In Oklahoma I Realized We Germans and Americans were Not So Different After All

[@WorldWar2Stories]

Ladies and Gentleman, the diary of Helmut Horner. This is part 11. Here is the playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLyuEmb1VavZARAG13NojLWW1yBVb-E4j7

[@blackbuttecruizr]

This is amazing

[@typxxilps]

You might spend Helmut the dots for the ö cause his name is known as Helmut Hörner which I had to find out while researching. There is a research book 200 pages long from 2013 about german pow becoming immigrants done by an american with german post war roots and he mention the journal by Helmut Hörner. it was written in over 10 years from 2002 onwards. Google books shows me here only an excerpt, but it seems to be a great read called: From german Prisoner of War to american citizen - a social history with 35 interviews which has Lots of sources, techniques used and what not to get 35 whitnes reports out of a few hundred thousands maybe 60 - 70 years later.

[@WorldWar2Stories]

@@typxxilps sounds interesting I'll check it out! :)

[@johnnycampbell3422]

Is this "true", as in a real person's account?

[@mattyancey28]

Thank you for this.

[@deltaboy767]

My grandfather was a POW in Oklahoma, he worked om a farm as a ranch hand and a babysitter to a single father whom had 2 boys one missing in action, and a 4 year old, he loved and adored the little boy, the father eventually adopted the solider, who was only 18 at the time. He returned to Germany, only to emigrante back to the US within a month. That little boy is my uncle and the German soldier is my grandfather.

[@AshtonCoolman]

This is a story worth making into a movie

[@elsajones6325]

So he replaced his missing in action son. OMG! What a tear jerker. Surprising what life brings us

[@deltaboy767]

@@elsajones6325 It sounds sad, but it's actually not, the little boy wanted his big brother back, and what was ironic is the soldier looked at lot like the boys brother.

[@elsajones6325]

@@deltaboy767 thank you🥰

[@deltaboy767]

@@elsajones6325 You're welcome

[@jamesmcpherson8599]

Less than a day into American and he gives someone the finger. A true American at heart.

[@matasa7463]

In New York City, no less!

[@sundiver137]

@@matasa7463 Well, it is said the New York state bird is a hand gesture....

[@ryanmassey586]

I bet he fit right in 😂

[@Janellabelle]

Lol yep i thought, well. He's gonna do just fine.

[@clarkgriswold-zr5sb]

But not such a cool thing in Oklahoma...

[@adamb89]

Dude, I'm a severe alcoholic who can't sleep without being drunk. But these videos, not to in any way suggest they're boring because they're not, they're extremely interesting yet strangely therapeutic in their diction, but it's the first time I've got a good night's sleep in close to a decade, without being drunk. I look forward to someday listening to a single one in one go. I'm not there yet, but Damn. First time I've slept in a decade while sober.

[@chrismorgan9153]

Congratulations. I have severe insomnia, and I end up falling asleep to this incredibly soothing voice, too. I have playlists set up from several channels which feature the most soothing voices. One Irish guy, one Scottish girl, and this man do something to my brain...lol. I wish they knew how much I appreciate the sleep they've allowed me to get.

[@jonbbbb]

@@chrismorgan9153 interestingly, I would bet that this voice is AI generated. That might be something to check out if you run out of content!

[@cavscout62]

Keep tapering your intake booze if you’re in it’s grip to the point of physical addiction Brother. If you can’t regulate your intake then stop. I wish you well.

[@CD3WD-Project]

​@@jonbbbbwhat's wrong with AI? Hell more than likely we are AI also.

[@Janellabelle]

More important to get your sleep and be careful not to withdraw without medical supervision. May your health improve. 🙏

[@alexanderh.5814]

Like I stated in an earlier video my great grandfather was a German POW in the US. He said they were absolutely amazed when they pulled into New York with the size of the city. They were placed on trains and traveled like tourists in the train car with the windows opened so they could see all the sights. They traveled trough the Great Lakes industrial cities into the farm land. They astonished at how much industry was occurring and how large the country was. If the US was trying to make a point, it came across loud and clear…they were never going to win the war.

[@MuttTheHoople]

Whether it was intentional or not, when the Germans left New York and took the train ride to their POW camps. Seeing all the farm land, factories, and automobiles on the way, by the time they got to the camp they knew they were going to lose the war. Kept them from wanting to escape.

[@davidpryle3935]

I’d say they gave thanks to God, they weren’t on a Train to Siberia.

[@steffenrosmus9177]

​@@MuttTheHoopleit was intentional, if you read the US Army papers dealing with POWs.

[@blueduck9409]

I wonder if the point was also to wave a carrot infront of the POWs. Something they could return to after the war, coming back to America to start a new life. I know many Germans did that very thing. The lucky ones brought their families over, the others started new families and new lifes.

[@uptoolate2793]

Only 25 years ago, my German neighbors in Wisconsin had family visit "on holiday" from Germany. The visitors inquired about taking a day trip to the grand canyon and could they be back in time for dinner or bedtime. Even today Europeans, Germans, in this case, don't seem to grasp the size of the United States.

[@nejdro1]

I was stationed in Germany in the early 60"s. One of my German acquaintances had been a German POW in North Carolina where he worked in a shoe factory. They actually walked to work through the town from their camp. He returned to Germany after the war with $700 he had earned as a POW in the shoe factory. He had nothing but favorable memories from his treatment in America.

[@TheCenteroftheUniverse]

We really were "the good guys" all the way around the board.

[@EyeLean5280]

@@TheCenteroftheUniverse Well, maybe. Maybe not. Certainly we were the better guys.

[@EyeLean5280]

My father was also stationed in Germany, I think from '60-'62. He was fluent in German (as well as a handful of other European languages) so he could understand what the Germans were saying when they thought otherwise. He told me that denazification had been an utter failure in that country.

[@TheCenteroftheUniverse]

@@EyeLean5280 Totally unsurprising. It is fascists' Destiny to be unable to learn what is the foundation of being truly human. People being kind, "normal" people enrage them because they are thereby reminded of their own lack.

[@TheCenteroftheUniverse]

@@EyeLean5280 I didn't say "perfect." I said good.

[@danderby8261]

What impresses me is how the sense of American fairness created a positive environment which won over recent enemies. Our approach, which is very different than the French, Russian and nearly every other victor throughout history, which strove to provide the enemies with dignity and respect. The Marshall Plan and creating of alliances with former foes created one of the greatest periods of human history.

[@mirquellasantos2716]

American fairness only for German soldiers who spilled the blood of American soldiers certainly not for black soldiers who spilled their blood to defend America still came back to a super segregated country. Even German soldiers had more rights than black soldiers.

[@Lerch-zc3ww]

True, but those others were invaded, pillaged and had cities destroyed by the Germans, or worse, so the different attitudes are understandable.

[@rebralhunter6069]

@@mirquellasantos2716 no they didn't. That's a very stupid comment.

