Georg Gärtner, the last German POW in America.

In 1985, a federal fugitive chose to turn himself in after evading an FBI manhunt for forty years. The History Guy remembers Georg Gärtner, the last German prisoner of war in the United States.
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As images of actual events are sometimes not available, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
This episode deals with a period of conflict. All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
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[@pgk1940]

My father was in the German Wehrmacht when he raised his hand after the men in his unit were asked for volunteers to join the Afrika Korps. He was only one of 2 or 3 who did, being rididuled by others who thought they were crazy to do so. Within a week, the rest got shipped out and wound up in Stalingrad. He later found out that only one of them eventually made it back home. He often thought that it was a major turning point in his life, the first major one of many lucky breaks. He was taken prisoner by the British in 1942 and sent to the US. He spent the rest of the war years in Georgia, Florida and Luisiana. He would be the first to agree that the German POWs were treated well. I do remember my mother getting letters from him where parts were blacked out, but he was allowed to send and receive letters, and we were in constant contact with him. I was very young at the time (born in early 1940), so my recollections are pretty fragmented, but I do recall him mentioning that he was smoking tailormade cigarettes, and that they were eating better than we were, back in Germany. He was a master cabinetmaker, and I recall him mentioning that one of the officers at one of the camps had taken him to his home to do some cabinet work. After the war ended, he was shipped to England, where he worked in a nursery/gardening operation, something he considered another stroke of luck, as he was, and remained, an avid hobbyist gardener. He remained friends with the people he worked for for the rest of his life, visiting and hosting them several times. He was finally released in 1947, and within a week of being back home announced announced to my mother that he did not want to remain in Germany. Within five years that became a reality, and we emigrated to Canada. He always regarded his capture in 1942 as one of the best things that could have happened. Turns out that he didn't particularily enjoy being a soldier, especially the part about being used for target practice. His POW time was spent in a safe environment in relative comfort and good food. I never heard him say anything bad about his treatment, and it gave him an opportunity to further his english language skills, something he had started by taking evening classes some years earlier. The time he spent in the US was a real eye opener, and was the catalyst for the move to Canada, which he regarded as one of this best decisions. I recall him in later years saying, "What did Germany ever do for me?" He was 7 when WWI ended, and the post WWI years were not a good time to live there, especially under French occupation. As was common at the time, he started an apprenticeship in a small cabinet shop when he was 14, which turned out to be little more than being an unpaid servant, both to the owner of the shop as well as his wife. He would have to wash the car, do shopping and other household chores for the wife, hardly things related to learning a trade. More often than not, he would not be paid, in fact his boss vetoed his plans to join a sports club, insisting that any outside activities would distract from his work. In spite of the odds, he did become a journeyman cabinetmaker after his 4 year apprenticeship. A few years later, Hitler came to power, and my father was not one of his greatest fans. Several times he was taken in for questioning regarding comments he had made about the Nazis, but managed to elude anything more severe. Then he was conscriped into the "Arbeitsdienst", a compulsory, para-military work program. By that time he and my mother were married and my sister was born. Shortly after he was drafted into the Wehrmacht, and WWII started. He was home on a short furlough in 1940 when I was a few months old, and the next time we saw him was when he was released in 1947. My father was always into learning new things, and I think he viewed his time as a POW in the US more as a learning experience than a punishment or even confinement. I don't think he ever considered escaping. He really didn't have any reason to. In spite of not having the freedom of travelling around, he was certainly better off than he had been. He likely had more freedom to express his views than he had had for the last 10 years, both as a civilian and in the military. The Georg Gärtner story is really interesting, and it's nice that it had a happy ending.

[@jeronwade930]

Man i loved all of those story's

[@oldcity1954]

I would have to admit, your father was very fortunate. His guardian angel was doing double duty!

[@angelinaaurelia1668]

What a wonderful story. Thank you for passing it along.

[@jammer3618]

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad your father survived the war and was able to build a life for his family in Canada. My grandmother was born in Germany and emigrated to America before the war.

[@chillywilly5258]

Happy for your dad and your family.

[@robfinney9289]

And there you have it ladies and gentlemen. Your 1945 Hide & Seek Wooooooooooooooorld Champion!

[@rooftopvoter3015]

That beats any "Where's Waldo" for sure

[@lonebikeroftheapocalypse9527]

Bigfoot still has more wins tho...

[@grant2053]

@Rasputin That dude was a lil nutz tho

[@robfinney9289]

I shall now sit in the Corner of Shame.

[@robfinney9289]

@The Unindicted Coconspirator Prove it.

[@TK-zf7sx]

There used to be a WW2 German POW who lived in my small town. He was captured during the war, and went home to Germany after. He realized there was nothing to do there - no jobs, no way to make a living. So he came back to the States, settled here, and started a small business. Every year, he used to dress up and play the part of Uncle Sam in the local Independence Day festival until he died a few years ago.

[@dougfleming1708]

No different from the Hessians that stayed after the Revolution

[@pmullins1495]

I never heard those stories, unfortunately.

[@marionmarcetic7287]

Cool Dude!

[@juliettailor1616]

Poor man

[@InvestingForTomorrow24]

That's a beautiful story. You might enjoy Eva Cassidy, daughter of a G.I. and his German wife.

[@petekovacevic3241]

Im a mechanic and had a car show up in the shop with D-Day plates on it . The older gentleman noted that I was checking out the plates and wanted to know why I was interested in them. And I must add he was a very friendly fellow. I told him I had a few relative at D-Day, but they were on the welcoming committee. He laughed and told me he had parachuted directly in front of a machine gun position and was captured . He ended the war on a potato farm. After the war he married a German woman, and chuckled "So I've been a prisoner of the German's since D-Day. What a cool guy I wish I could have had more time to chat with him!

[@poetcomic1]

"married a German woman so I've been a prisoner of the Germans since D-Day.' THAT is a memorable line.

[@D80pfb]

My father worked with German POW's in the fields in Wyoming and told of one PW whose father had been captured in WW1 and interred in America. His advice to his son, who was conscripted to fight for Germany in WW2 was, "Find the nearest American unit and surrender." He did and that is my snippet of history that deserves to be remembered!

[@davidwoodward9528]

William Ditmer interned, rather than interred, yes?

[@D80pfb]

@@davidwoodward9528 You are correct. Hopefully they all survived!

[@dukecraig2402]

@@D80pfb When I was in high school in the early 80's I worked at a garage that was owned by an older fella that was a guard on boats that would bring the German POW's over here, I wonder if that guy was one of them.

[@davidmarquardt2445]

William Ditmer; My father supervised German POW's in the canning factory he worked at in Sheboygan WI. They were kept at the fair grounds in Plymouth about 15 miles west of Sheboygan. At first they caused some trouble, like running a batch of peas all over the floor. But once he got to know them he started giving them beer and then they were alright. Most of them had been conscripted and were not fans of Hitler, one of them had worked as an electrician, but my father had to explain to him that the motors in the plant ran on 3 phase AC and this was something new to him. They also had some officers, they thought it was beneath them to work, they told them they would be fed but they would not be let out of the barracks unless they worked.

[@HammerHed13]

@@reefermadnezz9819 Sure they did, Marky

[@PSIponies]

My grandmother grew up on a farm in Ohio. Our family is of German heritage, and my great grandparents were still very connected to the German culture. They received German POWs to work on their farm. She said that the POWs were very polite and hard-working, and her family would make them traditional German dishes. She said that, when the war ended, they didn't want to leave lol.

[@deniseeulert2503]

My grandfather's brothers also had German POWs work for them, in Kansas. The family was German in heritage, so my great uncles could speak with the German workers. I have heard they were glad to be away from the war and the battles.

[@johnschuh8616]

There are more Americans of German decent in the USA than of English descent. After living as a Civilian employee in Germany for many years, I concur with others that we have far more in common with Germans than with the English. As my own grandfather came from Trier to Texas in the 1880s, and my father grew up in a San Antonio that had more German speakers than English or Spanish speakers, I found the Germans be very much like my Dad. Myself I am more Southern than German.

[@TD402dd]

@@johnschuh8616 My family came from England in the mid 1800s to work in the coal mines. There were just as many from Scotland and Ireland as English. It seems the USA gained the language from England, and not much else. Still, I loved Queen Elizabeth as being a Queen of greatness. I don't know about her son, but being an American, it really doesn't matter.

[@gardensofthegods]

@@TD402dd I love Queen Elizabeth also even though I'm an American ... and my mom and my sister always had an interest in the Queen since I can remember ... so I always enjoyed watching or reading anything about her , may she rest in peace

[@ATRTAP]

“Im leaving you- you have too many secrets” “I’m an escaped German POW” “We need to publish a book”

[@frankpaya690]

Chalk it up, another guy being bossed around by a woman

[@j.dragon651]

@@frankpaya690 I think it would be safe for me to say that if it were not for my wife I would be either dead or in jail.

[@markmark5269]

I eventually had to tell my wife how many girls I had had sex with before meeting her, she was pretty pissed by the time I was past 50 ... I was a teenager in the 1970s, young man in the early 1980s, need i say more. More like 150, and I can remember most of them, but not many of their names. 1970s Guys know what i mean, music, drunken house parties, ect ect. You could meet a girl at a house party, go find a bed or a spot out the back yard or in a car, fuck your brains out, and not even know each other's names, or even be together the rest of the night. The 70s were just fantastic.

