
I still have various items given in thanks to my English grandparents by German POW's who assisted on their farm during and after the war. My grandparents treated them like family ensuring they were fed and clothed as well as their own. Many remained after the war and settled locally, others stayed in touch for the rest of their lives. I'm sure this was not at all uncommon.
My grandad told me that early in the war, when groups of POW's were marched to the local camp, people threw stones at them. At the end of the war, when being repatriated, they threw cigarettes at them
You'll find that Glasgow had a large Italian community mainly from POW's who didn't want to go home. They were well respected (mostly) as they usually ran the best chip shops and Ice cream parlours in the area, In fact, locals didn't say 'chippie' but 'Tallies' when referring to them.
An Italian POW camp at Hay in outback Australia was the genesis of the most multicultural city of Griffith in Oz today. The Italian POWs were let out to work as the country was desperately short of labor, friends and relationships were begun as Italians were respected as our allies in WW1. When the war was over all the POWs were sent back home and as Italy was destitute many of them promptly brought their families back to Griffith and turned a sleepy country town into a dynamic modern city bring the best of their culture with them.
My sister married an Italian migrant boy so it has touched and made an incredible influence for all of us.
I've been told by several former Italian and German POW's that they surrendered as much to avoid starvation as to avoid dying in battle. For some of the Italians it was the first time in their lives they'd been well fed. Exactly the opposite to what happened to Allied prisoners of the Japanese.
They were treated very well.My dad told me and he had nothing but praise for the British.
good to hear Manfred, my father was a british soldier, he met my german mother in Braunschweig after the war, they settled in England in 1951, she never had a cross word said against her , i am the result so i love both countries. schone grussen aus england.
@@mikewray6387 My dad once said should you one day meet an english person always treat them with kindness and respect because I was treated that way.Little did he know that one day I would end up living here in Britain.That is now 41 years ago and I haven't looked back since.
@@manfreddreschflegel1067 good to hear Manfred, your father sounded wise and kind, have a great christmas in these troubled times. schuss.
@@mikewray6387 Vielen dank und ich wuensche auch dir und deiner Familie eine Frohe Weihnachten.🍻
Eden Camp is great place to visit and not too far away is the Elvington Air Museum which is also worth a look.
What elvington air museum never been
Many Italians POW’s were “imprisoned” on the site of the London Gliding Club in Dunstable. They were split into three groups. There were the fascist nutters, disliked by everyone. Then there were the “can’t be arsed” and the majority whom decided to make the best job out what they had. They worked on farms, built houses, did small jobs, baby sitting and were apparently a delight to have around. May did not return to Italy and their descendants are still found in Dunstable, Luton and Bedford.
The complete opposite of a Japanese POW camp!
Excellent video!
A family friend ended up in one of those in WW2 at age 18. Had very little to eat & the commandant kept threatening him with beheading, probably just because he enjoyed watching a teenager deal with impending death. Never could get a good night's sleep.
A friend's father was captured at Hong Kong. He hated the Japanese with a fury till the day he died.
Staved because allies decided to bomb fields and blocked food so the remaining left over went to our own the people to blame for starvation was allies who like to bomb civilians
The British invented pow and concentration camps in the Anglo Boer War , they took the families of the Boers locked them up and starved them and purposely infected them with measles and they were the lucky ones, Kitchener the British General in charge would organize sport styled hunts where British soldiers would be rewarded for killing anything that would deprive the enemy of sustenance including women and children, the Term Scorched Earth was invented in this time and referend to the destruction of houses and farms burnt to rumble. The Germans may be remembered for adopting concentration camps and there ruthless efficiency but it was the British that invented them .
My dad was a rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber in 12 Squadron RCAF in WWll. He was shot down on his 11th mission over the Ruhr and made it as far as Holland before he was captured. He ended up in Dulag-Luft 13B and said several of the guards were guys who were captured in WWl and always treated the prisoners well because of how well they were treated in captivity. His story of the battle around the camp to liberate it (the SS decided to dig in around the camp after the guards fled to ambush the American unit heading for the camp) and the insane conditions in the camp and nearby town while they were waiting to be repatriated home make a hell of a story. He passed away four years ago. He would have loved this video. Thanks. Lance in Canada
I think everyone in Yorkshire has been to Eden camp for at least one school trip, I went in 2006 I think.
not wrong
Three times from three seperate courses. Not complaining, though.
