I Was Terrified Of What The Americans Planned To Do With Us Germans

I Was Terrified Of What The Americans Planned To Do With Us Germans

[@WorldWar2Stories]

Hi Ladies and Gentleman. The diary of Helmut Horner. So glad everyone is loving this. Thankyou for your messages of support! Here is the playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLyuEmb1VavZARAG13NojLWW1yBVb-E4j7

[@michaelclairforet5031]

I’d like to know who the actor is that is reading this. Can you share?

[@shrirang68]

​@@michaelclairforet5031me too. Nice way of story telling he has

[@3550rebel]

What's the original source document/book?

[@glbaker5595]

It really is enlightening and scary to listen to this, could I or my family every get to the point of where we feel we would have done nothing wrong by annihilating several million people and the liberators or the US are in the wrong for not feeding them right, as my great-uncle used to say havers there about three years or 2 years after the war and nobody was a Nazi, they always said the other guy was, but could we have been an ass hypnotized like they were, or have we already been during our last elections in things like that, I'm pushing seventy and it gives me something to think about some things I do not like, but please continue posting I really am enjoying this

[@greenvillepress997]

@@glbaker5595 I wonder if the day will come when no one will be a Democrat, and "for democracy" will be just as bad a term as what we use for the Nazis. Long ago, I decided the endless wars were unjustified. I was in the military, there was never talk of peace, only winning. All talk was how we were going to change them to what we knew was right. These tapes, the things being said, I've heard American soldiers say to the letter. It's spooky.

[@ronalddavis]

they seemed to be treated rather well. three meals a day,showers and haircuts. what the hell did they want the ritz?

[@shorunqualtec2070]

Hookers and blackjack, obviously

[@johnkaspar462]

In any given situation I think most humans aren’t easily given to self deprivation. It’s hard to see outside your bubble. A war was going on and supplies were sparse. As time went on the Americans got the hang of being stewards of PIW’s

[@tombrunila2695]

Of course, because he was an übermensch, and he should have been treated with respect and reverence! That was his rightful reward for fighting for Hitler!

[@aztec0112]

It's more than the Jews got in the concentration camps.

[@petermuller6658]

work and more freedom to move on I guess

[@oledahammer8393]

Curious how they gripe about the conditions when 100's of thousands died in gulags in Russia. They were treated like kings by the Americans in comparison. Interesting their thoughts about France considering they invaded Europe without provocation and their chagrin about how the French treat defeated invaders.

[@warrenash5370]

Germans have no love lost for the French.

[@01Bouwhuis]

To easy to judge in hindsight. Theydidnt know about the gulags, and the war with the french dtarted in the 1870s.

[@Johnrigsby]

This appears an account from diaries where he states he tells the tale as it was written. I don't they knew what waa happening in gulags in real time. It's not like Stalin was open with his atrocities at the time.

[@caseykaelin9430]

​@@warrenash5370There isn't much love for the French either if you talk to an English man.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Speaking backwards into history is always easier than speaking to it it at the time. You have 70+ years of additional information. One could argue “how dare you say anything about your current living conditions when there are imprisoned people in China”.

[@alexanderh.5814]

I guess he could have tried to escape to the Russians.

[@ryanreedgibson]

Hot coffee and showers? So lucky it wasn't a Soviet camp. Some whined more than a kindergarten class.

[@robertcanup4473]

One of my neighbors was in the Hitler Youth, and was drafted into the Army at 15 in 1945. He was captured by the Canadians in the late stages of the war. He said it was the best thing that ever happened to him.

[@georgecooksey8216]

Many stories like this. It was a lifeline to be captured by the Allies. Just heartbreaking to see a 15 year old kid used like this. Barbaric.

[@TheSulross]

Ukraine has been at that desperation stage for some months - pressing underaged and those too old into cannon fodder roles, like when they uselessly tried to hold Bakhmut

[@deltavee2]

And just 11 years after the war this 10-year old Canadian Air Force brat swam in the very swimming pools used by the Hitler Youth in the Black Forest. Camped for two weeks in a beautiful place. We were stationed at S.H.A.P.E. HQ in Paris for four years until 1960 and camped extensively throughout Europe our whole time there.

[@robgee7788]

This is very good writing. The author seems to have journalistic abilities and well educated. I thoroughly enjoy these series of stories.

[@Seadog..11]

Totally agree with you it was so refreshing and easy upon the ears. Another Factor would be the generational time frame. I am 72 and I can't understand what these kids are saying nowadays

[@Sugarsail1]

@@Seadog..11 It's ok, they don't really know what they're saying either.

[@mrt2this607]

@@Seadog..11 Totally with ya there. Today's kids are bombarded with so much absolute crap they've got no conception of what reality is. If it doesn't fit their delusions, they just re-define it or make up some new word for fantasy delusion their in. And I'm not that far away from them in age. Social contagions have infected their minds, brainwashed into a cult-like mindset and reinforced by social media, "schools", the "news" and twisted movies.

[@riobigby6561]

​@Sugarsail1 This is true, I just turned 30 and don't understand them myself at times.

[@smokeykitty6023]

I'm quite sure that the general population of Germany at that time was much better educated than Americans are today. They reveared education. Now days even college levels have been dumbed down in America. Young American students will only learn what is required of them. There is no quest or love of education for itself. I marvel at the German's knowledge of art, music, history and literature. They set up schools in POW barracks in case there was "something that they could learn to help them later on after the war".