[@j.dragon651]

@@markmark5269 I listened to my wife and a friend swapping war stories and realized I had married a slut, but a good one.

[@markmark5269]

@@j.dragon651 Bahaha! Nothing wrong with an experience girl. Not sure why men get so flustered over virgins, no where near the fun and lots of clinging.

[@johnwood551]

My Math teacher ,and Head of the Math Department , in the college I attended in west Texas back in 1982 , was a German P.O.W. He said he couldn’t believe how much better he lived in the P.O.W camp than in Germany. So when the war was over ,he just stayed here and became an American Citizen.

[@bkohatl]

My Scoutmaster in the 1960's/early 1970's was a German POW who had gone to work for Lockheed in Marietta Georgia after the war. His skill set and education allowed him to become an American Citizen. It was his pride in being an American which taught me much about forgiveness and respect for others. Thanks, Mr. Gruner.

[@christysatfield8302]

While serving as a missionary in the west zone of Germany in 1980-82, I met a German man who said he had been a POW in America and was treated better by the Americans than at other times in his life. In particular he said he ate better food here than at any other time in his life. I don’t remember his name, but I do remember that he often invited 8 missionaries at a time to his home for dinner and that he was a very generous person.

[@mns8732]

Of course the U S liked the germans: 50 % of Americans have German ancestry. Indeed, many Nazis found a home in the U S. It's disgusting.

[@oldmansportsog2514]

Great story .to bad others in world can't hear about how usa treated them well because world wide they love to paint the USA is an evil place and the one to blame for everything and as a Proud American that pisses me off

[@rayw.cunningham8643]

When stationed in FRG in 1982 to 1987 I had chance encounters with former WWII German Soldiers. Their stories of being POW’s were fascinating. One man took an hour to get the nerve up to approach us in a snow covered field outside of a small village in the middle of January. He told of fighting in the Eastern Front then sent to the Western Front where he was captured. He said that he was sent to OK as a POW. He said that the worst day of being a POW was when the war ended. They did not get fed that day because those in charge did not know what to do with them. He mentioned that the Americans from the local town would come out and bring them seeds for gardens. I meet another who was in the SS, he managed the apartment building that I lived in outside of Frankfort FRG. He told me that he was captured and sent to the coast of Belgium to a POW Camp. He said that was the first time he had seen a black man. Both of these men were very wonderful to talk with. Their stories of being POW’s was remarkable. Me personally, I held no animosity against them for what they did in WWII. They were soldiers and just following orders like all soldiers.

[@pwr2al4]

There was nothing honorable about serving in the paramilitary arm of Nazi party and they were not just following orders like all soldiers. Those two men were not the same.

[@higgme1ster]

@@pwr2al4 It is true that there was a difference between service in the Wehrmacht and the participation in the SS. The SS also manned the Death Camps.

[@keithweiss7899]

An interesting note to those who have not read the book, Georg said that after a few years of speaking only English he was shocked to discover that he no longer understood German!

[@TonyZoster]

It is called selective memory. To avoid discovery he forced himself to forget his first language. Just a question of will power. I left my country of birth when I was in my early 20's and immigrated to another country far away. I learned a new language married a local woman and had no contact with people with the same ancestry. Now being close to 80 Years old I can still speak my first language. What helped me was the internet. @5 years after I left my country of birth i got internet access and was able to to read the the online publications of newspapers from my country of birth. That plus my memory which is still very good ensured that I never forgot my first language. He avoided detection and would have continued to to if he he had left his wife. He was smart enough to avoid using his first language and that is why no one ever suspected anything. I definitely don't buy that he forgot just first language. Considering the reputation of the Germans after WWII he knew it would have been foolish to utter any German words.

[@richardjohnson4238]

My mother was a teen during the war. There was a German PW camp near her, and the PW's were used as laborers on the local farms. She said she and the other local girls liked to see them as most of them were young men, not much older than themselves, and all of the local young men were off in the service. She would say, with a twinkle in her eye..."I think they liked seeing us too."

[@Ditka-89]

It’s a wonder your last name isn’t Jansen 😂. Interesting story

[@armandomendoza9028]

@@Ditka-89 Maybe it should ... DNA testing, here we go 😁

[@naguerea]

A famous English actress recounted how she was befriended by a German prisoner of war, at a school meeting her teacher said her 'German' was excellent now, but she had a funny Bavarian accent.

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

Richard, wonder if we're related. We have the same last name. Are your relatives from Sweden?

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

Also, your full name could be Dick Dick. lol. Mine would just be Cole Dick which sounds a lot like Cold Dick.

[@sandranatali1260]

My father supervised German prisoners of war on the farm, he worked and lived. My family are germans from Russia, and immigrated in 1912. Dad shared some stories, like the prisoners loved American comedy books. Wanted him to take them for a beer, which my Dad did. Gave them jackets to put over their POW shirts and told them not to say a word. They said german beer was better. Both my parents spoke fluent German. My father would tell us, our mother was a German snob, because she spoke high German, as my father spoke low german.

[@randy5761]

High German is spoken on the radio, tv, and is proper German. I learned Schwabish and couldn't find a German that could tell me where low German was from lol

[@jocelynmartin1572]

My dad was for a brief time a guard in a POW camp. His parents were German and he spoke the language at home. One day at the camp, some POWs were singing a folk song and he joined in. They immediately stopped and told him that they didn't want to get him punished for being too nice to them. Dad told them, "This is America ! I can sing a German song if I want to!" Probably bravura more than common sense, but it started conversations about what life in America was like, and impressed the POWs who believed that if the situation were reversed they would be shot.

[@higgme1ster]

I never knew until a few years ago that German heritage is the largest ancestral group in the USA. Here is a punch line so to speak, the smallist concentration of German ancestry is in the State of Mississippi.

[@margritpiepes8242]

So your dad spoke “ Plattdeutsch” aha ! I had a aunt a uncle that spoke low German very cool very few people in Germany still know how to.

[@mike67]

Nice to know that you come from a Germans-From-Russia family. So was mine. Did you know that there are millions of Americans with that ancestory? It shocked me to learn that a few decades ago.

[@dgwachtel]

Years ago I worked with a guy, call him Bill, who as a teenager was drafted into the army near the close of WWII and trained as a sniper. Bill's first assignment was to kill the soldiers manning a machine gun post outside of a small German village. He couldn't bring himself to do it and shot just to scare the solders who then abandoned the post. Later on Bill was slightly wounded when his scouting party and a German one turned a corner of a building and much to each others surprise, literally bumped into each other. During the surprise encounter Bill was slightly wounded by machine pistol fire. He was first generation American of German heritage and spoke the language fluently. He was able to speak with the man who shot him. The German solder actually apologized and claimed he didn't mean to shoot but was surprised and shot reflexively. There was no other gun play and Bill was the only one injured. After receiving medical attention he was interred in several POW camps during the course of his captivity. Camps were moved away from the front lines often. Despite moving around Bill had become friendly with some of the guards. When the SS was scheduled for a "surprise" inspection he would be warned by the guards and he passed the word to the rest of the prisoners. The SS was brutal and would execute or remove a POW who gave them any grief during these inspections. These warnings probably saved at least some prisoners lives. When the US Army was near the last POW camp in which Bill was interred, the guards got wind of an order to execute the POW's and that an SS detachment had been dispatched to see that the order was carried out. The Luftwaffe brass consulted with the POWs and decided to arm them and join forces to repel the SS should they approach the camp. The Luftwaffe solders promised that they would lay down their arms and surrender to the Americans when they arrived at the camp. I don't recall if the SS had actually approached the camp or not but the Luftwaffe solders, true to their word, laid down their arms and surrendered peacefully to the Americans. One thing I forgot. One time early in his captivity Bill was talking with a guard and complaining about his bad luck at being captured. The guard replied: "No, you are the lucky one. For you the war is over. For me it isn't". Bill should have written a book! He had many fascinating stories and told them well. - Dave

[@ghgghgyuhkljjijijui]

Thanks!.Thats great history you re sharing.

[@dgwachtel]

@@ghgghgyuhkljjijijui Your welcome. Bill was a great raconteur. I am sure he had many other experiences to share. Well, too late now. - Dave

[@tdoggo7614]

By 1944, it had become well known by both the allies and regular German units that the SS were cold blooded killers who felt they were superior to everyone including the German army, navy and Air Force.

[@plunderpunk2]

So many fascinating angles of WWII have been documented over the decades. As an American of German ancestry, I always wondered how often a first or second generation American of German heritage were sent to fight in German regions their relatives had come from and still lived. Can anyone direct me to a documentary covering this topic? Thanks/danke in advance.

[@tdoggo7614]

plunderpunk2 - I have been studying WWII for most of my life and have watched everything I could find related to the war. My dad was an officer in the army air-corp and served in the South Pacific. He mentioned that if the army thought that the soldier had too close of a tie to Germany that they likely would be assigned to serve in the South Pacific. However, they would make exceptions if the soldier could speak German and demonstrated a reason why he would want to fight the Germans. The most notable reason he mentioned was the Germans with Jewish bloodlines. It was well known by 1941 how much Hitler hated the Jews. These soldiers saw it more as trying to liberate the country from the Nazi's.