1995 for me, when I was in year 4. I bought a 9mm bullet keyring.
@@T-1001 think I was in year 5 or 6 so 2005/6 can't tell but was a cool place I distinctly remember the hut that had fake fire and the fake smoke stinking and the wood fort play area.
@@j_gibbon Oh yeah! I'd forgotten about the smells. Come to think of it my best friend bought a small bottle/vial of some sort of smell that he was very proud of.
So let's take stock...
Soviet Union: Lethal conditions & high death rate
Nazi Germany: Genocide and racism
Britain: Tea, plays, and crumpets
Soviet Union: Gone
Nazi Germany: Gone
Britain: Tea, plays, and crumpets
hmmm...no plays at the moment but i'm happy to tell you i've just had my 3rd cup of tea of the day
You've not been told the truth about WW2
@@marcj3682 Yeah, I heard backflipping ninja spetznas ISIS members parachuted in from the ISS and used hydra weapons to kill alien zombie jesus 🙄🙄🙄
@@scotts918 Yup, thought not, with such a nonsensical comment like that.
Like I have said, you haven't been told the truth about WW2 - only the victor's side of events. Do you know what the 1939 coloured books were? Of course, you don't.
Or what the torch man order was? Thought not. How about who AH's bodyguard and chauffeur was - and also a founding member of the SS - Emil Maurice - guess what he was - a J.
What about Bernard Baruch and the part he played in British and US politics and the significance of that. Nope - you don't know that either do you?
Or what about when Poland invaded Czechoslovakia after the Munich agreement in 1938 - and the British and French said nothing.
Or how about the Slovaks inviting the Germans in to prevent a Soviet-style communist government from taking over the country - and the very Slovaks from "Czecho-slovakia" invaded Poland with the Germans in September 1939. How about the persecution of the Germans in 1920s and 1930s Poland - the murdering of innocent civilians. Yep - you haven't heard about that either, have you.
Nor will you have heard of the Havarra agreement.
I could go on and actually teach you something, but with a silly comment such as "Yeah, I heard backflipping ninja spetznas ISIS members parachuted in from the ISS and used hydra weapons to kill alien zombie jesus" coupled with "🙄🙄🙄" it's quite clear your knowledge has been gained from guff such as the World at War, the movies you watch (bet you have the box set of band of brothers and saving private Ryan), and the school history books, and, sadly for you, you will always believe the lies of WW2, and never have the complete picture - only the picture they want you to have - such as this immature comment "Soviet Union: Lethal conditions & high death rate
, Nazi Germany: Genocide and racism, Britain: Tea, plays, and crumpets" How about the 4 million starved by Churchill in the Bengal Famine?
🤦♂️
@@marcj3682 tldr
Now waste more time and reply back, I command you slave.
I can tell you from first hand testimony they were treated very well.
My grandad was injured in Italy and was unfit for service so he spent the rest of the war as a guard.
He said they all become friends, security wasn't very tight near the end of the war because they were treated so well they weren't going anywhere especially back to Germany and the Russian front.They ate the same food as the guards, got their cigarettes and even on occasions taken to the pub. After the war the guards and the prisoners even wrote to each other.
I had an evening of free drinks because the owner of the Cafe had been a prisoner of war in Britain
Wait, what do you mean?! Please reply to me, buddy!
@@generalgta3528 yo wtf
I know this one guy in my secondary school who’s grandfather was a POW, who left the camp after the war, settled down in Britain and married a British woman.
That's a fantastic story mate, it was more of a common thing than you'd think following the Second World War. As the restrictions tended to be relaxed for the prisoners, naturally they became more sociable with people in nearby towns and villages. Infact within a few years after the war had ended, many Briton's had a great degree of sympathy for the POWs. Thanks again for the comment mate.
TheUntoldPast
You’re welcome for the comment! I also heard about this Scottish village where most of the people there were descendants of German POWs. Forgotten it’s name sadly.
