Back in the 1970s, I worked with a man who was drafted into Hitler’s army at age 16. After a few weeks of training, he was sent East into Russia. He was soon captured and found himself in a queue to be executed with hundreds of other captured German infantry. They were lined up in front of a ditch, about 20 at a time, and shot into the ditch.
Before his turn came, a British officer came into the scene and started shouting at the Russian officer overseeing the executions. He understood enough Russian to hear the Russian officer’s explanation that they had no food to feed the prisoners, whereupon the British officer said, “Give them to me.”
In a few weeks, this man found himself at Ft. Riley, Kansas, where he was well-treated, and well fed. There was no security to speak of, so one day he just walked off the work detail and ambled down the road a few miles.
He stopped at a farmhouse and asked in his thick German accent if they had any work for him. They hired him, and he was able to enjoy American farm life until the MPs caught up with him when he was in town running some errands for the farm.
At the end of the war, they started rounding up the POWs for the trip back home. He did not want to go. He liked it here. He was told it was a treaty obligation to send all the POWs back to their country of origin.
When he got back to his town, it was utterly destroyed. Everybody he knew and loved was dead, and it was occupied by Russians, whom he feared and hated. He fled to Berlin and applied at the US embassy for asylum, which was granted.
When he got back to the States, he married, had kids, and started a business, leading a typical American life.
An amazing story.
Sounds like he enjoyed Ft. Riley more than I was able to :)
The exact same story unfolded for many, many German POWs in central Canada. Those areas were so remote and the winters so brutal that the security was minimal and the POWs interacted a lot with local farmers. When the war ended and they were returned to Germany, a lot of them immediately migrated back and settled there. There are quite a few Canadians with Eastern European names who played in the National Hockey League over the years who were descended from those immigrants.
You are right, that is an amazing story. From 1979-1983 I was stationed at a small air base in Germany very close to the French border. The wife and I traveled quite a lot through Germany, enjoying the people and the culture. Two things I found about the Germans; when it was time to work they worked and when it was time to play they played. With few exceptions, the outward evidence of World War 2 had disappeared in only one generation. But everybody had stories to tell like the man you worked with. I had a neighbor who was in the German Army and was at one of the British beaches on D-Day. He looked out and saw ships from horizon to horizon. A few weeks later he was captured by the British and remained a POW until 1948. He said in many ways it was the best thing that could have happened to him. Feed, clothed, warm place to sleep. Came back to Germany when the building boom started, made his fortune, married and raised his wife. Interesting story.
Thanks for a good tale among the so many sad ones.
What an amazing story
I’ve read several accounts of German soldiers wandering around the central United States & Canada during WW2. Just walked away from POW camps, more or less.
Lovely story!
“An amazing story.”
Yes, an amazing story, but unfortunately, once we all die off, a story which will be completely lost to the ages. The ruling “hate America above all else” class will only teach the young that America was evil. A disgrace to be sure, but unfortunately, we chose to ignore the leftist indoctrination of our young for decades, while today’s “leaders” were being brainwashed. The billionaire “leaders” of Facebook, Amazon, etc. are beyond redemption, and they, unfortunately shall be the arbiters of “truth” for those growing up today.