[@medotorg2720]

Hiding in plain sight is possible, but the most amazing thing is not telling anyone for over 35 years.

[@alfredenisz4775]

I watched the full documentary about Gartner several years ago. I live about 8 miles from Boulder, Colorado and I wanted to meet Gartner. I looked up his address and found that Georg had died about 2 months before I saw this video. I would have loved to interview with him.

[@wheels-n-tires1846]

What a great story!!! When I was about 12 my parents were out house shopping. After looking at one home, and talking at length with the owner, it turned out the fellow was a Tiger I tank gunner during the war. He became a POW just before wars end, and later an American citizen, his young wife coming to the States at some point to join him. I was an avid WWII tank and ship model builder. My parents didnt buy their house, but we all became friends (dad was a WWII Navy vet also) and i spent many weekends there looking thru his old pictures and using details in them or that he recalled on my models, and in fact built him a copy of the specific tank he fought in. It was a great summer, but sadly his house sold and I lost track of him. But seeing two men who fought that war on opposite sides, joking and having a beer and watching sports left an impression!! This world will be truly a poorer place when that generation is gone........

[@dianahayes7640]

Perhaps not, keep sharing these stories with the younger generation, they've become lessons. Thanks for sharing your story! 🇺🇸🗽

[@willusa2927]

Sad but very true

[@nunyabiznez6381]

Yep those were the good old days when America was skilled at turning enemies into friends.

[@karenlajonna7229]

So cool!

[@alanjameson8664]

I think it was a loss to the US when Presidents were no longer WWII veterans. They knew what it was like to be shot at, and didn't treat the military as so many toy soldiers.

[@romansroad2007]

My dad passed away in that year in my arms I we’ll never forget my dad. He was in WW2 also. Great father he was.

[@NewHampshireJack]

A delightful German couple that was my friend for many years had fascinating accounts of WW2. "Al" was a young lad wanting nothing to do with the war. One day, hungry and weary of being shot at, he pulled the bolt from his rifle, held it high over his head, and began to walk, hoping for the best. Luckily, he was captured and not killed. He spent time in a French and then an English POW camp where conditions were not good. Eventually, he wound up in a Missouri USA POW camp. He always recounted how he received three squares a day and got paid when he worked planting trees in reforestation efforts. Near the war's end, my friend could sneak out at night and actually had a girlfriend in a nearby town. After the war, he met his wife back in Germany, and they emigrated to the US together.

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

What's a "square"?

[@NewHampshireJack]

@@StrangeScaryNewEngland That is an old American expression for a meal. Three "squares a day" suggests that you may expect breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My friend always told me how grateful he was for the kind treatment he received as a POW in America's heartland. The couple became loyal American citizens. They often spoke of how certain things in their home country were superior like chocolate and some favourite coffee products. Their fondness for German products aside, the couple would fiercely defend their new home, America, against any and all negative comments.

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

@@NewHampshireJack Thanks very much for the explanation and then that story. Very cool. By the way, If you are actually from NH, so am I. Lol.

[@h8GW]

@StrangeScaryNewEngland I'm curious of if you ever heard the term "3 square meals a day"? It's pretty common for me and that's what I quickly inferred is what he meant, despite me never hearing the term without "meals" in it.

[@NewHampshireJack]

@@StrangeScaryNewEngland I am a little late on the reply, sorry about that. My first wife and I built up a small hobby farm in the lakes region of New Hampshire. where we planned to retire early when she hung up her position at a Boston law firm. My Bride had breast cancer at a very young age but together we beat it. We enjoyed sixteen more years together until the cancer returned and she passed away peacefully in my arms. My grown children did not want farm life and spread out all over the US. Eventually, I relocated to the Republic of the Philippine Islands to test out early retirement. That was a tad over twelve (12) years ago. I never returned to the US. I do not miss the snow shovel but I do wish we could tap the sugar bush in the springtime. No hard maple trees are to be found here. I have to get my "fix" of maple syrup at S&R Wholesale Club.

[@robertewalt7789]

My parents told me about seeing the German POW’s near Fort Niagara, western NY. A few years ago, I met a man whose father was a German POW in KY. He liked the US so much, that after his repatriation after the war, he emigrated back to the US, married, raised a family.

[@TonyZoster]

Hardly surprising after all Germany was a heap of rubble after WWII due to the anglo-american day and night bombing of cities and country side. Nationality and patriotism is irrelevant when you are starving. You head for a place were you don't go hungry.

[@stewartgreen1681]

In Australia at end of war they were looking for a German and two Italian pow’s . They were found by 1947 married to Australia girls whose families knew they were pow’s but said they were nice boys. They had to be sent back to Germany and Italy and then allowed to return to Australia. Look for a book called stalag Australia

[@pyotr576]

I heard of the guy who had been sent "home" to Italy, where he got drafted, then taken POW. Shipped back to the States, he wound up paroled to his parents in New York.

[@kystars]

Yes it's all interesting stuff. no matter if they were in America or another country, most were just nice young men that didn't commit crimes. So letting them back into the countries where they had a new life to me was the right thing to do.

[@blackdeath4eternity]

@@pyotr576 that sounds like a interesting story.

[@tonyrigby7948]

In 1946 there were something like 500 Italian PW still AWL in Australia. The Department of Foreign Affairs ran a special program to convince them to hand themselves in and get references from the people that had employed them. They then went back to Italy and applied for return migration, often with a fiancee. www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-23/italian-pow-returned-for-new-life-in-australia/7345884 www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-28/from-enemy-pow-to-oam-rick-pisaturo-migrant-story/8306000 I guess we treated our PW a bit differently.

[@nathanfrazier8525]

I took German in high school and am thank so for my teacher. I got introduced to a former German POW named Gerhard Hennes housed in the Cumberlands. He wrote a book called The Barbed wire: POW in the USA. I was able to talk to him one on one and he was a really great guy. On the flip side I was also able to talk to a holocaust survivor as well through the same teacher. I'm so blessed to listen first hand to their stories. Danke Herr Brown!

[@schlaumensch]

Seems like you teacher was a great guy! Those were some invaluable opportunities you had there. I am German but unfortunately I never had the chance to talk to a Holocaust survivor as they are getting less and less, sadly. However, I talked to an ex-Stasi-prisoner (GDR, East Germany) a few months ago. That was extremely interesting as well.

[@odysseusrex5908]

You had a fantastic, and well connected, teacher. I need to read Herr Hennes' book.

[@dreamingflurry2729]

Wow, you are a unicorn! As Americans seldom learn a second language (and if they do: Most can't speak it well! - Exceptions: Those who learn another language at home because they are descendents of immigrants who kept their language - especially Hispanics!)...Kudos to you for chosing German and actually using it for something like that! Ich danke Ihnen :) (Ja, ich bin ein Deutscher/Yes I am German)

[@1958Shemp]

@@dreamingflurry2729 Sandra Bullock speaks Germen VERY well, darn it!

[@HaGirl10]

@@dreamingflurry2729 still trying to learn Deutsch, a bit difficult to learn but getting there. Alles Gute

[@rabbit251]

My mother grew up in Watertown, Wisconsin during the war. Everyone in her area spoke German and her Lutheran Elementary school taught all subjects in German. She remembered during the war of meeting German POWs working on the nearby farms. The POWs were happy to be out of the war, were concerned about their families back in Germany, but otherwise couldn't believe they were in Wisconsin where so many people still spoke German. (My local church still offered a German service once a month when I was a child back in the 70s. My grandfather's older brother never learned English and I had to speak to him German.) The German POWs were literally "farmed out" to different farms and most of them according to my mom loved it. They got to work, met other people who spoke German, were well fed, but most importantly no one was going to kill them. One of the POWs eventually married one of my mom's cousin. I remember seeing him and talking to him at family events like weddings. He spoke English, but had a really thick German accent. Another interesting fact, I went to college at Concordia College in Seward, a very Lutheran college. One of my music teachers had served as a translator during the war because where he grew up in Nebraska everyone in his family spoke German. He had captured German medals and had awarded himself various Nazi battle honors as a joke. He showed these to every class. I spoke to him sometimes with my limited German. After college I went to Taiwan to work as a missionary. I learned to speak Chinese. My wife who is Chinese currently live in Tokyo where she has a thriving trading company. Our daughter speaks to her mother usually in Japanese. My wife and I always speak Chinese. My daughter and I always speak English. My daughter is learning Chinese and slowly she is getting better. But dinner conversation is always interesting as it will go from Japanese to Chinese to English. Round and round we go. And I sometimes teach my daughter German like my mother did when I was a child.

[@austinknowlton1783]

That is a great story.

[@dethray1000]

my grand pa was a lutheran pastor who gave service in german--during the war2 he thought it best to go english and moved to down to ok. with my ma and her 4 sisters--anytime they needed german translator they called grand pa because there was germans who escaped the war

[@marylninman9778]

😊

[@Svensk7119]

Love all the languaging! My family is Swedish, with my great-grandmother being from Norway when it was still part of Sweden. My grandfather was the first of the family to be born here, and spoke Norwegian at home. His kids learned a smattering of Norsk that they rarely practiced. Occasionally, Dad will spout a Norwegian sentence. My grandfather taught me one sentence. Jeg elsker deg. Your language skills and tradition are things easily lost. Keep them!