@@CancerGaming56 Thanks mate! I'll have to have a little look into that village! See what I can find!
TheUntoldPast
You’re welcome
Google George Gebauer, Hitler youth to Church of England priest.
My father was captured in Caen, France in 1944 after D. Day. He was transported to London to a transit camp and then to Eden Camp, Malton in Yorkshire. His surname began with C so I am not sure about your information about where prisoners were sent. My father seemed to suggest that prisoners captured by the British were sent to Britain and those captured by Canadians to Canada and so on. My father stayed in Britain after the war and became a naturalised British citizen. He always spoke well of his captors and the local people who generally were kind to the prisoners. During the 1980s my father assisted Stan Johnson, owner of the museum, with publicity for Eden Camp when it was being converted to a museum. There were articles at the time in the Yorkshire evening press, der Speigal, national press etc. There were also radio interviews with Westfalia Duetches Radio, Radio Tees where he told his story. Eden Camp museum is well worth a visit once covid restrictions are eased.
Hello Tim As a child I grew up knowing your Dad , He lodged two doors away at Mrs Williams in Jubilee Rd. He was working at Weitheimer's (local farmer) and locals called him Arthur . He was a frequent visitor at my home and would write his sermons very late at night as he was a lay preacher at the chapel.. Quite often he hired a big limo and took us all over the country side . In the '60's Eden camp was divided in two Derwent cast stone Headley Wise grain storage. You could still see the art work in some of the sheds. I still have the press cutting and that's how I found is real name was Ham .If you've seen the film "the one that got away " Franz Von Werra was taken from U K. to Canada were escaped , hence the title . Prost David
@@davidatkinson3887 Hi David. Thank you for your reply, My dad moved to York after he married Sheila who was from York. I recently found some photos of him before I was born. Some could be from that period in Jubilee Road. He often mentioned he rode a motorbyke and talked about borrowing and driving a vauxhall velox car. He had a bad accident riding his motorbike and had a serious head injury. Do you know how long he lived at Jubilee Road? I think he lived in Five Beeches at Rillington Fields at one time but am not sure of dates. In the 60's, he used to take us to Yeddingham as children to visit an couple he knew. I cannot remember who they were.
My father passed away in 2003 aged 78. My mother died 10 years later aged 80. His youngest sister died in Germany at the beginning of last year. I think she was the last of his siblings.
Prost!
Tim
@@timothycremer3585 Hello Tim lovely to hear from you. As far as I recall "Arthur" must have being in Jubilee road for most of the 50's . We would get a ride on the tractor and trailer he brought to number 18 during summer hols and we would visit him in the fields ploughing. Wardroppers were the car hirers that took me my mum and me on those joy rides . If there is any photos of Jubilee rd then it is recognised as being a cul de sac. . I do know someone else who lived next door to him so I will try and find out what she members.My last recollection was getting a german army haircut. I right proper basin cut . Regret to say I can't recall your dad leaving as I lived at 23 'til '68. If you have time any photos to davidatkinson30@gmail.com that would be great. Prost. David
Nice @Timothy
I used to work in a factory (making engine parts)with a guy who was captured by the Japanese, one day a group of japanese came around the factory , I've never seen someone so scared in my life. RIP john .
Not surprising. My great uncle hated them to his last day after what they had done to him. Tortured while building railways, survived a death march and as they retreated he was jammed into transport ships and was twice torpedoed by the Americans. First time he was picked up by a Japanese ship. Second time, he was pinned in the hold when some timber the ship was carrying fell on him as a result of the explosion. He nearly went down with the ship but the wood floated off him as the ship sank. He was picked up by the Americans after that. He weighed somewhere in the region of 5-6 stone.
@@T-1001 For those unfamiliar with the British "stone" as a measure of weight -- one stone equals 14 pounds. A person weighing 5-6 stone would weigh anywhere from 70 to 84 pounds.
@@JohnDayDude Which in turn is around 31-38kg
Very heartwarming. Working class people all over the world, from any country, will always find they have a lot in common in terms of values. Its the people at the top who are at odds with each other. The irony is, as it will always be, it's never them at the top who have to kill each other.