[@rebralhunter6069]

Well its much easier for Americans to treat the Germans with a sense of fairness compared to other nations, since the war with Germany didn't spill over into the US. Even the war with Japan, for the most part, at least. Its easier to be much more bitter and want to exact revenge when your homeland is the one being conquered.

[@31terikennedy]

Yep and the US wasn't over run by foreign armies.

[@garrymoore8763]

I eagerly await the release of these stories everyday. The narration is excellent, and keeps me glued to the phone like an old fashioned radio broadcast. My wife simply shrugs as she knows that for the next hour I will be so distracted as to be totally worthless to her. Thank you.

[@uptoolate2793]

Listen at 1.5x if time is of concern.

[@garrymoore8763]

ONE suggestion I would venture to offer: the picture chosen to accompany each dissertation are always interesting in themselves, but I would like to see a new picture as you change chapters.

[@Purple_Pixel]

I am enjoying listening to these stories. Thank you for posting.

[@Rockout2.0]

I agree with you! It's been really interesting.

[@p0xus]

These stories of how well the German PoWs were treated here make me proud to be an American. We are all people. One species. All going through this life as best as we can.

[@danilooliveira6580]

it wasn't exactly done out of the goodness of their hearts though, it had a practical reason, it was a way to break their morale and keep them from wanting to escape. it was all intentional, and as we can see, it worked. but they were still used for forced labor, just treated like people, instead of treated like disposable trash like in Siberia.

[@frankt9156]

Did you read about how Japanese Americans was treated during WWII? Will you still feel proud?

[@p0xus]

@@frankt9156 I'm proud that we recognize the mistakes of our past and strive to avoid them in the future.

[@aBitTedious]

Okay people no need to jump in and try and state the obvious fact that not every American was kind to German POW's. Every country during the war had it's share of cruelty to prisoners, but compared to Russia, or God forbid, Japan. America & Canada were the best outcomes you could have as a German POW. There are countless stories of Germans working farms being treated with respect, fed well, and had genuinely good lives. A bunch even went to get US citizenship after the war. Look up any other prison camp during WW2 and tell me which ones better.

[@Hollybee966]

​@@frankt9156 The Japanese shouldn't have been put in camps, but they weren't treated badly inside the camps. I personally knew people who were in the camps, including a teacher of mine.

[@toastnjam7384]

My dad was a camp guard for German POW's. He said they were hardworking and industrious. They liked working on the local farms and they were always making things out of scraps. Some made all wood coo-coo clocks that they sold to camp personnel or the locals they work for.

[@coldfrostice]

My father was several years in camp in the USA. He was a war hero. France, Russia, Italy, Sicilia, Greece, Crete etc.

[@oldmech619]

They were even used as servers in the officers club.

[@coldfrostice]

Yes that right. My father told my mum exactly that (he also had a coo-coo clock in his "private" fireplace resting room 🤓). But that's just a small thing, overall they was lucky having survived Normandie and the Falaise pocket. He was always building things, once he build a big swimmingpool to my two older twin sisters, he used a piece of a water pipe from a Hydro Power Stations...you know the enormous pipes that lead water down from the mountains into the turbins. He took a piece 3m and tilted it on the ground. His younger brother was helping him this summer. His brother volunteered for the 3rd Reich when he was 16 years and my father was 18 years old.

[@curtbowers7817]

Nice story. Still to this day the Germans, Swiss and other European countries make those cool clocks!

[@hydrolifetech7911]

​@@coldfrosticedid you mean a war veteran?

[@curtbowers7817]

My mother grew up on a farm in Oklahoma. There were Germans working the fields picking cotton and tending to other crops while being watched by armed guards on horses. One day she stepped off the school bus to see the new 2 story family home collapse after burning. Many Germans had ran into the home to save anything that could be saved. After things settled down, a German approached my Grandpa and gave him his Gold Watch (the kind that had a chain and was inside the Jacket). And my Grandpa thanked him sincerely. Grandpa would drive his 1938 Chevy truck into town and load the back with Coke, 7up and Cherry Sodas for the Germans. They always expressed their appreciation for being treated kindly. I wish he could have visited some of them in Germany but travel wasn’t as easy then. I wrote a story to my 5th grade class about this and my teacher told me he didn’t believe it. My mom angrily told him you will apologize to my son in front of his class. And he did. WW2 was as bad a war as they come. The sheer amount of deaths to me is still unbelievable. But even the worst events bring out the best in people. We’re all much more alike than we will ever know.

[@TheCenteroftheUniverse]

Brava your Mom @curtbowers7817. My old man was like that with lightweight teachers in school. That's a hella story to be able to tell, Sir. Be well.

[@matthewmusson3473]

My Grand Father built POW camps in the Southwest and my Dad and my Grand Mother spent much time in them. A strident NAZI told my Grand Mother for years that Hitler would roll across the USA like he did in France. After the German surrender my Grand Mother told him: "Hitler told you that you would roll across America. He just didn't tell you that you would have to pull sugar beets along the way!"

[@TheCenteroftheUniverse]

@@matthewmusson3473 He (or she) who laughs last ...

[@Nyllsor]

Thanks for sharing!

[@danielj1063]

North America a far better scene than fascist Nazi/S.S. enforced ghettos, cattle trains to death camps (beyond comprehension), slave labor, on and on ....

[@centerfiresuppressionllc682]

In the small town where I grew up lived a professional photographer named Ernst Flouter. He was a German Soldier who came to America as a POW. He used to say being captured by the Americans was the best thing that ever happened to him.

[@carolgiangreco6548]

Wow!

[@jayhawkjd8565]

My grandfather had German POWs on his farm in Kansas. One was a concert pianist who managed to play once for my grandmother.

[@TheCenteroftheUniverse]

Wow. So many peaceful images all at once.

[@tinahale9252]

I lived in Salina Kansas when I found out about all the camps

[@jayhawkjd8565]

@tinahale9252 My grandpa's farm is under Lake Waconda now.

[@hithere7382]

Is there good boating and fishing on it? If so it was worth it.@@jayhawkjd8565

[@norrisbethke7770]

Wonderful hearing “the other side of the story”..in 1990 was exploring an area in SE Berlin that the wall had gone through, an older gentleman walking his dog spoke to me, had to tell him ich bin Americanische upon which he invited me to his home and where I stayed many times on European trips, he was captured at Stalingrad and I heard many of his experiences..Gunter Rucks rip 🙏🏻🕊

[@PaulHenning84]

write them down and publish them, publish your story of your times with him please

[@norrisbethke7770]

@@PaulHenning84 yes, have told some in other comments, after a couple stays with him he bought a course in English and learned one word..street, with a rolled “r”..I knew enough German and had a Langenscheidt “wurterbuch” to help..he also had solar on his house and in the basement had a rather large bank of WWII German submarine batteries for power storage..he had scarring around his mouth and one hand where Russian guards smashed him with a rifle butt..🙏🏻 if I can find a proper venue I will tell more

[@PaulHenning84]

@@norrisbethke7770 I will have a venue made for you

[@a.p.3004]

So did you ask him "why was he destroying and killing in Stalingrad ?"