[@itsjustme4848]

@@Svensk7119 My grandfather was also the first in his family to be born in the USA after his family emigrated from Norway and he grew up speaking Norwegian before learning English in school. He would have insisted Norway was NEVER “part of Sweden”, only that it had been ruled by Sweden during some bad years!

[@rosebud6250]

What a wonderful story…it is an example of the human side of war…young men without choices and victims of circumstances …I am happy for him and his family that he was able to survive and better his life.

[@timcarlson2457]

There is a documentary where Georg was interviewed, it was sad hearing how often he could not sleep at night because he was so worried that he would be discovered, even decades later after his escape.

[@blurglide]

That poor guy. That said, there's probably never been anyone who could be more trusted with a secret

[@beyondrepair8949]

Very, very few German soldiers came back from captivity in Russia.

[@dreamingflurry2729]

@william III And they knew it, that's why Germans on the Eastern Front fought harder than anywhere else! Hell, snipers used Explosive Ammo only on the Eastern Front (any snipers caught were killed anyway, so why not?), because they kind of respected the Allies - but feared the Russians!

[@froggylegspeople]

william III There was a 16 year old girl who was lifted from her bed in the middle of the night to be taken to Germany as a Ostarbeiterin. She ended up in Berlin and started to spread pamphlets for the underground, she was caught. They put her in a nearby Berlin concentration camp. She was tortured and raped and when the war was over she managed to find her way home. She gave birth to a baby girl and died. Her mother gave the girl to an orphanage..... War is suffering..... for a lot of people.... still going on today.

[@mountainguyed67]

@@froggylegspeople Ostarbeiterin is a cheese worker. What country was she taken from?

[@MinofDeath]

That was amazing story. My Dad was a boy in North Carolina during WW2 and he remembers German POWs working in the tobacco warehouses with his Dad.

[@amcalabrese1]

My grandparents had some cousins who were Italian POWs. They were kept near NYC and worked as replacements for drafted soldiers. . They would get furloughs almost every weekend to spend with family. My father said they would get dropped off after work on Friday, spend the weekend (rotating family members). On Sunday evening after dinner they would all assemble and the MPs would pick them up. My grandmother had another cousin who was in a POW camp in Kansas. She would send care packages to him.

[@2anthro]

Chatting with an elderly Austrian in Belize he shared his experience as a German POW in Kansas. They worked on Kansas farms and picked Kansas apples. After a while the American military allowed them to go into town for well chaperoned dances to dance with Kansas farm girls. He offered that they thought they had died and gone to heaven. He was looking far away as he told his story.

[@topherh5093]

Kansas farm girls were fraternizing with the enemy while their husbands, boyfriends, and brothers were dying at war. They should teach this to boys in high school if not sooner.

[@thenotoriousgryyn342]

It’s disgusting how German POWs were allowed such luxuries, while Native American, Black and Asian American Soldiers were denied such luxuries, and forced to eat and sleep in cattle cars, while White American Soldiers and German POWs fraternized in dining cars.

[@damonmelendez856]

@@thenotoriousgryyn342the blacks have done so much for the USA, the list is endless. Wouldn’t you personally be glad to be in the USA rather than Africa?

[@carlosagarcia9385]

@@topherh5093 Why is there always someone with a damn negative disposition....

[@kurtjohnson4816]

@@carlosagarcia9385 I think it's a good thing to temper one's chosen perspective with a healthy measure of reality. Imagine how those same prisoners would have been treated if they weren't white, and there were no Geneva Convention. After all, we did imprison our own U.S. citizens just because they were Japanese-Americans.

[@magr7424]

Very, really very well told story. Thank you for that. My own grandfather was an american pow in 45..he grew up on altlussheim near Heidelberg (where I was born later on 1974)..and when the American train with pow he was on stopped at Heidelberg in the autumn of 45..his guard opened the door said to him: Robert, go home to your family. My granddad jumped from the train and got home.. He was so thankful to that man and we tried so hard to find out his name later (Heidelberg became the headquarter of US forces on Europe) but it was not possible to find out. 2016 my grandfather died at the age of 94 years...

[@mmabagain]

@Shelby Shoup Arrested For Crack Since you can't forgive yourself, you might want to consider flogging your back with a cat of nine tails twice a day for 30 days.

[@dgwachtel]

Ma Gr Random acts of kindness restores a small measure of hope for humanity. Pay it forward for a better world. - Dave

[@ronfullerton3162]

@@dgwachtel Those wonderful people learned from living through a depression and a world War that there was a better way! The rest of their lives many of them had such big hearts and really was concerned about their fellow man. Could we ever use a giant economy sized shot of that today!

[@tonyperkis1282]

My grandmother told me stories of when she worked at a store in town the German POWs would come in every do often to get stuff she said most where very nice and appreciated what was being done for them.

[@christopherrasmussen8718]

My grandad was a guard in a POW camp in Georgia. He told me they would exercise shirtless in the snow, beat their chest and yell Super Man. I live in southern Florida. So many Germans came back here. Whole parts of towns have German sounding names. To this day the sons and daughters (and grandchildren) still speak German in public. Many more speak with heavy accents.

[@wilhard45]

Interesting. Like many of you I knew a WWII POW. He was captured at Ansio and sent to the US. He was sent back to Germany but returned to the US with his wife to live out his life. He owned a small beer bar in Long Beach, California and served German beer and German sausages. His stories were amazing and he was truly a good friend. He was most fortunate because his two older brothers and father were killed on the Eastern front. He passed many years ago but I remember him fondly. I think I gained his respect because I was a Marine combat veteran, a martial arts instructor (he was a champion amateur boxer in Germany) and I spoke German thanks to my grandmother. He had a sign hung over the bar that said "Why are there always more horses asses than there are horses." Boy does that ring true today.

[@alanjameson8664]

I haven't seen that sign for a long time--God knows we have more need of it now than we used to.

[@rossswenson532]

My father mentioned German Pow workers used on farms around New Ulm MN. At that time a large percentage of the local population had German heritage, and spoke German at home. They were treated well, and were so comfortable many came to live there after the war.

[@tr4u5mp90]

I've been to New Ulm. Beautiful town.

[@richardclifford003]

I've been to Neu Ulm . . . in Germany.

[@voxveritas333]

@@richardclifford003 that would be just...Ulm.

[@Jim-ie6uf]

Very interesting and informative. My dad was a guard at a POW comp in Arizona after being wounded in Germany in early 1945. There were some German POW s who would escape from time to time late Saturday or early Sunday mornings. After much searching, they were found attending church services at a nearby Methodist Church, every time. That’s his story, as I remember it.

[@mescko]

If ever there was a good reason to escape...

[@crosbonit]

No way. You're bullshitting us.

[@keithscott1255]

The local ladies liked a bit of German Sausage I'll bet.

[@andersgrassman6583]

I can only hope rules were later changed, and they could attend sunday service without a breakout. I'm completely unreligious myself, but I have no problem understanding their desire. And in a time of war, it certainly makes even more sense! In times of war, the core basics of meaningful existance become aparent. With a few rare exceptions, all people feel really bad at the thought of killing someone. It's just not the point of living. War is just plain wrong. As I'm writing this, there are a lot of Ukranian young women and their children as refugees in Sweden. And although things are allright here in Stockholm, I can tell their pain in their faces. Their husbands, dads, friends and relatives are still in Ukraine, beeing targeted with missiles. I had a terribly cold winter in my house, with absolutely insane costs for heating. I even turned off any hot tap water. I just washed in cold water. (It's september now, and I still haven't been able to pay all my heating debt.) And wading through the snow at my rural island can make anyone exhausted almost beyond sanity, but I just told myself "At least nobody's trying to willfully kill me with bombs!"

[@godblessamerica7048]

My hometown of Bena in northern Minnesota had a POW camp during WW2. Two prisoners escaped briefly thinking that they could row a boat down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico but they got lost trying to find the river outlet from the lake. There is a movie based on the escape called The Adventures of Ben Keller and Christoph Schultz.

[@warrenewoldt5352]

I honestly don’t know how anyone could give a thumbs down to any of your segments! Thank you for your work.

[@freddyflintstoned913]

My Opa was born December 17, 1899. His family sent him to Military school at six years old. Military school taught him to be an Officer and Gentleman. He never touched his food with his hands, knife and fork only, even hamburgers and fried chicken. He was wounded in the leg and lower abdomen in the last days of WWI. He was a Major during WWII and found himself in command of troops on the Eastern front at wars end. He and his men had to fight their way to the Americans to surrender. As a POW, an American private was put in charge of him. When the private asked him to sweep his quarters my Opa said, but I do not know how to sweep, the young private gave him the honor of sweeping his quarters for him. His name was Kurt Heilman. He was a great person.

[@TheBamaChad-W4CHD]

@Rusty Shackelford there is no need for that. Both wars are over and done. Germany has done everything they can and more to be a beacon of human rights and democracy. Attempting to humanize him? Yeah because guess what? He was a human and someone's grandfather and someone's son. Of course we all will never forget what the nazis did to this world and it's people but getting on a person that was never a part of any war or nazi party is just stupid. Let it go. This man should not have to pay for the sins of others.