To hear how PoWs were treated in the UK during WW2 makes me proud to come from Oldham, and to be British, too. It's not often, if ever, that I say that.
I used to love hearing my father's stories about the air-raids on, and PoWs in, our town. Since his passing earlier this year, his accounts are now fading into history.
A superb video, rich in content, expertly narrated. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words!
Another really great and informative presentation. thank you.
Back that. Used to be several POW camps up round here in N. Derbyshire.
moog Dome
I couldn't agree more!
There were also several thousand German paratroopers in British camps in 1940. They had been taken prisoner by the Dutch in the Netherlands and shipped off to Britain.
Frank Teunissen
And your point is?
@@MauriatOttolink It's an interesting tidbit of history.
I had an old friend back in the 80s who ran a café in Hammersmith. He was born in Italy and came to Britain as a babe in arms. When Italy entered the war on Germany's side he was arrested as an enemy alien and interned on the Isle of Man. His brother on the other hand was born in the UK a few weeks after the family arrived. As a British citizen he was drafted into the British army almost at the same time as his brother was interned. Strange things happened at that time but I am happy to say that my friend was released from internment after about 7 months and returned to London.
13:05
Damn, they even had a place where they could go in order to take matter "into their own hands".
Lmao
U h o h .
The moral of the story; the Brits, guided by morality and rational thought, treated the Germans with human respect which minimised the human and economic costs to the point the prisoners became ongoing friends and turned a slight economic profit. The Russians, driven by the emotion of revenge, treated the Germans inhumanely which maximised the human and economic costs to the point the prisoners became ongoing enemies and the whole exercise became an ongoing economic burden to Russia.
The greater lesson; morality is more pragmatic and practical rather than righteous or religious.
Don't forget that the Germans treated Russian POWs terribly as well.
To confront brutality with kindness has shown to be mutually progressive and constructive for all concerned and yet again reinforced egalitarianism and magnanimity as an example of how to actually win a war when the fighting stops
THE German doctors in concentration camps killed kids by special injections which caused a diarrea 150 babies and kids every day And you speaks on morality? THERE ARE SOME THINGS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN MINEY IT IS JUSTICE
Not really, in warfare the truth is it’s far more productive to shoot prisoners. You don’t have to feed them, neither waste precious manpower maintaining security. Morally it’s not right, but don’t be delusional about it.
To be fair the Soviets did have a lot to be vengeful about
My father was a German POW in Essex, the States and where ever they were sent. He said they were treated good, except in the USA when Belsen was liberated. They all had to watch the film to show what had been done in the concentration camps.
My German ancestors settled in Texas in the 1850s -- my grandfather was born around 1908 and grew up speaking German. When a German POW camp was built near his home, my dad told me that Grandpa would often stop and talk to the German POWs behind the wire. My dad, as a little boy, was terrified but Grandpa found some joy in speaking to them. The Germans there and at other POW camps in the U.S. were mostly well treated, and many came back to the U.S. to live after the war. But I imagine that when the Americans learned of the horrors of the concentration camps, some would have been angered by what the Germans had done.
My Grandfather was a P.O.W. from 1940, after the end of the war he returned to Germany, packed up everything and moved his family to Scotland where they settled down, a decision they never regretted.
Don’t know about you but I love old war stories plenty of family ones as-well, just shows the commitment and shear will our ancestors had massive respect to them
@@explosivefiend9008, Unfortunately my Grandfather never talked about his experiences during the war, either before or after his capture by the Royal Navy, my Grandmother on the other hand was quite happy to talk about what it was like to be on the receiving end of R.A.F. bombing attacks on Hamburg.
@@mrjockt I get you all I know is basically from my gran as-well, He was part of the Yugoslav partisans and later became disillusioned with communism and made his way to Scotland (know some stuff that happened during the war) but most of what I know about him is form post war. Similar to you he never liked talking about it
In the mid 1990s I worked for a large agricultural society (The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland) and amongst other things they issued medals for long-serving farm workers. At that time many applicants were Germans who had stayed on to work on Scottish Farms, had married and started families.
My great grandfather drove German POWs around during WWII. My nan remembers being left with them momentarily a few times and they were apparently kind to her. One of them even made her a little toy.