[@allrequiredfields]

​@@a.p.3004Because he was in the German army, you mouthbreather. You're incredibly sheltered if you think soldiers are privy to the Intel on why they go where they go - much less the asinine notion that the might have some sort of sway on where they go. You've got the mind of a child - hopefully you actually are one.

[@President.GeorgeWashington]

As an American, it makes me feel proud that my countrymen treated the enemy POWs with kindness. I feel a sense of pride when I compare how we treated our POWs to how the Soviets or the Japanese did. We gave these Germans plenty of food, water, coffee, 8-hour workdays, Sundays off, and even paid them for their labor. No torture, no executions, no slave labor. I can't imagine the feeling of relief that these German boys felt when they realized how kind we Americans are. We should always strive to be a source of good in the world. (even though we are guilty of plenty)

[@ReformedSooner24]

It seems a uniquely American thing (probably due in no small part to our Christian roots) to be eager to show mercy and compassion to our foes once they have been neutralized and defeated. Be it individual prisoners or entire countries.

[@xwormwood]

As a German, I agree that the US has the right to be proud for their treatment of the enemy.

[@michaeltorres638]

How proud did you feel on how we treated the Japanese Americans, and I'm not talking about POWs but Americans of Japanese descent.

[@President.GeorgeWashington]

@@michaeltorres638 read the last sentence in my comment...

[@Bad_Goy23]

@@michaeltorres638 Not proud. America has done many things in our past that we regret now. I will not justify those actions, but they do not overshadow all of the good we have done.

[@edwinwinn8876]

My father in-law played baseball every Sunday with German prisoners, when the war was over, they didn't want to go home, many of them came back to Ks. and became farmers. He told me most days the war camp gates were left open and unguarded.

[@loetzcollector466]

I read a story once about a German POW trolling his American captors by arguing that the German Army was a superior Force. " How can you say the German Army is better Fritz? Look where you sit and look where I stand?!" The German soldier replied: "I was in charge of an anti-tank gun. I knocked out each of your tanks as they drove up the road. I simply ran out of ammunition before you ran out of Tanks."

[@peterb2272]

Although the German did not realise it, in his tolling he ironically provided the reason why the Germans lost the war. The point that he ran out of shells before the Americans ran out of tanks showed why the American's had a winning force.

[@loetzcollector466]

@peterb2272 that's true. I realized that in and honestly he probably did too. He was just putting a good face on the situation. Just like World War 1. When the Germans captured the first American pow they knew the war was over. The finish on his weapons, the quality of the leather, they knew if they could outfit an army to that level there's no way they could win

[@bekind2047]

Stupidity hurts. You lose a war and still talk bullshit.

[@Heywoodthepeckerwood]

@@loetzcollector466plus the fact that the Americans had to ship those tanks thousands of miles and across an ocean.

[@fernandoamy8278]

The Germans lost the war. End of story.

[@ikept_the_jethryk2421]

One of my high school friends’ mother grew up on a farm that was worked by German POWs. She was a small child and remembers them as jolly, friendly men who ate in their kitchen sometimes and chatted in German with her parents. In the 50s she realized who they were and what had brought them there.

[@mikebrase5161]

I used to be the NCOIC of the Lewis Army museum JBLM. One of the stories i got from one of the old curators was that he knew of at least 6 German soldiers who after being POW's ended up marrying local women from the farms they were assigned to work on. The last one of them Gunther passed away in 2010 i got to meet him in around 2008 and was amazed he was red white and blue American. He was 18 when taken POW at Normandy.

[@theminister1154]

It's a pretty easy assimilation. Half of english is German. Many of our most productive settlers were from Germany or Holland. Many of the rest are from England which is basically just a colony of Angles and Saxons in large measure. And you have all the Scandinavian settlers who were also heavily influenced by Germany and German language. Really couldn't pick a better place to emigrate to if you're a German.

[@krisaaron5771]

@@theminister1154 Both my family and my husband's family are of German ancestry and settled in the northern US states when they arrived -- familiar climate, I suppose. Both our DNA tests came back showing distinctive western Russian links! Hard as politicians try, they'll have a hell of a struggle making us hate our own blood relatives. Combine that with the internet conversations we strike up with those who may possibly be our genetic (if distant) cousins and maybe this is how we put an end to war?

[@johnschuh8616]

Pershing and Eisenhower--anglosized spelling, of course, were both of German descent, as are probably 40% of all Americans, Our culture may be British in origin but it owes much to Germany.

[@craigdixon4113]

I was listening during a drive from Albuquerque, NM. To Denver, Co. in my Model A Ford. Just listening and connecting with the past. As part of a Summertime Tour.

[@philliplopez8745]

The true warrior knows that he has more in common with the man he faces then with the man who sent him there.

[@ritamedina-molina8550]

Germans.....the best

[@Neutercane]

Very, very profound. Well said.

[@bullgator]

As the grandchild of a woman who lost her ENTIRE family to these bastards, yes...they are very fucking different. While the US has done some awful things in times of war, there is no comparison...none.

[@luckymetigaming]

@@bullgatoroh yea, very different. Not like we Americans committed mass genocide to the natives, killed over 2 million in Vietnam, killed 20 percent of the Korean population. And continue to fund and start civil wars in developing countries. Ur right, we are different, historically we are worse lol. Now let’s not talk about slavery, Jim Crow and all of other crimes against humanity

[@rhodasimmons1644]

The US has done just as much evil as any other culture, civilization, nation, etc. at war with another as any other in history. In fact, Hitler, took ideas of how the early US waged war and treated the indigenous people when carrying out his genocidal agenda against the Jewish, Romani, LGBTQAI, Disabled, and neighboring populations in Germany and bordering nations. Everything from using propaganda to demonize the targeted group to mass murder by handing out small pox infected blankets and starving them out to placing the targeted group in confined designated communities or districts to restricting the targeted group rights to vote, own property, raise their own children, etc. He didn't come up with all the ideas on his own. A good many of them came from our own actions against the native people inhabiting the US early in our own history. That is the harsh brutal truth. We as a nation have just as much of a stain on us as Germany if you really want to compare atrocities against a specific group of people.

[@lemmykilmister450]

Awesome, I'm enjoying this series very much.

[@johngaither9263]

Camp Gruber still exists. The Oklahoma National Guard uses it for training and maneuvers. When not in use by them it is state land and open to the public. I've hunted there and seen the firing ranges, unused now but used during WWII. I did not know there was a POW camp there until now.

[@mikesherman4814]

In the 1980’s living in Tulsa my sons and I would travel an hour to camp Gruber to ride our off road motorcycles. Part of the riding area was the old POW camp. The roads and foundations of the barracks still existed. Occasionally there was an article in the Tulsa newspaper about former german POW’s returning to see the old camp.