[@TheBamaChad-W4CHD]

It has nothing to do with forgiveness. The man you attacked didn't do anything! Also saying "muted" does not actually do anything. I shouldn't expect much common sense out of a person who uses a name that's a made up alias of a cartoon character to attack people in KZbin comments.

[@TheBamaChad-W4CHD]

@Rusty Shackelford and telling me to mind my own business? You should really take your own advice.

[@PfarrerHerzblut]

Rusty Shackelford you are completely wrong! All memberships of the nazi party were suspended during the activ service, second if born 1899 he was an imperial officer - as my father was. This officers were just officers, mostly anti nazi, since the lived in the old days of honor, service and dignity. By the way: as an higher officer, he had the right of an privat serving him, so sweeping the floor was the job of the privat 😉

[@TheBamaChad-W4CHD]

@@PfarrerHerzblut I find the aristocratic part of it kinda funny actually. It was just the ways of the time though. It may sound absurd to us now but it was still normal I'm it's time. No different than what was going on in New York at the time. Men sitting around getting their shoes shined by kids or men. Being served and many men of wealth in that era didn't do most things for themselves. They didn't even empty their own chamber pots!

[@crazysteve9390]

Amazing story, and very well told!

[@Cyan37]

And taken straight from this website along with all the pictures: www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/georg-gartner-german-soldier-pow.html

[@carlbrown9082]

This is an amazing story and one that had such a happy ending. Georg had some wisdom and more than a few lucky experiences that kept him out of harm's way. And then, at the end of his life on the run, he had a wonderful wife and some merciful officials who enabled him to continue living out his life in peace and liberty.

[@jeanmeslier9491]

There was a POW camp near Paris, Texas. My Aunt worked there during the war. Three Germans escaped, bent on returning to Germany. Their plan was to escape and when they got to Mexico, they would be able to return to Germany. So they headed south towards Mexico. The only problem was that it was an 800 mile trip. These POWs walked a few days, following railroad tracks. They came upon a group of Mexican track workers speaking Spanish. Thinking they were in Mexico, they surrendered. They had traveled less than 30 miles.

[@mihirshetye4624]

lol

[@majorlewis928]

Don't stop making them I'll watch every single one.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

I plan to keep going for a long time. There is an awful lot of history.

[@demonikfunk]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel i like them without the intro, i like to hear them back to back to back, and the intro (which is fine i suppose) gets pretty annoying after a bit. still, love the content, id love to hear you do one on the port of chicago explosion and mutiny, the mutsu san shiki explosion, and that guy on wake island who got shot down 6 times

[@hagamapama]

Good for him! I'm not surprised that in America of all places the reaction to him turning himself in was one of amusement. We do love our rogue's gallery, and I'd say he earned his citizenship

[@QuantumRift]

Yes, he earned his citizenship and I hope he live a very happy life. I'm suprised that other German PoWs were NOT offered the chance to stay in the US and become citizens. It seems that they would have appreciated living here more than going to a Soviet Bloc country..

[@michaelandcolinspop]

Completely agree. What a story of a life lived fully. Now I need to look up his surrender to Bryant Gumbel! My dad, a Korean War vet, probably would’ve really enjoyed knowing this guy.

[@iiTzoreo1]

agreed lol hes a citizen forsure

[@QuantumRift]

@@justinusberger3933 That's as stupid of a bullshit comment as I've every heard on. It would say a lot for a former combatant to NOT want to go home and to embrace the country that whipped his country's ass. Your comment is as ignorant as you apparently are. I won't go as far to refer to you as a pathetic racist prick, but comments like that don't help your cause.

[@mr_n_luvs69nieman82]

8

[@absurdengineering]

My late wife’s late friend was an awesome lady born in Prussia in 1932, who escaped from East Germany in the 50s and came to the US, ending up as a doctor in Ohio. She recounted to me how, even in the 21st century, she was compelled to feel apologetic for her German heritage, and how people around her gave the vibe that she was somehow sharing the responsibility for the atrocities of war - which she had no involvement in. She worked her entire life while in the US, essentially to the very end, and had her hand in the development of the nascent field of genetics. She helped many people throughout her life, was humble and kind, and had contributed more to her new home country than most people I know. Yet she did always feel like subtly facing an interrogator’s desk lamp in some of her interactions with people throughout her life. And I have no reason to believe that any of it was an exaggeration. It was certainly a sobering perspective that she gave me when we talked. People are very quick to stick labels on others and not even understand quite what the label says.

[@illuminaughty8451]

A German that was into GENETICS. Did you even THINK before you typed? What was she supposed to tell you? The truth? How would YOU behave in the presence of the enemy...as a threat? If the families of serial killers don’t know they’re killers what makes you think you can ascertain the intentions of your NEIGHBOR? It’s better to maintain a suspicious heart than to have a steak knife put through it. You have the self-preservational instincts of a kitten.

[@adammosel4895]

@@illuminaughty8451 She'd was 13 years old when the war ended.

[@illuminaughty8451]

Adam Mosel And the youngest serial killer was 8. 11 year olds fought in the American Civil War. The Nazi Youth recruited in grade school. Humans learn to lie and deceive at as young as 2. If she was raised in a pit of vipers, odds are she was a viper. Age is irrelevant with regard to hate. People learn it. Just watch videos of tots at KKK rallies. The age of bones does not automatically infer innocence when you’re talking about the most dangerous animal in existence.

[@adammosel4895]

@Molly McCullagh Anni-Frid Lyngstad, now Princess Anni-Frid, Dowager Countess of Plauen. Due to the horrendous treatment* those children with German fathers suffered in Norway after the war, her mother took her to Sweden. *After the war, seeming to imitate the Nazis, the Norwegians deemed that the children had tainted blood. The children (the children!) were spat on in the streets. Many were institutionalized in mental hospitals where they were mistreated. Some were farmed out to foster homes where they were beaten and sexually abused. They were denied a proper education and other benefits. Anni-Frid's mother did the right thing escaping to Sweden with her daughter. And now, after a successful music career with the mega group ABBA, Anni-Frid is a princess.

[@jackjohnsen8506]

This mans story should be in a film, with all the things that happened to him! Brad pitt would be great for the Gartner part...My Father was a navel officer on a troop ship, in WW2, and picked up German prisoners in North Africa, after Rommel left and they surrendered. He said they were great soldiers, and even though stark Naled, and being searched on a dock, one of the US sailor's tried to steal an Iron Cross, from a prisoner, The Prisoner stood before my Father at attention, and saluting Him, clicking His heels together, and pointed to The sailor who had the medal, and my father made the sailor, give back the medal.. My Father, Ray A Johnsen, retired after 24 years, in the US Navy, in 1954.

[@JosieJOK]

Love how you discuss lesser-known events in history! Keep up the good work!

[@willmurphy3012]

Exactly why I subscribe to this channel

[@andrewblasdell6753]

I love how wholesome some of these stories are. It can be easy to only see the bad and sadly that seems to be the case in most of the historical analysis done for "entertainment". Perhaps it makes for a flashier title? I am thankful to The History Guy for widening our perception and brightening our days!

[@vipondiu]

"Peter Peterson" sounds like the first made up name someone would think of XD

[@dugroz]

I dunno, he was pretending to Norwegian. I'm guessing most Americans in the 1940's would have said "sounds Norwegian to me!"

[@notmaireelneim]

Yeah. Much better than saying, "Yah, yah. Mine name is Hank Jones. I am American as ze apple pie."

[@knuthenriksommer4982]

I'm norwegian and that name is quite unnorwegian, probably to the surprise to many americans. The "-son" ending used to be normal in Norway but after the union with Denmark, the more danish "-sen" became the standard. The "-son" ending is the more common in Sweden wich makes "-son"-names sound more swedish than norwegian. The first-name "Peter" is less stange to be norwegian but is not the most common spelling. Once again this is the common spelling in Sweden, a norwegian would more likely be named "Petter". The more credible norwegian name would thus be "Petter Pettersen" even though it still feels "to much". I don't know anyone in Norway by that name, but with a second first name like "Jan", this would sound completely norwegian: "Jan Petter Pettersen". The most common mens name in Norway is "Jan Johansen" often in combinations with a second first name.

[@SchlangeVonEden]

"Peter Petersen" is, however, a very typical name in northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg) as well as Denmark. I myself know one and know of at least another one. Puttig the ending "-son" on it in stead is what I would expect a german to do who does not know Norwegian names (see @Knut Henrik Sommer's comment above) :P

[@CoxJoxSox]

No that'd be John Johnson :D

[@B2Hives]

More than one German POW remembers the good times in the POW camp. I met a great-grandfatherly German tourist, he lit-up and beamed recounting his memories of being a POW in the USA. He wanted to stay here too. His memories of those years, America and the Americans lasted all the years after. Said if he knew how good it was, he would have been captured or surrendered sooner.

[@latsnojokelee6434]

They certainly didn’t seem like prisoner of war camps. There’s some old films of the plays and skits the German prisoners would put on at these camps.