Thank you, a very interesting video. I was born in Ayr Scotland in early 1945. In perhaps 1948/9, my family and I lived in a Nissan hut that was part of a large village of huts on the Ayr outskirts.
In the 1970's, an uncle wrote a story of his life in Ayr during the war years (He was 18 years old at this time.) and of the Italian POW's that would regularly venture into town to visit cafes, cinema and such, and were made welcome my the greater Ayr population.
He even mentioned that the Nissan Hut that I lived in as a 3 - 4 year old, was a former POW hut that had been transported to Ayr for local accommodation. (Citation needed.)
15 years ago, I played a German camp commandant in a stage production dealing with British POW's in Germany, doesn't fate have a sense of humor?
I met a German prisoner of war , he was interned in Cornwall and said he was treated very well.he was a circuit judge in osnabroxand a really nice person.
I think that most POWs were treated very well in this country. The fact that more than twenty-five thousand of the German POWs chose to remain after the war is testinmony to that. I have seen interviews with many German POWs and all of them speak about the generosity of spirit they found here. As stated in the film, many spent Christmas with British families after the cessation of hostilities and this was very moving for many of them. There was also a choir that actually toured the country giving recitals. In all wars there are attrocities, but there is a huge difference between this being government policy towards prisoners, as in the USSR and Japan, and the actions of a tiny minority of individuals. We should not feel ashamed of our treatment of POWs, we did the best we could under extremely trying conditions.
As a German born in the mid 80ies, I have never heard real complaints about the conduct of the British and the Americans in or after the war from the old timers when I was young. Russia was always a topic though and I remember a priest (who was taken prisoner as a normal solider and only later ordained) and gave some lessons in my primary school telling us how he had to run bare feet over ice when not meeting some quota in a shoe factory in Russia where he had to work as a POW. Maybe this sentiment was exaggerated by the the cold war that was on when I was told the story in the early 90ies. In fact, my father and my mother told me how they fondly remember all the chocolate bars that the allied soldiers gave them or threw to them from their vehicles when driving through their respective Bavarian villages.
Another reason why many Germans remained in the UK was that " home" was the wrong side of the border
My father was posted to an internment camp at the end of the war. He told me that many of the former POWs were desperate to get back home. Most because they were concerned about the welfare of their families, some because they had formed relationships with ladies by post and he said, some had even got married in that way. Occasionally an internee would escape to try to get home. When these unfortunate people were returned to the camp my father and his comrades would beat them severely to discourage them and others from escaping. My father was a bully who would have, I know, enjoyed his duties. When he told me about this I pointed out to him that these people had committed no crime he just shrugged his shoulders and made no comment. He is long dead now so I suppose he’s in the best place.
I interviewed a German POW and he told me that it was the sausages that were the wurst.
Geoff Ward
Ba-bum! Very shrewd.
Groan. Did the bad sausages create sour krauts?
@@StillAliveAndKicking_ Only in a Wurst Käse scenario
Not many people will know in UK and elsewhere is that German and Italian prisoners from the North African campaign were also sent to POW camps in Australia. These were mainly in NSW and Victoria and like in UK many were put to work in the agricultural area. Japanese POWs were already in Australia at the time. A few years back I was able to view an amazing large scale model of a Focke-Wulf Condor airliner in Lufthansa colours made by a Luftwaffe Ju 88 pilot shot down in North Africa and sent to Australia. He made the model during his time at the camp out of wood and bits of scrap. It is truly amazing with working undercarriage and nacelle doors, moving control surfaces from the cockpit!, fuselage access door etc. Just shows what you can do with time on your hands!
The Italians were especially popular as workers on the farms and many stayed post-war. As to the Germans, distance wasn't an issue for some, as there were some escape attempts. A fascinating and little known story about WW2 outside Australia.
One of my teachers at school had been a PoW of the Japanese. Every time Japan was mentioned, he would get very upset. His feelings about the Japanese had an impact upon me which lasts to this day.
The thing is that PoWs will return home and tell their children about how they were treated, and those feelings will last for decades. It is worth treating PoWs well, as it will effect international relations for a long time in the future. Holding PoWs should not be used for punishing or settling old scores; it is rather a sales opportunity.