[@clanmcstump]

I spent a few weeks there off and on during my time in the reserves and we did our rifle qualifications there. The last time I was there a lot of the POW barracks were still there and being used.

[@scrimshaw7470]

Most of that treeline around Gruber was planted by German pows according to family I had in the area at the time.

[@jayethompson3414]

I grew up 10 miles from there in Cherokee County. Older school teachers would tell stories from their parents about German POWs.

[@clarkadams9845]

I visited Camp Gruber back in 1990,. I bought a coffee mug therewith the camp logo on it. I saw some of the items built by the German POWs. Years later I met a WWII veteran as a patient of mine who trained at Camp Gruber in WWII I gave him the coffee mug. Sadly he passed away a few weeks later.

[@AuthorsAgony]

Checked to see if there was a new chapter, wasn't disappointed!

[@conceptalfa]

Me neither!!!😃

[@joegeezer6375]

Ditto, the content is absolutely outstanding.

[@jlpack62]

This series has been fascinating to listen to.

[@johnbrobston1334]

I used to know a man who had been a German POW in the US. Before the war he had been a master sailmaker. He was working for a parachute company when I knew him. Some of his work is now on Jupiter. He had family in Germany and would visit them occasionally. He had no desire to move back there.

[@kenstrumpf909]

These are fascinating. Thanks!

[@defconsupply3990]

The POW camp south of our town we ride dirt bikes now. Gruber ORV area. The other side is Camp Gruber National Guard Training Area

[@edt8535]

When I was a kid of 12, my mom took me for some unknown reason to travel around on a shoe string in Europe. We had no connection to the military. After a couple of months we actually moved in with some distant German relatives. Even though their customs were different, I very quickly came to realize there were some striking similarities that we shared with them, similarities as human beings. That was over 50 years ago, and I still miss their kindness and hospitality…😢

[@waynesmith3318]

n 1964 I was in college and attended a party at my future wife's home. It was an aniversary and many of their friends were there. They had just emigrated from Canada. And so had most of the people there. One man had a European accent and I asked where he was from. He told me it was a German accent. And to shorten the story up he was a German Paratrooper and had been wounded on the Russian front. After he healed he had been sent to Africa and was captured there. As a POW he had been sent to the US. He liked the US so much he vowed to return and had come back through Canada. I knew him and his German wife for many years. Another man I befriended that day was not in the German army. But was in high school and the boys were let out of school to man the 88 antiaircraft guns. On both sides they were just people carrying out orders from “leaders”.

[@markhorrell9213]

My mums extended family came from Hanover. Her n my grandparents went to Germany in the late 40's trying to find them. Turns out they'd all been killed in one of the bombing/Firestone raids. Mum n my grandfolks came away both saddened but confident the country could and would rebuild and reinvent itself as their fellow countrymen were both wiser and compassionate and more worldly...unlike their last visit in the mid 30's.

[@ianworley8169]

My German friend Klaus's father was imprisoned in the Soviet Union after being captured in 1944. His living conditions were indescribably poor. In the same gulag, were many Russian prisoners. His father said they were the kindest, most generous people he ever encountered. Even though all were kept on the verge of death and starvation, Russian prisoners would share what little they had. The contrast could not have been greater with the NKVD guards who relished their brutality, as no doubt did their equivalent guards of the concentration camps of Germany. Good and evil in all peoples.

[@a.p.3004]

Two completely different things. The NKVD guards were in their own country, defending it. The Concentration camps in all of occupied europe were wiping killing millions of people simply because of their nationality. That was fascism. The problem with Americans is that your country WAS NOT DESTROYED as was Russia that's why you believe in the "german bedtime stories".

[@nickinurse6433]

Yet when it becomes popular to follow 1 individual & if he is not moral..,..it CAN happen again

[@guypehaim1080]

These stories are a reminder of the days of radio when you were exposed to dramas and episodes of various shows where you had to use your imagination for the fleshing out of the actions you heard being described by the actors. Thank you for bringing these to us.

[@tjanderson5892]

An Audio book 😊

[@lepkeb2252]

Absolutely. I feel like I could now get into audiobooks because of this little series that I happened to stumble across on KZbin.

[@virginiaoflaherty2983]

Our family didn't have a TV until I was 14. Our parents thought it would make us stupid and unable to read. They were right. I remember listening to radio programs that were also made as TV shows. I also learned to read by listening to mother read aloud. I still like listening. She made us practice embroidery while listening to her read on hot summer afternoons.

[@1queenie]

Thank you for producing this series. I enjoy hearing the other side of the story not just the winners prospective.

[@lepkeb2252]

Totally enjoying this. Would love to hear more stories about average Germans held as prisoners in the United States.

[@mrpotato4441]

Keep the stories coming please, I use them to sleep at night and when waiting at the airport. thank you!

[@poetcomic1]

I heard the story of the guard who stopped his work detail truck in a small town in the Midwest near the camp and went in a bar to get a drink. The guard ended up drunk and the German POW's had to retrieve him from the bar and drive the truck back to camp. He was a nice 'jailer' and they wanted to keep him out of trouble. [Camp Concordia]

[@lunamae4718]

wow !

[@anitahamel4576]

Almost sounds like a TV skit.

[@ericscottstevens]

14:50 AH felt America was full of the heartiest Germans who immigrated away and that would forever left a gap in the ancestry of Germany. These Germans braved an ocean voyage had immigrated to the heartland of the USA in the 1800s. So most POWs knew the German names at the farmstead sprinkled across the great landscape, Some US farmers in central Texas were still speaking German at the household

[@floydlooney6837]

There were still German language newspapers in central Texas

[@TXJan0057]

My MIL was born in 1924 in Fredericksburg TX, she didn't speak English until 3rd grade school was taught in German until then.

[@kevincopeland795]

'blouses filled with risk and desire:'. That's classic!! ( I live in Tulsa)

[@Torchbearer88]

Thank you for doing this!

[@TheRustyLM]

I love this gentleman’s writing. Thank you for posting this series.

[@Oregun44]

My great grandfather was German, he came here before WW2 but when the war broke out people judged him heavily, towards the end though everyone was fine with him

[@greglammers9905]

These memoirs are really interesting. We had a pow. camp here in our little town in southern Minnesota. My father in law told stories of the German prisoners working on local farms. In later years the local canning factory used the camp for housing the migrants that worked in the fields. It has since been torn down. Thanks for sharing this.

[@Bob.W.]

What town?

[@leinie6683]

@@Bob.W. Sounds similar to my grandmother and aunts stories about Montgomery MN

[@Bob.W.]

I was thinking New Ulm. I knew a German who worked on a farm as a POW and came back there after being sent home after the war.

[@greglammers9905]

@@Bob.W. Owatonna. It was just north of Owatonna on old highway 65. It is now county road 45

[@Bob.W.]