[@Marvel66666]

But only in POW Camps in the USA The US POW camps in germany were sometimes horrible. Like the Rhine meadow camp, where thousands of Germans died prisoner

[@archlich4489]

That was so cool! I'm glad he got to visit his sister in Germany and spent the final years of his life a bona-fide US citizen.

[@herbwag6456]

He was probably a better American citizen than many people born here.

[@minhog5199]

most Germans are !!!!!

[@dreamingflurry2729]

Indeed, probably because any serious violation of the law would put him in the spotlight! Same for behaviour which was outside of the norm!

[@TheFunkadelicFan]

Most immigrants are.

[@Bristecom]

@@TheFunkadelicFan Only European immigrants. Non-white immigrants usually just get on welfare and hate this country.

[@Laffy1345]

@@Bristecom true

[@nuancolar7304]

I don't know what the legal process was for doing so, but there were quite a few German POWs who stayed in the United States after the war and lived out their lives as U.S. citizens. I know this because the man hired (by my parents) to build cabinets in our home was a former German soldier who had been brought over as a POW. And his skill and workmanship in cabinet-making was a thing of perfection. I never asked but it must have been his occupation before the war because this man did some fine finish carpentry. And he was a very nice man, and well admired by the community where I lived.

[@knottsscary]

Nuancolar Theres a comment about someone’s dad being a pow and him explaining that he even went home with an officer to so some cabinet work??

[@stevek8829]

In "The Godfather" it took a congressman to keep a particular Italian POW in the US. I don't think the POWs were given a choice.

[@gigih.hammer306]

What a awesome story this is. The POW here in the States were treated with kindness. Hope the Germans treated their POW also the same way. I hope they were not like the Japanese, who treated their POW in the most horrible way. I don't understand such cruelty. I'm German, and my mother brought me up not to hate anybody, and to be kind to all. Not just humans, but also animals. I will never understand, when I read about how someone abused their animals. If I would witness a animal being abused, I would interfere. Thank you for telling us this story.

[@TUCOtheratt]

This man was resourceful, clever and a good person. What a great story and an escape from the current world we live in.

[@jameswilber518]

"...POWs were usually captured within 24hrs of escape." This is partly due to the fact that German towns were usually within a few kilometers of each other while the POW camps were much farther from any major city. In fact, the camp near Leavenworth, Kansas didn't have a fence, and the few POWs that tried to escape found walking through tall corn to be difficult eventually moving to the road and after several hours of walking still did not see any sign of any town on the horizon, just more corn. Tired, hungry and dismayed, many of them were simply picked up on the road, others turned around and went back.

[@teebosaurusyou]

Yep, never embark on a cross states motorcycle adventure and miscalculate your gas tank volume.

[@nunyabiznez6381]

One of my teachers in high school had been a German POW held in Massachusetts near where I lived. One of the students asked him if he ever tried to escape and he replied: "why would I do that? it was the best vacation I ever had and lasted for nearly two years!"

[@orion8981]

I grew up in a small town near where a POW and Japanese internment camp was. There was no hope of escape. If the guards didn't catch them, the reaper likely would have. The desert is not a good place to get lost.

[@scottpeterson7500]

Oh my God! This man’s life would be such a great movie 😎🍾🥂

[@rajivbagga9565]

YES !!!

[@walterseaman2556]

It's strange that no producer or film maker has ever thought about it...I guess that's because it has remained hidden and unheard of for the world. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this Felton video is the first one to uncover the story.

[@bg147]

You would think but most movies today seem to be driven by special effects and humans with animal like powers.

[@rustyalcorta3643]

Agreed

[@olbradley]

It would but don't give Hollywood ideas, they always manage to screw it up somehow when it comes to history. It's almost like a whole other form of art in it's own right just to see how bad Hollywood can fuck up a movie about history.

[@ajax5622]

Todays lesson was beyond belief, georg had the audacity, the want of freedom, the drive since childhood and probably the best nation at the time to find freedom, so it really does make it history to remember.

[@avnostlga]

My father was on the ski patrol in California with him. That would have been 1948 or 49. They kept in contact for many years.

[@lindarobinson195]

In the usa army something how it is a small world. With my experience and yours wit the ski patrol. It is a small word.yours truly Evans w Robinson sgt ret

[@tammyt3434]

This left me smiling. Thanks for the great history!

[@xxxggthyf]

One of my grandfathers, being too old for any real active service, was a 'guard' at an Italian POW camp in Kent towards the end of the war which was handy as he could commute by bike from home a few miles away. By 1944 so many 'prisoners' were working on farms or otherwise absent they only did a 'roll-call' every Sunday and even then they assumed anybody they couldn't account for was probably around somewhere and would turn up the next week... Or the week after that. By the end of the war they'd pretty much given up the pretence that the POWs were really prisoners and the Italians either went home of their own volition or stayed and made a new life. There were a hell of a lot of Italian surnames when I was at school in the 70s and 80s.

[@shelbynamels973]

... so who played your grandfather in that episode of 'Dad's Army'?

[@xxxggthyf]

@@shelbynamels973 Imagine the look of Cpl Jones, the optimism of Fraser and the pomposity of Cpt Mainwaring. So I'm told... He died long before I was born. There was an episode of Dad's Army about an Italian POW camp and it was certainly based on truth. By 1945 everyone had pretty much lost interest in the Italian POWs and most of them could do whatever they liked within reason. I'm sure there must have been Italians kept in more secure camps but the average Guiseppe Smithio conscript doing agricultural labour was trusted not to abscond... Permanently at least... And nobody really cared if he did.

[@xxxggthyf]

@Legion 57 Never heard of Dad's Army? You jest sire! :-)

[@lbatton3732]

I had Dr. Arnold Kramer as a history professor at Texas A&M who wrote that book referenced in the video. Great guy!

[@mrmiskeen8284]

My German Grandpa was a POW in Canada. He had letterfriendships with some Canadians after he got released. He was a coordinator on an aircraft when the plane was shot over the Atlantic Ocean, he swam 6 hours in the cold sea with a rescue west. Then finally he got rescued by Canadians or British.

[@paulweston2267]

Wars cause funny things. My earliest known ancestor in America was a Hessian soldier who fought for the British during the revolutionary war. After the war, he did not return to Germany but stayed here and started a family in North Carolina. I guess he liked it here.

[@jimdecamp7204]

Some states offered deserting Hessians farmsteads. Both the Hessians and the Redcoats were surprised by and envious of the prosperity of the American colonies.

[@etherealcatholic5711]

A lot of Redcoats and German soldiers would up in Nova Scotia,New Brunswick,and Ontario. The Catholic Brits,who suffered persecution at home,headed to Quebec.

[@fazole]

It was almost impossible for a commoner to own a farm in Europe; only the aristocrats owned large land holdings.

[@jayteegamble]

The Hessians brought the tradition of Christmas trees to America.

[@qtig9490]

I think the British actually abandoned the Hessians in the US. The Hessians were mercenaries and the British figured since they'd lost they didn't need to pay them anymore and also they weren't their problem anymore so let them find their own ways home - that way they didn't take any room on the ships from the British.

[@dougearnest7590]

Six dislikes. Two Nazis because Gartner didn't try to carry on the fight, and three Communists because Gartner didn't want to live under Soviet rule. Oh yeah, and one retired FBI agent.

[@Harleylovinchelley1]

LOL Good analogy.

[@MrToranaGuy]

Top points for that one! Funny as hell.

[@zainulzainul1880]

Doug Earnest That thing about the Nazis and Communists isn't half as funny as the FBI agents grudge .

[@DieHard10901]

LOL!! Good one! +1

[@scottc977]

Ha! Goes to show, you can't please everyone!!

[@damiandelapp5490]

Many of these men that worked in the US fell in love with it.

[@drunkbuzzard3237]

This story is the kind of thing it really personalized is history and brings it to life

[@v.e.7236]

This piece reminds me of my military 'career." I joined the peace-time Army in April 1982, to get training as an air traffic controller, after Reagan fired all of those federal controllers. Not long after Basic Training started I rec'd a letter telling me I had been accepted to USMPS/West Point, based on my entrance test scores. Quite the surprise, as I hadn't applied for such an appointment. About two weeks before the end of Basic I rec'd another letter telling me how sorry they were about their error, but unfortunately, I had already turned 21, which was the cut-off age for acceptance. So close! lol

[@Zholat]

This is actually heartwarming. If this guy can lead a happy life, maybe i can as well.

[@thebongmaster]

yes you can :)

[@Spongebrain97]

I'm just glad that the government didnt make a big shit about him turning himself in. He obviously wasnt no criminal and lived a peaceful life as an American

[@tonyfelice1187]

Never give up

[@mt22201]

@Creepy Closet It’s easy to forget nowadays that there used to be a time when America had a compassionate government.

[@jgc4818]

Moshe Rabbeinu I would like to think we still do.

[@errcdes]

A number of German POWs didn’t go back to Germany. One of my classmate’s dad had been in the Panzer Korps.

