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To: OESY
You letter to the editor about ex-German POWs buying your dinner to express gratitude for their past American treatment as POWs evokes several memories.

As a young boy, on Saturday mornings toward the end of WW-II, I would go to a Virginia naval base with my dad and spend the day roaming the base -- pistol range, exhibition baseball, chow hall, officers club, etc. -- and I was able to interface with German POWs a few times (as they worked under guard trimming roses). It was a good experience for me and them, and I can vouch that those I met were treated well.

Whne the war was over, German POWs were repatriated, but many of them quickly returned to settle in the United States.

One such German couple opened a carry-out hamburger place in my home town and the place was packed every day -- hard work, good quality, good service, and good prices.

Later in life, I told those stories to a young German national, born around 1965, and she told me that she'd been taught in Germany that WW-II German POWs were mistreated in America.

Personal stories like yours and mine are what put the lie to propaganda. Thank you.

22 posted on 06/14/2004 7:28:20 AM PDT by Stagerite
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To: Stagerite
***she told me that she'd been taught in Germany that WW-II German POWs were mistreated in America.***

If they were sent to the POW camp in Louisiana, then I guess they probably do think they were mistreated between the heat, redbugs, ticks, and snakes. :o) My father's family lived on the outskirts of that camp and they told stories of seeing them marching around and singing their German songs.

68 posted on 05/16/2005 8:11:46 AM PDT by daybreakcoming
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