@@greglammers9905 thanks. I know that road, having been on it many times on my motorcycle.

[@05chrisf]

I did 10 years in the oklahoma guard... camp gruber is where we did our 2 week AT... and some drill weekends there. When we did patrols thru the woods you can still see the foundations of the barracks that were used to house POWs... that's actually how I found out it used to be a pow camp for the Germans.... super eerie to see the old overgrown barracks in the middle of no where.

[@MalcrowAlogoran]

22:40 “She is a race track. Just look at those dangerous curves!” 😂

[@_pepperz7455]

Bro was down bad 😂

[@JeromeGardiner]

Although the German guards were also nice to my father who was being held in Stalag 13B, the difference was there was no food. My father weighed 89 pounds when he escaped the Germans and made it back to the American forces. It was the coldest winter in the history in all of Europe and the marshaling yards had been bombed out of the war so food in the fields were not able to be moved from the farms. My father lived on a cabbage soup for 6 months. One night a horse froze to death and the next day they had horse meat in their soup. The care packages were delivered by the Red Cross, and the Americans would share their good fortune with all the prisoners and guards. In the beginning, the guards would take food from the packages before they were given to the POW's. Later the guards apologized and the Americans assured them that they would share with everyone. My father was Catholic and a German sergeant was also Catholic so he allowed dad to keep his rosary and a photo of my mom. From the lack of nutrition and the dark cells, my father suffered the loss of the strength of the eye muscles around his eyes and had to do eye exercises with a box of cards and a 3d set of glasses. This treatment lasted until 1958, when he was able to restore his vision. The germans were well organized and treated the Americans decently. One of the interpreters told the camp commander that they had received information from the German POw's in America that they were well rested, well fed, and were actually getting fat. The felt that Germans in America would suffer if the Germans mistreated the American POW's.

[@avroarchitect1793]

Not a totally unfounded fear given the experience Germany got at the hands of the Canadians in WW1. Word got to the Canadians (rumors most likely) that the germans were killing Canadian prisoners. What followed was a slaughter and the Canadians ceasing to take prisoners and accept surrender for several long months. Some of the things they did were added to treaties on the laws of war following the war due to concerns of it becoming common.

[@thomasambrose2559]

I was stationed with the army in Germany twice during the sixties and seventies. My great-grandfather came from Baden-Baden in the 1890s. I have purchased an excellent copy of the book version of this work, but I'd pay a lot for a CD version of this marvelous reading. Superb!

[@faithinverity8523]

As of the 1930 U.S. Census, German-Americans ranked as the largest ethnic group in the United States, constituting the largest percentage of the total population at that time. Americans were, largely, German. Duh.

[@tommorgan1291]

What a bunch of whiners! They should have thanked God ten times a day.

[@aresee8208]

My father was a medic at a POW camp for Germans in York, SC. Despite being just an enlisted guy, my faher was particularly friendly with a German Major/medical doctor. My father had a few interesting stories about interacting with the prisoners.. He even played cards with some of them.

[@Shay-bp7yt]

Can you tell me some lf the stories

[@aresee8208]

@@Shay-bp7yt Well, once my father took a truck full of German soldiers to a medical clinic outside the camp. The clinic had facilities not available at the camp. While the Germans were at the clinic, my father went to see a movie in town. The movie went too long, and when my father got back to the clinic, it was dark out and the Germans were all sitting outside on the grass waiting. Apparently they were not happy my father was late.

[@krisaaron5771]

@@Shay-bp7yt I heard about this unrelated war story from my parents, who were adults during that time period: Fort Riley, just outside of Manhattan, Kansas, was a shipping station for flour, sugar and other difficult-to-obtain food during WWII that were intended for the US military overseas. Local thieves stole several truckloads with the intention of selling it on the black market. Of course, county law enforcement knew who had pilfered the goods and arrested the suspected parties immediately. They had been troublemakers since high school and were no strangers to local jails. BUT... When the families of servicemen learned about the thefts they were enraged! "My son is fighting our enemies and he should go hungry while YOU profit off selling food intended for our military?" They called friends and relatives, and within about an hour a mob had formed and marched to the jail, determined to tar and feather the thieves! While that might have improved their morals, hot tar (it melts at about 400 F) can do terrible damage to human skin. The sheriff couldn't have that and called the commander at Fort Riley for assistance. By the time the mob arrived at the jail a disabled war hero -- in uniform -- confronted them, reassuring the outraged families that the food had been retrieved and no soldier would go hungry. His speech wasn't recorded, but apparently it included the statement that this is America and Americans do NOT dispense mob justice (at least not in Kansas)! Everyone went home, the local newspaper was persuaded not to report on the incident and the thieves eventually moved out of the area. Dad was an army officer and knew the sheriff. He swore the story was true and I believe him.

[@louisgiokas2206]

Love this series. The whole channel is very interesting as well. I have always been interested in war diaries and first person memoirs. One thing this reminds me of is the memoir of a German soldier, who I believe had also been captured. He stayed in the US, and moved between there and Canada. He was a successful engineer and had his own company. In the afterword to his memoir, he relates that once he was at a dinner with a bunch of guys who were all US veterans. The waitress came up and thanked them for their service. They all broke out laughing.

[@steven9370]

When stationed in Germany my landlord was with the Afrika Corps and was captured and sent to Oklahoma for internment. He loved it there and wanted to go back..but...

[@scottphelps1776]

My grandfather was a POW in Europe. He was nearly starved to death before he escaped. He weighed less than 100lbs and his uniform looked like it was hanging from a coat hanger.

[@nocount7517]

This should be a series like Band of Brothers, following the events of the journal, and records of Helmut as closely as possible.

[@patricklarkin9666]

Omg! I stumbled upon this only this morning. Very well done! Thanks for posting this. I will definitely search for the rest

[@maxinefreeman8858]

They didn't realize that my parents had ration tickets. My dad was digging coal from the belly of the mountains of southeast Kentucky. They had to use ration tickets for gas, flour , other items of food. So while my dad dug coal, POWS bitching because they had never worked before were having to do garden work.

[@rickrudd]

This has been a really great series.

[@richardsimms251]

Top quality program RS. Canada

[@blueduck9409]

These are good videos. The content is valuable history. Thank you for sharing!

[@lhaviland8602]

60 cents in 1945 is equal to 10 dollars in 2023 for anyone interested.

[@shaymouskrueger9476]

I aswell am thankful for these entry's.!!, I look for the New one daily.., I appreciate it.

[@marilynleslie472]

My father was a POW in a German camp in 1944. The American prisoners of war suffered brutal treatment. Their food was a watery soup filled rotten vegetables and a few pieces of rotten meat. To hear of these German POWs complaining about their food infuriates me.