[@Warmaker01]

Post war Germany was in a bad state. The country was in ruins from years of war, deprivation was a widespread problem. It was being split West & East. If you were unlucky, your hometown would be in Eastern Germany with the Russians in actual control. The US got out of the war in good condition. Its no wonder some of the former POWs would stay, knowing full well home was going to be totally screwed for a while. Anyways, the Afrika Korps POWS had it pretty good. They did their time in war, fought it cleanly, and when defeat came in Africa, they surrendered to the Western Allies and would be taken cared of well. The ones still in service would have to go through 2 more years of hell, chances of survival pretty bad since 1944-45 was a massive bloodletting for the German military. Worse, they could have been sent to fight in the Eastern Front. You either will die there or if you survive, become a POW under the USSR.

[@wordsmithgmxch]

SUCH a great story, History Guy! I met an ex-POW once. I was hitchhiking in Germany 'way back in the late '60s, and was picked up by an older guy in a "Käfer", or VW Beetle. Of course he asked where I was from, and when I said the US, he said, "I, too, haff liffed in Amayrika. I vass dere for too yearss." "Oh, really?" I asked. "Whereabouts?" "In Tschortchia," he replied. "Really?" I asked, "What were you doing down there?" "Pikkin' peeches," he answered. He was not at all shy or bitter talking about his time there. I guess he figured that even if life can be a "peech" at times, it could have been worse.

[@Danielle_Zor-El]

Excellent video! Glad to see his situation ended on a positive note.

[@willmurphy3012]

Not to be negative or political, but I doubt it would have ended as well for him with the FBI or CIA today

[@Danielle_Zor-El]

​@@willmurphy3012 Exactly right. Hence the gist of my comment.

[@dirkbimini5963]

@Polite Hammer! The "white German" enemy at that time. Hope you don't perceive the Germany of today as enemy. The sad truth is that many white Americans still treat foreigners of white color more respectful and hospitable than their own countrymen of dark color - I experienced that myself on many occasions when I was in the US - although their ancestors may be living in in America for three centuries.

[@markw999]

My great aunt supervised Italian POWs in SoCal who were sometimes sent to pick oranges. Toward the end of the war there was near-rioting in the camps. Turns out, nobody wanted to get sent back home to Italy.

[@jimdecamp7204]

I remember reading an article in a back issue of the New York Times published during the war. It was one of those little space-filler articles. Apparently the sheriff in a small town in Arizona was getting complaints about unsupervised Italian (Eye-talee-on?) POWs in farm trucks making wolf whistles at young women while driving through town. It wasn't clear who was complaining. It may not have been the women.

[@toast2610]

Americans like to flatter themselves. It's like every other place they ever went to.. Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria. After leveling a place and imposing their puppet regime hostile to the soldiers that fought for that country, they smile in glee why so many want to then come stay in America... and join the EMPIRE

[@jimdecamp7204]

​@@toast2610 AHA! I see you're on to us! You are so sophisticated! I'm in awe of your brilliance! No one's fooling you. Of course in the case at hand, Herr Gärtner was taken prisoner in Africa, a thousand kilometers from home. When presented with the prospect of being sent home to Soviet occupied Germany, he wisely chose to take his chances in the U.S. In 1945 there are few other alternate countries that I would wanted to live in. After World War II, the U.S. rapidly and dramatically disarmed and demobilized. The U.S. had absolutely no intention of establishing an empire. We were not about allow Japan and Germany rearm, either. The U.S. had zero, nada, no designs on Europe or the world whatsoever. Americans would have been perfectly to content to wrap up World War II the way we did World War I (except with an occupation force in Germany to prevent re-armament). Soviet aggression foreclosed that possibility. There was no alternate country to block Soviet aggression. America entered the Cold War very reluctantly. American withdrawal from the World, beginning approximately 2008, signaled the end of a sixty year Pax American, and the world is worse off for it. You're on your own from now on.

[@toast2610]

@@jimdecamp7204 Just face it, America and Russia conquered Europe and the world in 1945. Their so-called withdrawal is a rumor spread 70+ years ago. They will only leave on their own volition once they have sucked everything in sight dry... from people like Gartner to scientists like Von Braun, products of a civilization and world view antithetical to American and Russian materialism, were made whores to the cause of the real supremacists.

[@toast2610]

@@55points Let me get my violin before you tell me of babies in incubators and Kuwait.. you have no idea what you are talking about, you only believe everything your government tells you no matter how preposterous.. because it makes you feel nice.

[@billd.iniowa2263]

There are many stories of German POWs that simply remained in the States. Or were shipped back to Germany and and then hopped boats back to the U.S. They liked it here. Had made friends among the locals around the POW camps. They preferred the USA to their own Fatherland. I imagine many of them had nothing to return home to.

[@Txm_Dxr_Bxss]

For many who came from the east of the German empire that was given to Poland and the USSR there was nothing to return to. Almost the entire population of these lands were forced off and were banned from going back with their family property given away to refugees from east Poland or loyal Stalinists in the case of Königsberg.

[@TonyZoster]

"They preferred the USA to their own Fatherland." If you return to you country and only find rubble you also would look to move to a place it isn't just full of rubble. You can't eat patriotism.

[@DavidDoyle-B2BSell]

What a brilliant 'life-affirming' story. I bet he'd make a brilliant dinner guest!

[@lowellmccormick6991]

There are many interesting stories involving German POW's in the U.S. There was a POW camp locally near New Orleans located under the Huey P. Long Bridge on the Ms. River. The POW's would work on the local farms during the day. After the war they were sent home, but some came back and married the women they had met. Others came back many years later to visit the friends they had made while in the POW camp. My favorite POW story was of a U-boat crew that was imprisoned in a camp in Arizona. The captain had seen Cowboy and Indian movies and figured he could live off the land like an Indian so he escaped the camp into the surrounding mountains. It didn't work and eventually he was found sleeping on a sofa in the lobby of a hotel.

[@mikecowen6507]

lowell mccormick Part of that story is that a large irrigation canal ran next to the camp. It made for an easy escape for a U-boat crew in the desert. Unfortunately, their English was so poor, and their accents so strong, they were all rounded up in about a week. I pass by the former location of the camp on a regular basis. Oddly enough, most lifelong Arizonans don't know this story. I am neither an Arizona native, nor a lifelong resident, and at least 20 years too young to have lived it, yet I know this footnote of history.

[@nate6386]

If I recall some of the soldiers who escaped had maps of the area and were attempting to make their way down to the river and use it for escape. So they built a boat and were planning on riding it down to mexico, the only problem is that the river only ran when it was raining and most of the rest of the year it is a dry wash or at best has a small trickle of water in it. When they were caught they said something like "when we mark a river on a map there is water in it."

[@mikecowen6507]

Nate The irony being the river water they were looking for had been diverted upstream into the very canal system they were using to get to the river. Oops! They were definitely not prepared for what passes for a river in the desert. Maybe THG should consider this for an episode? I definitely don't know all the details...

[@derwutgamer3570]

When i was a kid, my grandmother told me about the ending of the war in germany. American soldiers were quartered in german houses along with the civilians who lived there. So there were american soldiers quartered in our home. They had orders not to speak or interact with the inhabitants but well that did not last very long. On the second evening they were trying to talk to each other even though there was a language barrier when one soldier tried to clean his gun and spilled all the ammo over the dinner table. My family had really a good relation to the soldiers and some even visited the neighbourhood years later because they had girlfriends and friends. Sadly most of that knowledge about the daily life in those days is lost with the people passing away. But anyway i loved hearing those stories, just like this video

[@jslade60]

Some are also housed and worked in New Orleans East facility which Built airplanes but is now NASA. We were shown an area of the building where they were kept. There were Germans and Italians said to be very grateful to be in the u.s.

[@jimbopaw]

Wow great story, nice happy ending for a change, and scrolling down, the quality of the comments is awesome.

[@haroldburrows4770]

Fascinating, I've yet to see a boring episode. Keep it up

[@talldude5841]

I love all your videos, but this is one of my favorites. These old WW 2 German prisoner camp stories are some of the most compelling chapters in both American, and German history.

[@828enigma6]

My mother was an American Army nurse in North Africa during the campaign there. She stated the average Wehrmach soldier were rarely a problem. The were sent to the hospital with waist chains and shackles and only one MP as an escort. Remember many were draftees, or from countries that Germany had overrun. SS were a different matter. All were arrogant snots that were as uncooperative as they could get by with. When at the hospital, they were in leg irons, shackles and waist chain and two MP's. Italians didn't even have shackles, just an escort. Always co-operative and glad to be out of a war they didn't want to begin with.

[@ragingjaguarknight86]

That is not surprising in the least. You have to remember, the Wehrmacht was an apolitical organization. The Schutzstaffel was not. They were a group dedicated to the preservation of the Party and their ideals. The SS were fanatics too. They were fiendishly loyal and could be construed as "hardcore" believers.

[@panalpinospanalpino7449]

Where your mother served in north Africa ? im from Algeria .

[@828enigma6]

She landed at Anzio with the first wave (first and only time it was allowed. After that, HQ decided it too dangerous for the nurses to land until out of range of the enemy), and was in Tunesia. Was assigned to a mobile field hospital, so they got moved a lot. Mostly forward, but sometimes when the Allies were in retreat. Their hospital tents were marked with white sheets seen together, with a red cross painted in the center. The German and Italian pilots recognized them as off limits for attack for the most part, but there were some nurses killed in accidental bombings, short artillery rounds, anti-aircraft shells that didn't explode until striking the ground, and enemy artillery rounds addressed "to whom it may concern", rather than a specific target or area. The Axis realized they has as many injured soldiers in the hospitals as the Allies. I wish I had spoken to her more about her service before she died at 92 years of age.