The Germans treated the British with some dignity and adhered to the principles of the Geneva Convention. I did work with people who had been PoWs in Japan and yes they were badly treated.
Japanese treatment of prisoners is an outrage and shame that should never be forgotten. We can forgive but never forget. The Japanese lost any claim to honor with their barbaric treatment of the people - particularly civilians - that they captured. The history of imperial Japan is a history of shame.
@@kellybreen5526 I was always amazed that Emperor Hirohito was not forced to abdicate citing the atrocities committed by Imperial Japan during World War II, bearing in mind Kaiser Wilhelm had to abdicate both as King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany as a precondition to the armistice that ended the fighting in the Great War
@David Erickson You are right, the US Government have a lot to answer for. They also imported many leading Nazis, who should have gone to the gallows.
A very sad story there, that's why I observe the two minutes silence on Armistice Day, in memory of those who suffered as well as those who died
Years ago I talked to an old guy from the Ukraine region that was captured by the Germans in WWII. Said they treated him well, when he was freed by the Russians they put him in the Russian army which was hell ! He ended up at the first chance surrendering to the Germans again
Comrie in Scotland had a large German prisoners of war, recently a ex prisoner left the village over £500k because in his will because he loved it!!! He had been treated so well with ok food and got to know locals, it’s a beautiful village.
I grew up in Phoenix Arizona and there were both German and Japanese POW camps in the Phoenix area. My grandma was in her teens during WWII. Her and girl friends would always go over to the German POW camps and sit right at the fence and talk to the German POWs for hours on end. And always talked about how her and her friends thought the German POWs were so cute and how nice and polite they were. Then you have the Japanese POW camps and that was a different story. No one, wanted anything to do with the Japanese POWs and how hated they were. My grandparents said the best place you can be a POW was in the US during the war. The German and Japanese POWs that ended up in the US basically won the lottery. Many of them fell in love with the US while being a POW here and stayed or moved back after being released. That and they didn't want to go back to a country that was literally nothing but ashes and ruin.
I lived 2 blocks away from a German POW camp when I was a kid. Many POW's remained in the community after the war. They really liked being interred here in USA as opposed to some European camps.
"Interned" I hope, not "interred"! Good point though.
@@andrewneenan566 Mrs Malaprop is alive and well, and residing in the USA, it seems.
@@andrewneenan566 Yes, there is a big difference between those words!
You could have also mentioned that with the german farm labour that basically helped nearly double our food production, prisoners could send food parcels home to help relieve the german food famine
Why dont you tell people about the "Disarmed Enemy Forces" and the Rheinwiesenlager camps its a hell of a lot more interesting than the official stuff they tell us.
About 1.5 million imprisoned German soldiers starved to death in Eisenhower's death camps. But yea, they weren't British.
@@MrFloppyXXX a German inquiry put the figure around 6.5thousand
What could they do when there is no food or room for millions of POW?
@@stc3145 Apparently they had space. If you count the empty land as a space where prisoners had to dig a hole to sleep in. The Germans never had logistic problems, the Americans also not....at least for their own troops, who were well fed. These soldiers had the right to be treated according to the Geneva convention, but Eisenhower could not starve them, so that status was denied to them. Instead they were called DEF. So the Americans didn't have to treat them according to the Geneva convention.
@@MrFloppyXXX There were about 1-2 million Germans in Rheinwiesenlarger camps. Of those, anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 died. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwiesenlager
Very interesting video,sounds better than the "holiday" my Father dragged us to Butlins in the 1960's
I loved butlins holidays
Great video! Really enjoyed.
Thanks for the comment mate! Glad you enjoyed :)
My father had many German prisoners sent to work on his farm in England during the War they were treated well and they became life long friends many stayed here and married English girls I have known several of them and they were some of the nicest people you could meet,one of the ones who went back to Germany brought his wife and children over in the 1980s to meet up again and show his family were he worked and the kindness of the the people here when he was a prisoner,my father also went over to Germany in his 70s to meet and stay with a couple of the ones who went back home,those bonds lasted a life time.
Q: What time were German POWs required to wake up every morning?