[@eddieristau4214]

Well one side didn't know what was really going on with the otherside at that present moment till some time or years later. A lot of those POWS from Germany learned to appreciate the treatment they were getting versus what their fate could of been being stuck in a war or much worse dealing with the Soviets. Many stayed here, worked in our industries, had families. I live in Kenosha,WI where there are many stories of these very young guys worked in our factories. Sturtevant, WI which is the next city from mine which is next door had a POW camp for Germans and much less had a lot of freedoms.

[@DCFunBud]

Of course, they were going to complain. It is human nature. But, they knew they had it better than those in Russian prisoner of war camps.

[@dellingson4833]

You have to realize every truck or train in Germany was a target by fighter planes. The people of Germany weren't fairing well towards the end either.

[@shirleybalinski4535]

Yes, my Uncle was POW in Germany too. 6'tall,#90 on liberation. He said they ate the maggots in the same watery soup. It was " meat" , he said. Germans couldn't feed their military or civilian population by the end of the war. Prisoners were low on the food scale.

[@josephwolosz2522]

I've missed a few episodes. But Helmut seems eligible to be Officer material. He is quite a story teller. He seems to know what is going on with the war. He even describes the Liberty ship he was aboard. Very concise and attention to detail. Being a POW in American hands was the best prisoners could hope for.

[@bigwoody4704]

Helmut a ill iinformed moaner he ate better than any other POWs at the time and wouldn't dare switch places with a victim of the ovens or German soldiers in Gulags or even GIs in Germany as the camps ran out of food

[@andrewhart6377]

Only in certain circumstances. Have you read about Eisenhowers Death Camps at all ?

[@josephwolosz2522]

@@andrewhart6377 I think there was a large meadow around Frankfurt. So many prisoners were Swelling the camp beyond any potential of care. There are stories of prisoners that suffered under American care. And the Americans had started getting the news about the concentration camps. The Army and even the Germans could not easily supply proper food,clothes and medical care to the overflow. Just got too much for any one to handle. Since we were still trying to supply all our Allies with material to fight with. War is Hell.

[@ryanpark2049]

Bullshit, American troops raped allied women civies even. Killed millions of Germans after surrender by claiming they are disarmed enemies instead of surrendered enemy. Na WW2 America, Churchill, and hell everyone involved then was trash

[@R34LI7Y]

I believe they’re all NCO’s pretty sure he mentioned it a few times in the previous episodes

[@b.critical7873]

I'm amazed to hear the author state how he thought that the Americans and Germans should have joined together,while seeming to forget that Germany declared war on America !

[@puncheex2]

Not forgets... more like never told or lied to. Listen to hat he says about the newspapers.

[@lamwen03]

Only because the US was helping the British. Actually, Hitler didn't want to fight anyone in the west, he wanted the farmlands and resources of the east. Liebensraum.

[@schroedingersdog7965]

@@lamwen03 The actual term is "Lebensraum" (living space). But I think I prefer your word "Liebensraum" (loving space)! 😉

[@lamwen03]

@@schroedingersdog7965 Oops.

[@b.critical7873]

@@lamwen03 If he didn't want fight anyone he shouldn't have invaded their countries and murder their citizens but he did no matter what revisionist tripe you may have ingested.

[@Backbone420]

I don’t know why, but everytime I hear these soldiers talk fondly of the ship that brought them over, I chuckle. They don’t care what type of boat, or what flag she flies. She floats, she battled the sea, and she made it. She’s a damn fine boat. 🤣👍 I agree. New to these diary channels, and enjoying them. Thank you for this. Oh and Im originally an Okie from Muskogee and I didn’t know Gruber was a POW camp. Rode dirt bikes out there long ago, but never knew that. Thank you for the education.

[@trickydicky2908]

I've enjoyed this story very much. Sometimes it's good to have a story that's not non-stop combat.

[@coreybrueckner4032]

I live in Denver and went to college in Greeley, CO in the early / mid-90’s. A number of museums in Colorado have displays that document WW2 German POW’s being used as laborers in the fields. POW’s were used in the mountains in the timber industry also. Maybe that will become winter work in future videos? This is an interesting series of videos. As someone posted earlier for another video, this would be a great Netflix series.

[@billolsen4360]

After graduating from college at UNC, I moved to temporary housing on a farm outside Greeley in a building that had once been a German POW barracks at Camp Greeley. Attended training as a new employee at the phone company in Greeley while living there. Wonder if some of these guys had been in my rental house.

[@xero402]

At least one of the soldiers would have to be trans ( to be on Netflix)

[@tombob671]

There was a PO W camp in Concordia ks. The farmers would take them to a restaurant in town for lunch. One of the POW said commenting on the severe Kansas weather, where temps can get down to -20F and up to 115F with the kansas wind always blowing hard. He said " when God created Kansas He did so with great wrath of heat,cood and wind" That's pretty accurate.

[@catherinelw9365]

Very poetic.

[@aaronpatterson2369]

YUP..thats home for ya. And i wouldnt live ANYWHERE else.

[@Yora21]

I've heard American soldiers saying that after having been in Britain and then fighting in Italy, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, getting into Germany felt shockingly like home. Much less foreign than the other places, even though now they were no longer liberators but invaders.

[@markfomenko8873]

In Band of Brothers, the book it states US soldiers liked the German people best generally. They ranked European people in terms of likability. German, British, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, and lastly the French. The French were not at all very well-liked.

[@Yora21]

@@markfomenko8873 Germans are by far the largest group of immigrants to the US, well before the English. And there was a huge wave of migration during the 19th century lasting until after World War 1. And until World War 1, when it became no longer fashionable, many towns in the US were still using German as their main language. For white Americans outside of New England and the Deep South, German culture was probably the strongest influence on their local culture in their home towns.

[@markfomenko8873]

In Band of Brothers, a reason the Americans liked the Germans was their widespread acceptance of toilet paper and flush toilets. Germans were the dominant group that settled in Ohio and Indiana.@@Yora21

[@bobl310]

@@markfomenko8873 ….. and to this day

[@krisaaron5771]

@@markfomenko8873 There was a big influx of Germans in Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota, as well. Familiar climate, I believe...

[@panzerknackerpaul2061]

My grandfather was taking prisoner of the Americans, after he was serving three years in Finnland. He was on the cotton fields too. He was quite lucky.

[@kennethbolton951]

Having had two grandfathers in WW1 a father and uncle in WW2,, a brother and myself in Vietnam and then lived in Japan and Germany prior I am always empathetic to the similarities of thought and experience of soldiers, sailors and airmen with which their experiences serve to them. Just look at Ukraine . Who would want to be a Russian soldier these days much less Ukrainian.

[@joeyfotofr]

I'd much rather be a Ukrainian soldier. At lest I'd know what I was fighting for and would not be led by idiots who are fat & safe and very far from the front lines.

[@fromthefire4176]

@@joeyfotofrtrue, as part Ukrainian myself tho, empathy is a muscle that needs exercise. When the war is done, the west will need to learn from history and seek not to punish those who have suffered enough and didn’t even ask for this, easier said than done tho. Only saying this because I know how these threads go, vatniks love to take advantage of anyone showing empathy for Russians, use it to get us arguing while pushing their fake worldview and playing victim as always.