[@trickydicky2908]

Considering what allied shipping had to go through to bring their rations, he should be very grateful indeed.

[@01Bouwhuis]

Did he know that?

[@Tom_Cruise_Missile]

@@01Bouwhuis Later in this series it will be referenced that he believes U-boats are still a massive threat to allied shipping, although they actually were not at this stage in the war.

[@Aelov]

The Americans should have had a policy that anyone who complains or resists gets shuttled over to the soviet system like they deserve.

[@theallseeingmaster]

A thoughtful observer and skilled writer. The translator, I think, has done justice to the original German.

[@AnthonyOMulligan-yv9cg]

Compared to a decade in a Russian Gulag?, These Pussycat's can only whine

[@arthurvg2217]

As much as this diary is interesting my french blood is telling me that Germans deserved captivity. I won't go further but I have good reasons.

[@Skipjack7814]

Hey, not sure if you read books about that war, but "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer is an amazing work, written by a guy whos mother was German, Father was French, and even he grew up in France, like many of them, (maybe the region he was from?) Thought at first France would sign on with Germany. He winds up on the Eastern Front, and his memoirs are the most intense ive ever read. Just mentioning it!

[@arthurvg2217]

@@Skipjack7814 many of that come from the Alsace region are sort of on both sides culturally and genetically. I am from farther away and I haven't read those diaries but I guess that my ancestors tales are already full of wars with Germans, executions, trenches, bombing, mines and so on. I am not bitter but I am aware that many of them disappeared in the those tough moments. War is ugly for everyone involved and people going out of prison alive are already the lucky ones.

[@Skipjack7814]

I think that Sajer was from the Strasbourg area, but its been a long time since i read it, i do remember that (in the book) some of the Germans would make comments about him, like "another one of those whining, black haired Alsations" etc. Of course all war sucks, but that book gives the reader a very unique perspective. Thats all im saying, otherwise yeah, the Bosches deserved everything they got 😃

[@arthurvg2217]

@johnnajarian4711 honestly I would not want to be from Alsace in those days, the territory was contested and changed hand many times in history, the kind of situation I would not be sure who is my people. I agree that diaries are another interesting way to approach history on a personal scale. I can't help but laugh when I hear Germans complaining about the "quality of the roads" while invading USSR or like in this one crafting fake jewelry for trading purposes. As we say "chase a natural behaviour away and it will be back galloping" I am amazed and amused about how a bad soviet road can just give PTSD to the Germans.

[@StoolieP]

How do you say "whining piece of crap" in German?

[@AFuller2020]

Arsekrieshler.

[@janiceduke1205]

jammerndes Stück Mist

[@louvin44]

I'm really enjoying this. I'm an American whose father fought in WWII. Helmut's account is personal and therefore narrow. Like any soldier in this situation survival is a priority. I'm sure that ten years after this episode when Helmut had an opportunity learn how his comrades fared at the hands the Russians and how his own military treated the civilian population in eastern Europe, his time as a prisoner with the Americans will by comparison be like having gone to Club Med.

[@bc2578]

And at least he wasn't burned alive like 100,000 women and children in Dresden, so there's that.

[@waynepatterson5843]

@@bc2578 --- And at least he wasn't burned alive like 100,000 women and children in Dresden, so there's that. Wayne Patterson --- That is a lie.

[@tombrunila2695]

@@bc2578 , what a pity that was, he got away with his life!

[@robertcanup4473]

@@bc2578 Or the six million burned in the ovens.

[@rationalbasis2172]

@@bc2578 At least he and his family weren't slaughtered at Babi Yar. So there's that.

[@deadlyoneable]

Ahhh yeah. My boy Helmut back with another installment. I’ll wait for my city walk to listen.

[@jayturner3397]

Uk 🇬🇧 England, an acquaintance of mine was a German fighter pilot shot down over English Channel and fished out and became a POW, he had been indoctrinated as Hitler youth and what was to follow terrified him..however he found the opposite to be true, he stayed married worked hard and Never went back to Germany 😮

[@doylebrockman8225]

Growing up, our neighbor was a WWII Vet. Huge impact on my life. Always had free ideals hints about making it everyday. I enjoyed the blessing that I could mow his yard, etc. Awesome restaurant for an awesome burger, malts, etc. He was happy when I volunteered for the Army. My dad was excited also, our neighbor was very close to our family my whole life. Watched over me when Dad was at work. RIP LEO. We will be able to enjoy a family reunion hopefully later than sooner.

[@RNemy509]

This has been something im looking forward to each day now! Thank you for the fantastic reading of a captivating period of time

[@saharafox8209]

Right!!!!

[@RRaquello]

The psychology of a prisoner is an interesting thing. The author is so proud of his swindling the American guards into giving them extra food. It's not much of a swindle. The food given to them by the guards in exchange for their bogus jewelry didn't cost the guards anything because they just grabbed it from the supply brought in to feed the German POWs. So the Germans were really only stealing from themselves. The American guards who were doing the trading were probably doing so because they enjoyed the trading and to alleviate their own boredom and they didn't care much about what they were getting in return. Meanwhile all the scheming and energy the Germans engaged in to pull of their swindle kept them busy enough to keep them from causing any real trouble. Anyway it was probably best for both sides. The Americans had fun from engaging in the trading and the Germans had something to keep them from dwelling on their misery.