[@arthurdunger182]

"Italians didn't even have shackles..." Lol, that's why you can buy Italian WW2 weaponry at auctions today. Tanks, as new, revers gears worn, need attention, small arms, never used, in mint condition. :-)

[@stevengermadnik6146]

@@arthurdunger182 so what You think I believe you

[@kenthawley5990]

So interesting! I was shocked when I was a kid when my dad told me that there was a German POW camp very near our home in Mt. Vernon, IL. I never imagined that they bought POWs all the way here. I am glad that Georg's story had a happy ending.

[@stephenlarson523]

Friends of mine in Nebraska had German POWs work on their farm. They were happy to work there, and got paid a little, but wre well fed. The one thing they asked my friend to do was to drive through town every day with the farm wagon they rode on so they could look at the girls, which of course, he did.

[@robertedwards9738]

being german myself, I had to go through quite a lengthy process just to get an alien card. As well as having to renew it. Yet I was post war born in, what was at the time West Germany, The renewal of my alien card was quite an expense for me. My belief is that he was able to allude the authorities because the laws about legal residency actually weren't really so stringent in his days. Remember INS changed the laws over the years. Requiring legal residency documentation to apply for a job. A lost has changed since he came over here to this country.

[@elcastorgrande]

Of course the greatest German escaper was Luftwaffe pilot Franz von Werra. A book and a movie about him were quite popular fifty-plus years ago. He escaped from a POW train in Canada in 1941, stole a rowboat and wound up in Ogdensburg, NY, before the USA entered the war. The German embassy got him to Mexico, and ultimately back to Germany. He taught escape and evasion, having learned the British interrogation techniques, but went back to flying and was MIA.

[@skipdreadman8765]

In German, his name would be pronounced, "gayorg." Small detail, but since this is a channel about small details... well... it deserves to be remembered. Great story. Thanks for telling it.

[@PlutoniumJesus]

The name Gärtner is also incorrectly pronounced as "Gartner" throughout the video.

[@PazuzuStalker]

Gawtnuur...

[@georgschnidt172]

No it would be pronounced Gay-ork

[@dreamingflurry2729]

Ok, where are you from? Because as an actual German (born and raised - and still living - in Bavaria, Germany!), I would not pronounce it that way and it's not a dialect thing, because frankly I don't have much of a regional dialect (especially when speaking in public it is hardly recognizable!)

[@Coastcrawler]

No, it won't.

[@packard5682]

My Grandmother was an interpreter at the German POW camp outside of Indianola, Nebraska during the war. Her parents emigrated to the US from Russia to Lincoln, Nebraska after they had been expelled by one of the Russian Czar's pogroms to expel the Russian Germans from the Empire. She spoke fluent German as it was her first language. She said that a lot of the German POW's worked on the local farms and they were generally un-supervised. But, she said that any member of the SS was segregated from the rest and were not allowed to leave the camp. She said most of the regular Germans disliked the SS. She said that 2 SS escaped the camp but later had turned themselves in in Oklahoma because they thought that the United States was so big that they could never make it to Mexico! I always loved listening to my Grandmother's stories of her experience at the POW camp!

[@organbuilder272]

This has to be one of the best stories you have put forth. No only incredible in every sense, but what a wonderful ending as well.

[@johnstark4723]

Interesting ordeal there. His illness probably saved his life, his timing saved him the rest of the way. Pretty incredible he managed to hide in plain sight all those years, especially since POW's were finger printed.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

He was very careful about never committing a crime and scrupulously paying his taxes. But it was clearly very taxing for him to have to be constantly on guard.

[@johnstark4723]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel definitely hard on him. Just think if he had surgery and began talking during recovery. Especially if he suddenly started speaking German flawlessly. I could actually see him being like my father who refused laughing gas (nitrous oxide) at the dentist because he worried about how he would act afterwards. I think it was more he was afraid of moms driving! I couldn't imagine though someone being that careful and quiet.

[@christopherjames9843]

Thousands of German POW's came to the USA during WWII. They mostly worked on farms and were treated very, very well. Even given weekend leave. Most chose to stay here after the war and married American women.

[@Cardan011]

christopher james that is true stinking Nazis were treated better than Black GI in uniform on leave

[@olddogcitypound5859]

John Doe because he's right 👍

[@Cardan011]

John Doe bitch what I said is easily verifiable

[@danholmes2369]

All true except the last statement. Most DID NOT stay here and marry American women. Almost all were repatriated. Some, maybe a few hundred, returned to apply for citizenship or a visa. Some, maybe a thousand or more, sent for American women to join them in Germany as their wives.

[@christopherjames9843]

@@danholmes2369 Still a cool story about how the German men were just regular guys.

[@ronaldschultenover8137]

Lot of people spoke German in those days, but this guy was brilliant

[@russwoodward8251]

Wow. If not the most resourceful, at least the worlds luckiest guy. Great history that needs to be remembered. Thanks.

[@janwalor736]

Now that should be made into a movie or series. Great story!

[@rexmundi3108]

There was a huge German POW camp in central Canada, hundreds of miles from anyone. Prisoners regularly escaped...only to return as they were defeated by more wilderness than they thought possible.

[@2K1Y7]

You know, I have often really enjoyed your videos. This time I found myself truly pleased and inspired. Thank you

[@markcantemail8018]

We had a Pow Camp here in the City a Few miles from here in what now is a City Park . My Father was a child then and told me Crowds would gather outside the Wire to hear the German Prisoners Sing . There was a Calvary troop headquarters across the Road , the Armory is the reason they built it there . The Winter of 44/45 had heavy Snowfall . One Storm buried Downtown in Snow . The Kriegeis shoveled out Main street and the City moved again . Those are the Memories he had . Photos exist showing Italians working Farms in our County and surrounding Counties . Those guys had big Smiles Driving Tractors and Trucks with a big P on the Coats . There was a Camp at Widmer Wine Cellars in Naples N.Y . Local History still Remembered . Thank you for the Video Lance .

[@mikejones4229]

My Grandparents used to work German Prisoners from Fitzgerald Ga. and the former Prisoner used to visit w them for years after the end of ww2....

[@jimmoroney7529]

I remember a story from a neighbor about Axis POWs in the US. My neighbor was in an bar on Staten Island, NY during the war. He noticed a man in a green uniform at the bar. Knowing that there were many allied military personnel in the New York City area he asked the man about the origin of his uniform. The man said that he was in the Italian Army. My neighbor gasped and said, "hey aren't you the enemy?" The Italian soldier calmly showed him his pass that allowed him temporary leave from a nearby POW camp. The camps for Italians had lax security as the US knew that the last thing the Italian POW wanted to do was to go back to fight in the war. These prisoners felt very much at home in places like Staten Island which had a large Italian-American community where many residents still spoke Italian. The Germans, on the other hand, were not trusted. They were kept in far away places and they still managed to escape.

[@jamesmiller4184]

A really terrific positive tale of triumph over adversity and, well done! After the fact, I am delighted for Georg and his dear loyal wife.

[@webbtrekker534]

All though Jr high and high school my hair was cut monthly by an Italian guy named Tony. He had been brought to the US as a POW. After the war he petitioned to remain and became a US citizen. He said he never regretted that decision.

[@jduff59]

Was this in New Jersey?

[@webbtrekker534]

@@jduff59 No, this was in Seattle, Washington. The area has had a small Italian community for many, many years. I lived in an area called "Garlic Gulch" (Rainier Valley) what use to have many small Italian run family farms. Over the years these have been gobbled up by housing and businesses. But at that time there were still many Italian family's still living in the area.

[@jduff59]

@@webbtrekker534 Thanks - great story though!

[@kaneinkansas]

That was a great and intriguing story. I wish someone would make a movie of it. It would be fun to see him live through such a wildly fluctuating life.

[@mikeprell2747]

Naah! They'd no doubt ruin the story!

[@ZenZaBill]

This is a very enjoyable episode! I knew a guy named Hans that lived in my small town in N. California. He was in the Hitler Youth before being sent into the front lines. Had a photo of himself in the uniform on top of his TV set. He eventually became a POW, and was brought here after the US Army caught him just blocks away from his home, trying to get there in civilian clothes. After the war, he got sent back to Germany. As soon as he could, he came back to the USA. He established a business here, made money, bought a house. Loved to drink in the local bars and was rife with stories. He even showed me how they used to siphon gas between vehicles because of the shortages (by shaking, not sucking on the hose.) He died about 15 - 20 years ago.

[@tortugabob]

Wonderfully told Mr. History Guy.

[@samueladams3746]

My mother told me stories of sitting when a little on the porch of their home early in the morning when the POWs from the local camp would march by on their way to the town’s canning factories during season. Mostly worked on the local farms, but would be swapped in for missing local labor during corn and bean packs. She’d wave to them and they’d wave back. It was sort of an idyllic little town and my guess is most were happy (relative to the alternative) to be there.