[@berryreading4809]

Let's just be glad that even though Putin acts and talks just like h!tler he certainly doesn't have the effective military or strategy that the German Army had! Although I guess Putin still has the second best Army... In Ukraine... 😉 🇺🇦 (I know that second best Army in Ukraine joke is repetitive and overused, but I still find it amusing 😄)

[@RM-wt9hi]

​@@berryreading4809You mean the Ukranian Nazis,?

[@berryreading4809]

@@RM-wt9hi Yes Ukraine has a tiny population that have nazi ideals, wanna know which country has one of the largest populations that declare themselves as that? 🇷🇺 Russia! Although they have a couple of special flags besides that one... Wanna know who else has fractional population percentages of n@zis? Every single greater European and Baltic country that exists, but don't forget the others like America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand... Look into the recent former head of Russia's state space and rocket company Roscosmos to find a famous one... Along with the co-founder of Wagner Group (of which his callsign "wagner" became the name). Look into how many of the original wagner fighters and eventual commanders also identify as n@zis! If you want to invade a country based on number of n@zis, or based on a country with identifying members in high positions and some actual state power and huge military backing then Russia should've invaded itself! 😂 Is your country free of radical nationalists that fly the flags and symbols that n@zi Germany did? Mine certainly isn't! There are even radical nationalists that believe their country/ majority ethnic race is superior in Asia lol... I will admit Russia was smart with their bot farms, propaganda, and social media cyber soft power projection on this one, that's one of the smart tactical moves they made before/during this invasion... BTW Wagner ran one the large disinformation/bot farms (Concord Management and Consulting) pushing the Ukrainian n@zi issue hard, mainly around the time before/during the 2022 invasion, which is quite ironic in my opinion. If you don't know, the original German n@zis named the famous classical composer Richard Wagner a "national hero", Hitler and Goebbles loved his music and used it to promote n@zi propaganda in many ways. That music is now used by many national supremacists across the world, much like german n@zi symbolism is, and is where the Wagner PMC founder's callsign originated, and the company name is derived from... Before the invasion and even after (they had to change the narrative a bit) Wagner PMC's main social media accounts heavily focused on n@zi ideology promotion and symbolism, with possibly the largest/most viewed channel called "greywolf" lol being run by open n@zis, while simultaneously bragging about "destroying the Ukrainian n@zis" 🤦‍♂️... Ya know the state funded global paramilitary company, the one which invaded Crimea in 2014 (along with some Russian state FSB/GRU units) and started the DNR /LNR separatist "movements" in the Donbass and Luhansk regions... During the Wagner mutiny they thought it would be important to give dates and deployment areas along with other fun facts in order to show their accomplishments lol. If you don't believe me this information is available on their telegram channel, but much of the information had been reported previously by human rights watch groups and some media outlets... All of this information is easily verifiable, if you think Ukraine is teeming with n@zis everywhere and that had ANYTHING to do with the 2022 invasion of Ukraine then my friend you have been yet another person influenced by well constructed propaganda instead of taking time to seek the truth...

[@AVToth]

My Uncle was a POW. He survived 1942 Cabanatuan, the death march, being on a Japanese troop ship headed for Japan that was sunk by the US. Swam until he decided to die. Instead he stood on sand. He was recaptured, put on another ship and sent to Japan. There he labored in a mine and upon coming out of the mine witnessed the bomb explode over Hiroshima. He wasn't released until 1946. He testified before the war crimes tribunal of the Pacific. Germany and Japan, the Axis powers, cahoots. When I hear this sanctimonious discussion, the moaning about the Geneva convention it makes me sick. I am of German heritage. There are traditions we still hold. Perhaps it's the arrogance of youth, but listening the bitching because their coffee ration was cut, because the newspaper wasn't up to their standards, maybe some occasional cruelty would've helped them appreciate what they had. The Geneva convention is only of value if both sides follow it. The pictures of Hitler and the swastika over the bed of the Afrika Corp vets, how did they get those? Why were they allowed them?

[@mosart7025]

My family was German on my mother's side. The originator of the family in the USA was a Hessian soldier fighting for the British in the Revolutionary War. He was captured, was in a prisoner of war camp and decided to stay when he was released. The last name at that time was Sauftig. Somewhere it got changed to Saufley. There was a Naval aviation pioneer, Richard Saufley who died trying to extend his endurance flight record in a hydroplane, in 1916, for the Navy. So in 1942 the Navy named a destroyer the USS Saufley after him. She saw service in the Pacific in WWII and won 16 battle stars. My sister, who lived in Germany for many years (husband in the US Army Corps of Engineers, met up with the Sauftigs who still live near Munich. What a convoluted world we live in!

[@georgejernigan3312]

My father served on the USS Saufley during WWII. His experience s are related in the 1993 book Tin Can Man. Respectfully Cy Jernigan

[@krisaaron5771]

My father's family came to the US from Germany (Schleswig-Holstein) beginning in the early 1800s. They farmed, operated local businesses and fought willingly in every war we've had since they arrived. The ability to trace genetic connections through a tiny vial of saliva may prove to be the most important gift humanity has ever given itself!!

[@mosart7025]

@@georgejernigan3312 I'll try to find that book! Thanks for mentioning it!

[@edt8535]

I lived with German relatives for a while when I was a kid. I quickly learned there are some real similarities that tie all people together. My two cents.

[@timothywilliams1359]

Tulsa.... my home town, where now my brother and his Bavarian wife still live (Sie kommt aus Marktoberdorf.) And my father was a company commander in the 45th ID at Camp Gruber in the 1960s. How strange life is!

[@crassustheelder9665]

It’s only now that I realize that my previous comment on an earlier video about seeing the remains of POW camps in Oklahoma, was even closer to this than I realized! I’m from Tulsa and have been to Camp Gruber many times and passed the old quarries worked by POWs. Crazy world

[@weizenkonig161]

It’s nice for the former soldiers that they were treated with respect from the Americans. Unfortunately they let most of the real horrible Nazis in the lower ranks untouched after the war ended. Denazification never really happened from the western allies in Germany after the war. Russia was lurking in the east, so the cold war has begun and Germany was supposed to be the main battlefield, so the Americans needed allies.

[@ReformedSooner24]

That and whatever dreams nazism had had been crushed. Is it really a major issue if the lower ranking trueblue nazis were mostly left alone when even if they wanted to they couldn’t have done anything?

[@modelcitizen72]

Operation Paperclip has some very interesting stuff written about it. Nazi scientists were VERY useful to the United States.

[@jameswilliams3241]

I'm a Caddo man whose great grandma was a "Dutch girl",as German women were often referred to, she spoke German as did lot of Texans. My father and his brothers used to tell of their "adventure" fighting the Axis while German POWs were home doing their chores eating their granny's food .