A: Nein!
Dnt make sense..ijs
Solid video mate!
Thanks for the comment mate, glad you enjoyed it! :) I'll be doing another video soon about specifically life at the POW camp I filmed at.
I met a guy in the early 80s through work. He heard my accent and asked me did I know Wavertree Rd in Liverpool, which I did. He was German and he went on to tell me that as a young man, he ended up as a POW and was sent to the Isle of Man, there he eventually met a young girl from Liverpool who was working there. After the war ended they both got married and were still happily together with their family.
I still live around wavertree rd up on the High St.
I took a cab from Blackpool to liverpool in the mid 70s and the driver was a German who was shot down during the May blitz.
@@billtomo Small world my friend. I drank in the coffee house, the Lamb , The Rose etc, etc. Great Times. The guy I mentioned was sound. My cousin lives in Langton Rd.. I worked in Hereford in the early 80s and an old gent, that was on the gate at a council depot told me , he was shot down in a Lancaster Bomber. He was in convalescence at The David Lewis centre in Liverpool, The guy was amazed when I told him I was Born and bred, just down the Rd. 👍
In the early 90s I worked with an older gentleman who was a very skilled machinist. He had a distinctive accent. When I asked him where he was originally from I got a fascinating story about a young kid drafted to the Wermacht, sent to Africa and taken a prisoner by the US Army in Tunisia. Then he spent some time as a POW in the Southwest but after the war he applied for a residency in the US rather than going back to the ruined Germany and since he was an machinist appreciate and not an ideological nazi he was granted one. He settled, got married and lived a productive life, an enemy turned citizen.
Well done an excellent video . Can I suggest that anyone interested look at 'The Germans we kept ' based largely on a camp in Lancashire . This was made several years ago and has interviews with ex pow's and also local people . It really does give an insight into post war Britain and to a lesser extent Germany .
A friend's father was a German prisoner in the UK, he stayed on after the war so his treatment couldn't have been bad. And yes, his surname began with W!
Many Italian pows were sent here to South Africa and many settled here.
Yes...I believe there was some that settled in Pietermaritzburg. For what its worth there was a lot of high ranking officers that fled to Namibia then South-West Africa just after the war.
@@tiaanbekker7703 Hulle het op my buurman se plaas gewerk en hulle bouwerk is nog te sien.Ek woon naby Somerset West. Baie van hulle het gebly en hulle was betrokke in die wynbedryf.
Getting sent to Canada 🇨🇦 would have been like being sent to heaven. Many former enemies decided to stay here post war. I am sure the US has a similar experience.
I've read about such things. It was a very tough call for many German & Italian POW's in the U.S. & Canada because they had families back in Germany & Italy.
@@nemo227
There's a good documentary made by a German Canadian lassie...who's dad was a POW... 9,000 applied to stay, with many more who went back home...then brought their families back over in the '50s.
@@rpm1796 It seems to be a basic part of human nature to want to live where you're not under the thumb of a government or king or despot.
And Canada has a large immigrant population, so I imagine they were pretty well accepted.
Kelly Breen
Well after the pre war Weimar days when they had to ask for their day's wages at lunchtime so that they wouldn't lose the rest of the day's inflation, it isn't surprising.
My Aunt is the result of my grandma getting it on with an Italian POW.
Cant blame her, those italian men eyy
@@Alistplay exactly, those Latin men with their charm's.
Pow Pow Pow and your Aunt appeared
My grandfather was a guard at a POW camp in Chepstow, South Wales. He was able to have his wife and child (my dad) down there in married quarters. Both he and my grandmother were full of praise for the Germans, and especially the Italians that they met. Can’t have been easy being kept captive far from home, but it really does sound as though that blow was softened somewhat by decent behaviour on both sides.
Lived in Sedbury and remember walking up towards Tutshill and a young man coming the other way stopped to talk. He explained he was German and had been a POW in the Sedbury POW camp. He had hiked back from Germany to see his English friends in the area, This was in 1955 or 1956. I have also worked with many Germans over the years who met English girls, married and remained in Britain. Those were the 'good old days' when we had little money but Britain was a great place to live. My how things have changed.