[@fergal2424]

exactly, given their meagre restricted existence as POW's, they'd take any little victory. Understandable.

[@slingshot1961]

They are lucky the Russians didn't get them.

[@tombrunila2695]

He was not at all terrified by what he and his fellow Germans DID to civilians all over Europe!

[@01Bouwhuis]

No war does.....

[@charliebrownie4158]

To quote my grandma you should have thought about that before starting to make your pie.

[@chardaskie]

I find it surprising everytime they are shocked that the French don't like Germans. It's almost like in 100 years they invaded them 3 times or something

[@Marcel_Audubon]

yeah, this clown isn't so big on self awareness

[@Chris-um3se]

Too bad these Germans couldn't contrast Being POW'S of the Red Army vrs the Brits or the Yanks

[@robertdeak9071]

My grandpa was captured on the eastern front and was a POW in the Soviet Union for 8 years.He never ..EVER talked about the war but he told me two things about the gulags !When i said its cold because was -25 outside he said that is not cold..-62 is cold!And the other thing when i was complaining about some food he said ..son,its way better then a DOG!

[@georgielancaster1356]

Or cats or rats!

[@maxinefreeman8858]

American POWs were starved. Their guards wouldn't SS Soldiers. I knew an old veteran that if the American soldiers hadn't arrived when they did they would've died in a few days.

[@nathanjustus6659]

Imagine, delousing is delousing, not being gassed with zyclon B

[@joshm3484]

Meanwhile in Auschwitz... 🙄

[@cyrilhudak4568]

Dude, you summed it up in 3 words , , , ,

[@davidsigalow7349]

Hey, Helmut, I'll trade you 30 cigarettes for my grandfather's gold teeth.

[@bc2578]

They had orchestras and soccer leagues in Aushcwitz you fool.

[@Sara-tg1jq]

Exactly 💯

[@PAMELAPORTER-ci7mr]

😭😱

[@mikeymike1981]

All this talk of swindling others reminds me of, i don’t know the right to phrase it, those people that where supposedly responsible for this mess. You know the ones.

[@yisroelkatz-xj6pq]

This is a great story! I always read about American pows, but this educates me about German POWs which I never read about! It is true that Helmut is a spoiled prisoner, what did he expect as a prisoner? Did he expect the Hilton hotel?

[@TowGunner]

German prison camps was the Hilton compared to the Stalogs allied prisoners found themselves in.

[@mbmochinski]

They could have been treated like concentration camp inmates... and died or Left there as walking skeletons.

[@renatebaumgartner2921]

yisroelkatz-xj6pq: We've never been continually hungry so we don't really know the agony those German POW prisoners had to endure in the first camp Helmut found himself in after his capture. I've heard hunger is terrible.

[@AudieHolland]

Did you not get the part when, after a German POW is shot dead without any reason, the US guard is arrested, then shortly after the US camp commandant was relieved of his command and the POWs were moved to a camp with much better conditions? In that first camp, the US prison staff were starving the German POWs on purpose. It didn't happen to all German POWs, but some did receive this unjust treatment. Did you not get the part where he detailed how other US officers, medical officers, were brought in to inspect the German POWs and the new medical officers were horrified at what they found? Regardless of nationality, if your country signed the Geneva Convention, as a Prisoner Of War you are entitled to the following: - just and humane treatment - including to be fed and the right to personal hygiene (bathing, proper latrines) - proper clothing instead of letting you wear your original uniform untill it is so torn and dirty that you look like a homeless crazy person The Germans and Russians did not treat their prisoners according to the Geneva Conventions however. Soviet POWs were starved and murdered on a large scale. German POWs in Soviet hands fared better though. Even though uses as slave labour, even the Soviets understood you have to house, feed and keep your slave labour clean. That Soviet POWs were treated horribly does not justify the ill treatment of German POWs. Or did you think all Germans in the armed forces were actively murdering Soviet POWs. German camp guards where Russians, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals or other undesirables were concerned, were a different kind of camp guard. The Western Allies POWs were treated according to the Geneva Conventions however. After the Great Escape, most of the over a hundred Allied POWs who had escaped, were captured and put back in the same camps again. However, the Gestapo, under personal order of Hitler, sought out these former escapees and had them transported to their headquarters for 'interrrogation' where they were out of reach of the protective umbrella of their Stalag camp (administered and guarded by regular German armed forces). Unlike in the movie 'The Great Escape,' the former escapees were not mowed down in one big mass, they were executed in pairs, while 'attempting to flee' on their way being transported to Gestapo headquarters. I would suggest you watch the excellent BBC tv-series 'Colditz,' about the most closely guarded POW camp in Germany.