[@Richard-xy7bu]

I'm from McAlester Oklahoma. The neighborhood 8 grew up in was built over a WW2 German pow camp. Always heard stories of how much the POWs liked it here and how amazed they were with America. They built these miniature castles that my friends and I used to play with our amy men in .

[@peterkingsley8736]

I am amazed at the literate quality of the journalistic style in these writings. How did he have the time, patience and mature acuity to be able to write all this down while going through such hellish wrenching of the young human spirit?

[@loetzcollector466]

I think it comes down to "young" people actually having a maturity appropriate to their age and modern technology that kills attention span.

[@lawless201]

@@loetzcollector466 The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. Plato says Socrates said this about him...Plato was Socrates student. Cut the new generation some slack.

[@theboyisnotright6312]

Well having been a soldier at war will mature you quickly.

[@lawless201]

@@theboyisnotright6312 What will or how one matures is irreverent to my point. As a whole and in general, every generation see's nothing but ruin from the generation that is going to replace them. Almost without fail, the older generation thinks they had to endure more, work harder for less and never had any of the luxuries that the younger generation has. Your parents said it about you and their parents said it about them. Despite having 4,000 years of passing the torch down to the next generation that was al but pointless, considering they were going to fuck it completely up by not being appropriately mature for their age and that damn modern tech that ruined their attention span is why it's all going to hell....Look, not saying this specifically towards you, just the people who think, they are the last of the "good ones" the people who think they are more mature and can focus on real problems, because they didn't have new tech when they grew up, they had to play on Atari, that was the safe kind of tech.

[@jguenther3049]

That's one of the best features of these videos. The descriptions in particular are poetic. Of course, his notes were edited for the final version.

[@ron9320]

1:9:36 the transcription is terribly wrong at this point! The farmer didn’t say : „I am a vulgar German!“ He said: „I am a Wolga German“! Wolga Germans were emigrants from Germany to Russia to settle at the Wolga River in the 17. century. When later they lost their promised rights and were suppressed by the Russians a lot of them migrated to the USA.

[@johnkaspar462]

I’m going to miss these guys. There seems to be a sort of brotherhood here between them and I even though time & ideologies separate. The few comments I’ve read seem to suggest we all feel this way. If not for similar military experience then surely for basic human existence

[@TheCenteroftheUniverse]

I have slowly come to believe that there is some measure of individual greatness in each of us. The question is whether we can find it and polish it up so that the world can see.

[@Fermifire]

Yo, this was based. Thanks for this! On god, love learning shit about World War 2. This whole vid gave me "Win them with kindness" vibes. Subscribed so I can listen to more of this in the car.

[@chrisdraughn5941]

I laughed at the POWs being told to throw their trash out the window of the train.

[@joycemusgrave161]

Paul here. My father had recovered from wounds received in the battle of the Bulge, and was transferred from Cambridge Ohio military hospital to camp Perry west of Port Clinton ohio. He guarded POW's they went by bus to Clyde Ohio and worked in the canning plant of Campbell's. He said some spoke better English than he did, seems some had gone back to Germany to rescue grandparents or aunts and uncle's and were rounded to fight for Germany. They didn't believe in the war, others were dyed in the wool fighting Germany.

[@kev3d]

That Cincinnati joke really is pretty funny.

[@user-vg3yc6gk5f]

As the narrator goes through being unloaded and pushed through various things, it is hard not to imagine his countryman pushing others through a system that had a much different ending for them.....

[@shoopoop21]

They are proud to serve, but lets not lie about it. Conscription is not a choice, and is done at gunpoint. They even angrily and _honestly_ deny being nazis. Your understanding of history, military, and factions is flawed, and you need to shed them biases.

[@colemanyoung8245]

As a native Oklahoman I truly enjoyed this episode!

[@salvatorediangelo453]

I'm really enjoying this series!

[@573998]

I am a retired railroad engineer who used to work between Columbus Ohio to Cincinnati to St Louis . I with a smile travelled the same tracks as these lucky men

[@asullivan4047]

Interesting and informative. Excellent photography picture 📷 enabling viewers to better understand what/whom the orator was describing. Class A research project!!! Special thanks to the veteran ( pow ) soldiers sharing personal information/incarceration experiences making this documentary more authentic and possible. The German ( POW ) soldiers in Oklahoma received much better humane incarceration treatment. Then if they were ordered east to Moscow.

[@mirquellasantos2716]

And I guess that the same nice USA treated black soldiers worse than the Soviets treated their POW. So nice with the German soldiers who spilled the blood of Americans and vile with black soldiers who spilled their blood for America.

[@annsheridan12]

In the book “the Victors “ 20,000.+ GIs were interviewed and asked of all the cultures you interacted with during the war which was most like us? The answer, the Germans.

[@annsheridan12]

@SarahHodgins it came to one vote that English was chosen.

[@miamianz]

wow amazing story. the things ones life puts one through.

[@LanceMan]

My hometown in Pa housed Italian POW. They were allowed to come into town to shop and eat etc. My grandfather worked at the base where they were housed and said he liked them. He thought they were friendly and funny.

[@stevestewart007]

My grandmother and grandfather, mother, uncle, and I were born in Chickasha, OK. My grandmother spoke a little German and owned a few German books, and my mother said my grandmother would sometimes go to the camp to read and speak in German to willing POW's. She told my mother that she hoped, that if her own son (US Army Air Corps navigator) was captured, he would be treated kindly by those who incarcerated and lived around his camp.

[@garyandrews3925]

We housed quite a number of German POW’s here in East Tennessee. There were camps near Tellico Plains, and Crossville. Prisoners located near Tellico Plains works in “the bottoms” farming for the Stokely company. Quite a number of the prisoners either remained in this area, our returned and became naturalized citizens.

[@jayethompson3414]

Interestingly enough, Camp Gruber is near Tahlequah, Ok, Tahlequah, is the capital of the Cherokee Nation and is likely a different spelling/pronunciation of Tellico, which is the area the Cherokees were removed from.

[@garyandrews3925]

@@jayethompson3414 You are correct. When the native Cherokee were removed, Oklahoma was graced by their language and culture. Tanasi (Tennessee) still has a strong Cherokee influence as well as North Carolina.

[@jordanbryan2612]

we have a portion of German culture and food influences in central and West central Illinois. there was a significant POW camp in the area, small parts still exists. local historical books record interviews of many German POW's wanted to return here after the war was done and settle down

[@timothyhines7845]

I worked at a company that was built on property, formerly a POW camp in Eastland County TX. You could see where they disembarked from the trains, and foundations of several barracks are still visible.

[@poetcomic1]

In some areas of the Midwest and elsewhere the POW's met large colonies of one time German immigrants who still spoke German. There were Italian prisoners as well who were taken care of and visited by Italian-Americans and many of them came to live here.

[@josefschwabl]

Amazing narative. like my father, i am living his pow life. Thankyou