[@yisroelkatz-xj6pq]

​@@AudieHolland Why are you so concerned about Nazi soldiers? They were monsters and they committed some of the worst crimes against humanity in history?! Granted not all German soldiers were evil, but every German soldier facilitated evil whether they condoned the evil or not! Righteousness German soldiers refused to serve in the army when they saw what their army were doing to destroy innocent people! Many German soldiers escaped to Switzerland when they saw what Germany was doing, because they couldn't facilitate such heinous crimes! So those soldiers who remained in the army and fought were facilitating murder, even if they didn't agree with what was going on! Your pity for monsters and murderers is astounding! I would not like to have anything to do with someone who has compassion upon monsters! The German POWs were lucky they weren't executed for starting an unprovoked war. creating concentration camps, murdering, destroying everything in their path, making millions of slave laborers, making army brothels for their soldiers from women from the occupied countries etc. As the old saying goes, "Play stupid games win stupid prizes." No my friend, I do not shed one tear for these monsters! I think your sympathy for them is disgusting!

[@fintonmainz7845]

The Germans haven't changed one iota. They would do the same again given the right circumstances.

[@reginabarker308]

I agree

[@Outlier999]

Most prisoners of the Western Allies returned home. Most prisoners of the Russians did not.

[@lucas82]

Wrong. Most Germans in Soviet captivity did in fact return to their homeland, some after a few years and some after five or ten. Many were released after Stalin's death in 1953. It is estimated that on average between 15 and 20% of German POWs in Soviet captivity did not survive. In western allied captivity the death rate was a few percent, most of those through illness. Soviet POWs fared much worse, over 60% of them perished in German captivity through exhaustion, sickness or starvation. Contrary to popular belief the Soviets did not take full revenge on their German captives.

[@nickyl9040]

what i have learned from listening to helmut's tale is that he and his comrades took no responsibility for the horrors that they inflicted upon the innocent peoples of the world

[@clovergrass9439]

Its the other way around. Germany wanted peace, all offers were met with silence. Leaflets dropped over London.

[@vincentlavallee2779]

@@clovergrass9439 What BS book have you been reading??? They would not give up until (1) Hitler was dead, (2) the Russians destroyed Berlin, and (3) there were essentially no other cities to bomb.

[@jhrusa8125]

​@clovergrass9439 For what the Germans did, they got off easy.

[@teejin669]

​@clovergrass9439 sure bro XD, Hitler wanted peace, after he had conqured and killed all who opposed his insane delusions

[@BarnDoorProductions]

@@clovergrass9439 Leaflets wrapped around 500 kilograms of high explosive to ensure they were distributed far and wide.

[@Kevin-mx1vi]

I had Helmut sussed as a nazi from the first video in this series, but I'm disappointed that he & his friends didn't realise that those questions were designed *exactly* to find nazis trying to hide behind disingenuous answers. Maybe the literalness of the german language fostered a mindset that made them believe that no-one could ask a question that doesn't mean exactly what it says on the page ?

[@petesmusic6648]

This is fantastic work , thanks for posting 👍

[@jeffblacky]

lucky they wasn't in the Pacific when my uncle was there - he would have gunned them down like he did with the japanese

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

It happened in Europe too...especially SS or snipers.

[@jeffblacky]

Very few Japanese was taken alive - the island hopping was more violent than Europe- I had relatives in both theaters as infantry - when I was in Iraq we was told no prisoners to be taken and do not get captured ( because you be in the next video getting your head cut off ) I can safely say that very few wanted to be prisoners ( Arabs and Japanese in most part have no honor )

[@doggedout]

By the time this "journal" was written, German soldiers were surrendering or being captured by the tens of thousands. This soldier was angry because the Americans were not properly prepared from day one to feed, bath, cloth and house them all from day one. Or day two, after they (the Germans) had just stopped trying to kill them all. Yet he revels in his "victories" of duping gullible American guards with fake copper rings traded for candy bars, likely the result of the guards just tying to be kind to the wrenched defeated Nazis. Even though he was fed to the point of being sick, he continues to assert they are being starved into submission. Not being able to consume food was a common occurrence....in German death camps. Thousands died when the allies understandably tried to feed the emaciated jews in the camps. The jews were actually starving. ..unlike these German pows, who had merely missed a few meals and had a bad reaction to being fed 5 tennis ball sized potatoes in one sitting. All after being given red cross packages (which would have been withheld in any German prison camp by the guards for bartering). Notice, he relates no stories of even a single prisoner starving to death, or dying of typhus or exposure. Common occurrences in German, Japanese and Russian run POW camps....for the entirety of the war. Again, these same German soldiers were captured or surrendered by the MILLIONS to the Russians. Less than 50, 000 of them returned home. This is no time for revisionist history. Also, an American POW having struck a guard in a German prison camp, even an American officer, would have been executed immediately upon discovery. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJKqaqyAgdV5iLc

[@dew02300]

It wasn’t quite Andersonville.

[@mirquellasantos2716]

And the sad part is that Soviet prisons were better than concentration camps where POW were sent. The death rate in Soviet prisons was 36% while in concentration camps was 67%. They hated Soviet and black soldiers who were always tortured and starved. Germans were evil to he core.

[@clovergrass9439]

Supply lines were cut off to the detention/work camps, which were some of the safest places to be in that judaic war.

[@RexKarrs]

@@dew02300 Helmut & Co. seemed to think it was.

[@rodyates4771]

When Heydrich was taken out thousands were murdered in Prague as revenge for one man.

[@ChrisWhittaker-l7s]

They should have felt blessed to be alive. Better treatment than they gave their prisoners or their vanquished!

[@oleran4569]

This is an absolutely great diary! You've done well putting it up!

[@lindaeasley5606]

This guy was in the wrong prison camp. He didn't deserve humane treatment

[@ditto1958]

Helmet should have felt fortunate that America treated them as well as they did. His country attacked France in 1914 and 1940, and both times we had to go over there and rescue those ungracious people from Germany. We were getting tired of it.

[@georgecooksey8216]

Thank you for producing and posting these narrations. A slice of life. I look forward to finding out how this all turns out for Horner and as events unfold whether he will come to fully grasp the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis and how that will change his perspective when he leaves American custody and returns home. I hope that he comes to realize just how lucky he was to have been captured and secluded by the Americans at the time he was.

[@robertgiles9124]

What's odd is how there's no discussion of the war and no sense of now being able to survive the war, how damn lucky they are.

[@jasonliniger261]

This is only one video in a series following this group. It was mentioned in a couple others. Should really try to track the other ones down.

[@robertgiles9124]

@@jasonliniger261 Already have, it's like a German version od Dumb abd Dumber.

[@independentthinker8930]

Imagine how they would feel if we were the Japanese.

[@Outlier999]

Like many German soldiers, their biggest regret was that they lost.

[@jackjones9460]

Oh my Lord! What a Whiner the original writer is! Didn’t he say he didn’t eat for entire days while fighting? Now he complains that he doesn’t like being deloused and doesn’t get endless water during his hot shower! Three meals daily, all the clean water he can drink, an actual bed, barracks with a heater and walls to stop the wind! Daa-Aammm! Did he expect to stay at a four star hotel as a POW?

[@mirquellasantos2716]

They got more than black soldiers who all lived and died in poverty.

[@jackjones9460]

@@mirquellasantos2716 He surely noticed everyone’s race, that’s for sure.

[@mirquellasantos2716]

@@jackjones9460 Actually I'm a multiracial Latina (African, European and Asian). So race means nothing to me but to Germans and Americans it means the world.

[@Outlier999]

@@mirquellasantos2716 Actually most black American servicemen had it better in the service than they did as civilian.

[@Outlier999]

@@mirquellasantos2716 My wife of 47 years is the same as you. Her race meant nothing to me and I am one of those horrible Americans.

[@fabianwylie8707]

Actually I am listing to this and feel this is amazing for all to hear , but but well appreciated by anyone that’s lost their eyesight . Thanks for posting

[@georgielancaster1356]

Are you listening and without sight?

[@fabianwylie8707]

Nooooooooooo. I am simply saying that a lot of blind people actually listen to tapes = famous books 📕

[@artorito1]

I enjoy reading the diary of this pw and hope germans learn some humanity the way american soldiers treated them, yes when you were in position of power you killed innocent women and children with the smile on your ugly face and now you enjoy humanity of other nations, your brutality will not be forgotten for thousands of years and show some of the most down falls of humanity in all the history of man kind.

[@mauriceclark4870]

They faired much. Better. Than being taken by Russians. Most died. In gulags. And think never saw home again

[@benjaminweston2065]

"...you don't need to work yourself to death." No, the rest of Europe will do that for you, right?

[@josepherhardt164]

The lice powder was, I think, DDT. As an aside, anyone remember when restaurants used to have, near the ceiling, timed squirt guns that emitted insecticide? This was so at least until 1959.

[@41divad]

Yes... how many lives did it save...

[@josepherhardt164]

@@41divad How many cases of illness did it cause? Unless you're in a malaria-infested area, or area with other dangerous mosquito-borne diseases, this was just putting toxic chemicals into the air. Now, at the time of the de-lousing pictured here, given the number of prisoners, etc., there likely wasn't a better solution. The person most likely to have been affected and made ill was the DDT handler.

[@elizabethroessner8487]

I don't remember seeing or hearing about in insecticide. What did the dispsensers look like?

[@josepherhardt164]

@@elizabethroessner8487 As I recall (and, granted, I was a kid at the time), it was a tube with a nozzle, and about once every five or ten minutes you'd hear this "pshhhh," look up, and see the insecticide fog that had been emitted from the nozzle. Just tried some on-line searching but didn't find anything that matched my memory.

[@elizabethroessner8487]

Joseph, I'm 84, and you jogged my memory. I kind of remember something like that. Can you honestly imagine? I got to be this old without cancer, but I have had lifelong asthma! Probably, from all the smoking around me. Thanks,

[@michaelclairforet5031]

They obviously thought they were innocent of any wrongdoing. They were after all the master race. They thought they should be treated hike fallen heroes.

[@jonmeek3879]

Thank you again !

[@schweizer1940]

How did they treat our boys who fought over a half rotten turnip!!

[@asullivan4047]

The disillusioned ( pow's ) didn't realize how humanely treated they were!!! Special thanks to the veteran German soldiers. Sharing personal information/incarceration experiences. Making this documentary more authentic and possible. Escape to a lost war lead by disillusioned leadership in Berlin??? How foolishly indoctrinated those ( pow's ) were.

[@nemojedermann2845]

Not nearly as terrified as the Jews when they realised what you were actually going to do with them!

[@bikesnippets]

They were treated far too well. After what they did, they can have no complaints.

[@greggrace967]

Exactly. I say that all the time. From top to bottom EVERYONE knew evil was afoot. Same with the Japanese. They started it. We ended it.

[@StoolieP]

Far, far too well.

[@jeffmcdonald4225]

Yes. Perhaps they would have preferred the tender mercies of the Red Army.

[@spikenomoon]

Obviously you don’t understand the whole picture.

[@bonkyb8587]

@@spikenomoon he seems bright enough to know that Hitler's Germany invaded and smashed all but a handful of sovereign eastern and western European countries. Can he not imagine the logistical nightmare of trying to resettle, feed, shelter literally millions of displaced refugees in the middle of a war? Of a war that his country started? Get fucked, Helmut. You did this to yourself and you got off easy.

[@robertsaiz3339]

Many years ago, there was a TV Series called the Eyes of Texas. One episode was called Stalag Texas. It was, as you can guess, a documentary of German POWs in Texas during the war. From what I remember, the Germans suffered in the heat but could not complain much about the food and accommodations. Some tried to escape but were quickly recaptured lounging by one of the local rivers. One POW tried to hook up with one of the many Germans towns in the hill country but the local Germans were US Citizens first and not Nazi sympatizers. The POW was promptly turned over to law enforcement. The one very notable part of the story was of a 16 year old German kid whos U-Boat was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico. He was one of a very few survivors. Anyway, he was locked up in Texas and became very acclimated with life in the US. After the war he immigrated back to the US and settled in Oklahoma. As they were interviewing him the striking thing was he sounded like a born and raised Texan. No hint of a German accent. On his office wall were pictures of his life in the German Navy and his youth. Amazing story!

[@HansDelbruck53]

Interesting, but not amazing.

[@kristend344]

My friend's inlaws owned a farm where Germans were sent to labor because they spoke German. A German officer had commented to them he knew Germany would lose the war when he got on a train on the east coast, and it took several days just to travel halfway across the country to where he'd be working on a farm. Common commodities/resources had been luxuries in Germany. (Recall Hitler took over from the disaster of the Weimar Republic.)

[@bellaadamowicz8380]

@@kristend344 strange that the officer understood how big US was , only when he took a train ride, one would expect an officer to be able understand it when he looked at the map . Not very bright .

[@kristend344]

@@bellaadamowicz8380 Even today, it's pretty common for Europeans to underestimate the sheer size of the US. Especially those who tells Americans they just shouldn't live in Tornado Alley, not realizing that's about the size of western Europe. And Texas is bigger than France. California is twice as big as Great Britian. The distance from John O'Groats to Land's End is less than 1000 miles. Less than some people would drive in a day for vacation. To quote Lawrence Brown. In Britian, 100 miles in a long way. American's can underestimate distances too. e.g. distance between Texarkana and El Paso is greater than El Paso to LA.

[@bellaadamowicz8380]

@@kristend344 My point was, that , for an officer just to look at the map should be enough to understand the size of a country.

[@christopherhanna5754]

Never forget that while they got milk and butter and shelter as POWS , meanwhile the so called undesirables jews gypsys and anyone else they wanted murdered were still being starved and worked to death shot and gassed in labor death camps. Good document for a german soldiers view, but keep it in perspective.

[@danielpeters2282]

Send you to the US and feed you steak. How did you do our POWS

[@mirquellasantos2716]

They were starved and worked until they dropped. Black soldiers were just tortured and executed.

[@Sara-tg1jq]

They were worked to death, starved, tortured,basically hell on Earth.

[@danielpeters2282]

@@Sara-tg1jq lmao haha ok

[@danielpeters2282]

@@Sara-tg1jq oh wait? You mean our POWS? Yup

[@stevep5408]

The luftwaffe treated allied airmen fairly humanly, especially considering the damage inflicted on the German homeland!

[@marvwatkins7029]

Better than captured by Russians.

[@acaciablossom558]

I feel bad for Shultz. Poor man must have nearly lost his mind herding short sighted cats. 😵‍💫

[@raginald7mars408]

my Father was a Wehrmacht Soldier in Ukraine - and they ALl KNEW the Horrors they inflicted to innocent persons The Fighting mainly was to Survive and not get captured - as there was no Mercy to expect from anyone. In a way we continue the War today with endless atrocities a 30 Year Total War ends nuclear like 1945 we create endless Horrors

[@conceptalfa]

👍👍👍!!!

[@vmhutch]

I'm surprised by those who think we treated the POWs too well. One's behavior should not be based on the barbaric example set by one's former enemies. One's behavior should be guided by one's values as much as possible. What's the old saying about lying down with the dogs?

[@wesstubbs3472]

I think that about 99% of the Allies treatment of German prisoners WAS humane. The Germans own leaders starved them before they surrendered. The Germans had just finished starving the Dutch, Polish and French populace for four years.

[@StoolieP]

We treated them, as a group, far better than they deserved to be treated, far better than they had earned. We treated them consistent with our values. Both of these statements are true.

[@thatguy04444]

The Allied armies were busy not just feeding, housing, and clothing millions of civilians displaced by the Nazis, but also caring for millions more slave workers that Germany had kidnapped. Poor Helmut would have been less hungry if he wasn't busy scheming to escape.

[@mariahoulihan9483]

I totally agree with you and was thinking exactly the same.

[@wesstubbs3472]

@@mariahoulihan9483 Maybe we should have treated the German POWs the same way the Germans treated the Russian POWs - they starved three million of them to death.

[@saharafox8209]

I keep hoping there is the new video to thos storie when i get home from work love your channel!!

[@poetmaggie1]

That make real sense considering how their country was treating jews, catholics who resisted what they were doing to the Jews and prisoners, they had every reason to be concerned.

[@RonaldBelanger]

I have now listened to several of the stories on this channel and I am sad hearing these "stories" of the Hitler soldiers. These men, some older, younger and a few maybe smart describe their events after killing, starving, raping fellow humans. With the stories that I listened to, it seems to me a much better justice was has to given all these German's to the Soviet's. When you are a "cog" or an active soldier to kill millions of fellow humans and now caught - do you think yourself so entitled to live? I hear no remorse, no sadness only I am hunger and have bugs. I guess these stories serve a purpose- serial killers and rapist have their own feelings of how awful it would have been to at their hands if they had not been captured.

[@joewilson2258]

What our soldiers did during weii years were much more humane than expected by the German soldiers when they caught the German soldiers that surrendered and they were treated with respect and caring.

[@cyberbitus]

I've listened to several of these stories, and I'm sure they have been carefully selected and edited, but the common arrogance and high-ground moralizing of the German POWs says a lot about their mentality. The worst they had to deal with was hunger and lice? Shall we compare this experience to a similar allied POW's experience in one of their camps? What about one of their concentration camps where innocent people were brutally tortured and murdered simply for existing? Hunger and lice were the lesser of their torments. They never knew if they were going to be alive the next day. No, there is no comparison, and I find a lot of these stories to ring hollow, devoid of reality. Maybe, the German POWs were so scared of the American prisoner camps because they knew how POWs and civilian prisoners in their death camps were treated. Hypocrites.

[@covercalls88]

The German soldiers had many options to surrender to, the Americans, French, British, or Soviets. I think down deep in side the Americans were your first choice.

[@georgecooksey8216]

That was in fact what happened. It was encouraged. The exodus from Berlin was to the West, not East.

[@georgecooksey8216]

Indeed and agreed. Americans were certainly preferred.

[@anthonyfuqua6988]

French and Soviet was not a real choice.

[@georgielancaster1356]

Avoid the Soviets at all costs

[@jamieosgood2455]

Being of German, and Irish decent, and having a grandfather, who fought in WW2 This journal is fascinating, I know it must have been terrible to be a pow, Does my heart good to hear these men stick together, and realize what a maniac thier fuhrer was, As a former soldier, Duty and brotherhood were foremost, Godspeed Helmut

[@simplefranky1]

Thanks !

[@davep153]

Prisoners of war sent to Montana got to go to the movies in town.

[@blackpowder4016]

Many prisoners in the US could sign out of camp to go into town. They got 10¢ per day for personal needs. They could use the money for little luxuries at the canteen. They were offered courses in camp including English. They had recreational facilities; some even had swimming, volleyball, and tennis courts. Prisoners at Camp Hale in Colorado could go skiing. German officers got $30/month and were not required to work. Generals got half-pay and a car with a US driver. One former Afrika Corps commander in a southern camp famously was driven into town daily to go to the movies. When asked why he would see the same picture over and over he confessed that the movie theater was the only air-conditioned building in town and he was merely escaping the heat. Prisoners could work if they chose and were paid 80¢ per day. They mostly worked agricultural jobs and public works projects - road repair and the like. They like working for farmers who fed them well. Virtually all the Italians worked and many took skilled jobs including cooks, tailors, and shoemakers. Less than 1% of German prisoners attempted an escape. Most of the escapes were simply playing hooky from camp. One group went into town to gorge themselves at a cafe and simply overstayed curfew. The greatest escape was by a group held in Papago near Phoenix. They tunneled out, made a raft, and tried to escape down the Salt River to the Gila River then to the Colorado River and the Gulf of California. It came to an abrupt end when the Salt River vanished into the desert sand. They split up all trying to reach Mexico but the desert conditions were harsh; blistering hot during the day and freezing at night. And no potable water anywhere. Most surrendered quickly. Allied prisoners caught escaping were often shot or severely punished. The American punishment was to segregate them and reduce them to bread and water for each day absent. Troublemakers went to special camps. Early in the war the British warned the Americans to separate the Nazis from the prisoners. The British found POWs were fairly tame without them. This was initially ignored but after a murder of a German prisoner by Nazis in one camp American authorities vigorously rooted out all the Nazis and put them in special camps. Many Germans POWs petitioned to stay in the US or returned after the war. "Life in the camps was a vast improvement for many of the POWs who had grown up in cold water flats in Germany, according to former Fort Robinson, Nebraska, POW Hans Waecker, 88, who returned to the United States after the war and is now a retired physician in Georgetown, Maine. “Our treatment was excellent. Many POWs complained about being POWs-no girlfriends, no contact with family. But the food was excellent and clothing adequate.” Such diversions as sports, theater, chess games and books made life behind barbed wire a sort of “golden cage,” one prisoner remarked."

[@birgerjohansson8010]

The Black Americans of the era naturally noted that German POWs that had fought the US were allowed to go where Black Americans were not allowed!

[@PlayerToBeNamedLater1973]

Its nice to know that I received a harsher punishment and had to endure worse conditions for possession of a small piece of hashish than these fellows experienced as POWs

[@PAMELAPORTER-ci7mr]

Being a soldier for one's country does not a criminal make, but chosing to break one's country's laws does.

[@PlayerToBeNamedLater1973]

@@PAMELAPORTER-ci7mr sanctimonious prude

[@angel21047]

Little whiny babies compared with the treatment of POW in Germany

[@ac4185]

Imagine a Russian solder’s point of view. Probably would only be 10-20 minutes long.

[@cenccenc946]

This is extra fascinating, if you know what is going on outside the camp on these dates.

[@01Bouwhuis]

Best comment ever!

[@tomasinacovell4293]

Why don't you put these in some order like a good German would!?! ):

[@josephdabon3373]

They should not have been given food and a bath. How dare they set conditions when they are prisoners.

[@dennisjones9044]

I find it very difficult to sympathize with the Feldwebel considering NAZI Germany's treatment their POWs and civilian prisoners. It can be said that the Allies could have managed the de Nazification and de militarization of the Wehrmacht better.

[@dfrozendog3849]

My father was a POW. It was late in the war. The Germans were barely eating any better than the prisoners he said.

[@georgielancaster1356]

True. The German civilian populations were often eating dog, cats and rats. When the Russians came in to Germany, they ra ped huge numbers of women and the German women were so desperate for food, many offered themselves to Allied military, for a loaf of bread for their children.

[@michaeljoyce-q6s]

There were a lot of memories from World War 1. World War 1 ended in 1918. The fresh memories in people's minds, elevated reasons to defeat Germany again, just horrible really horrible.

[@rebeccaadams8527]

They believed themselves to be being treated so badly while their forces were running death camps!!! How absolutely insane!!!

[@adamgrass5492]

First again?! Keep up the awesome work, been sharing with friends and they love it

[@paulprigge1209]

I am sorry.

[@stevep5408]

An Austrian i know father was a british pow! He didnt complain about the treatment but never ate a potato again!

[@ritamedina-molina8550]

These people all suffered from stress

[@johnstewart2011]

I really like hearing these narrations because they are so informative, but I kept waiting to learn why the man was “terrified” of what would happen to the Germans. If anything, misleading click bait titles just tend to discourage me from listening to or watching videos.

[@genataylor460]

I don't think it is click-bait. They probably had no idea and imagined all sorts of torture and mistreatment. They had likely been warned of that by their superior officers and NCOs while in training.

[@johnstewart2011]

@@genataylor460 I imagine you’re right that they were genuinely afraid of being captured, but (without listening to the entire thing again) I don’t recall any actual mention of that in this episode. And it seems that some KZbin posters can’t title a video without its supposedly being about someone’s being “terrified,” “shocked,” “staggered,” “amazed;” something’s being “brutal,” or some other superlative-and usually there’s no support for the claim in the actual presentation.

[@georgielancaster1356]

I think, throughout this, they were uncertain of their fate. Like lower rank military, they feel like cattle. The have the power of cattle. At any time, they could be sent to slaughter

[@patrickbass3542]

Strane...I noticed a shift from references to the dand of the Arizona desert to a camp in France.

[@richardthornhill4630]

interesting insight from a German POW perspective as American POW's, glad they were not Russian POWs.

[@rationalbasis2172]

Nazis were also terrified about what the Russians would do to them and their country. Unfortunately, they were almost completely wrong about this too. In fact, one could say that Nazism itself was based on fear of everything - above all differences of any kind.

[@looneyville3]

The Russians raped every German woman they could on their march to Berlin.

[@georgielancaster1356]

The Russians DID to them.

[@davidjose9808]

Several things about the German culture I have observed… 1) they are never going to admit they (personally) are at fault for anything 2) they can “dish it out” but they can’t “take it”….constant whining and complaining…especially the women

[@maxinefreeman8858]

I'm interested in hearing this but am slightly amused that how he expects good treatment and is aware of the rules of the Geneva convention. I don't know if our draftees had any knowledge of that after their 6 wks of basic training? Most veterans I knew wouldn't talk about war, unless they talked among themselves. That's veterans of every war.

[@mrbeaverstate]

So much life being lived in a POW camp.

[@AParallelReality]

The hunger is either exaggerated or this guy was literally obsessed with it. I’ve gone months with almost no food and the amount of food he describes wouldn’t leave you in tears with hunger pains

[@AD-dh7uu]

I don't know the veracity of these stories. Was being a POW of the US as malevolent as is depicted or is this just self serving BS? I will say that there's only so much sympathy I can muster for the soldiers of a army of conquest that killed and tortured 10s of millions. Christ!

[@TheSulross]

relative to the fate of POWs in general, these guys were staying at the Ritz - the complaints and indignation amount to pathetic whining (a great deal of enlightenment would be had if the writer had at the time been aware of the fate of his countrymen.over in the Soviet POW system)

[@ralphe5842]

I think this memoir was written after the war it’s written more as a novel

[@lizlee5052]

A rather abrupt ending.

[@XA1985]

POWs in America captivity live well. Complaining is just been a bit**.

[@leemorgan8725]

Asylum seeker demand more