What shocked German soldiers in American captivity?

[HarperJoe-wpnn]

My mom was a child in Germany during WW2. She still remembers the kindness of the US soldiers who gave bread and chocolate to the children. The care packages from a lady from Illinois helped the family survive. My mom is still grateful and so am I. Some years ago I visited the largest American war cemetery in northern France. Seeing the countless tombstones on a vast field reaching the horizon left me speechless. Almost 10, 000 young men who lost their lives in just a couple of days are buried there. All I can say is thank you. I have no other words to express my deep gratefulness and appreciation.

[CSUnger]

Worked with a former German soldier in 1968 in a textile mill in Pennsylvania. He was treated so well he stayed in America and became a US citizen after the war. Joined the US Army and served in Korea where he suffered third degree burns to his hands when a gas tank exploded near him. Hard worker.

[carriebryan]

My uncle was an officer running a German POW camp in the USA. He set up a carpentry workshop for the prisoners, and local people brought furniture to the camp for the POWs to repair. After the war, when the POWs were shipped back to Germany, some carpentry projects were left behind. When my dad married a German woman, my uncle gave her one of the completed projects as a wedding gift. I am pleased to have inherited it.

[MichaelRobinson-ev]

We have a family friend whose dad was a captured German soldier. He returned to Germany after the war, but return to the states to live and have a family. He said that he wanted to live in a country who treated their prisoners like he was treated.

[sacredkinetics.lns.]

🕯️
Showing kindness in the hell of war; is priceless. God Bless.

[robertshields]

I met a former POW who was held by the Americans during the war. He was taken to Boston and treated so well as a POW he decided to come back to Boston after the war. Eventually he got married to a Boston girl and became a US citizen.

[Mike-rxin]

My Grand Parents had German prisoners, help them harvest their crops on their farm, during the war in Wisconsin.

[patriciaselby]

Here in the Arizona desert was a German POW camp. A few of them escaped one night using a makeshift raft down a river. Thinking they made it, they slept the rest of the night. They were shocked and dismayed in the morning when they discovered their river had dried up, not knowing about the flash flood phenomena. Finding themselves in the middle of the desert they gladly surrendered.

[cfbass]

Because of American treatment of POWs in WWI, a lot of Germans went to WWII with advice from their fathers: "Be brave, join the infantry, and surrender to the first American you see." The U.S. POW policy saved a lot of *American* lives because the Germans were willing to give up on the Western front. The Russians, however, faced an enemy willing to fight to the last drop of blood.

[JamVee]

My wife was a German Citizen during WWII, she had several family members who were POW's in US POW Camps, and were held there until the War ended. They came to love the way they were treated, and remained good feelings for the US long after the war ended!

[williamdonnelly]

Many years ago I worked with a WW2 veteran who was stationed in Greenland for 2 years, guarding German POW'S. He said it was an easy assignment, that they were "nice guys" who never caused any trouble.

[Redfish]

Think about it. If you know you can surrender, be treated well, survive and be returned to your family eventually it sort of makes sense to surrender.

[MrSirlulzalot]

They often reported being shocked at the sheer size of the nation.

[David-dyyd]

When I was a young child we had German prisoners barracked nearby. They wore khaki overalls with a big yellow spot on the back. They worked mainly on farms and other jobs fruit picking and so on allowed to roam locally and asking people for boot polish and other things. They were no bother and after the war some stayed and married local girls. 🇬🇧🇬🇧

[nidurnevets]

My future father and future mother both saw this for themselves. They were proud of our country for treating POWs this way.

[tomgregory]

America is a beacon to the world of fairness and kindness. My Father did guard duty at a camp that held German prisoners in Maryland. He said they were no different from us, he felt no hostility towards them.

[flashcar]

What really shocked German troops was the fact that American life carried on as usual, as if there were no war.

[mikeparker]

If only the Japanese treated their prisoners of war, with decency.

[michaelmclaughlin]

The Nazis were terrible. My father in law was a young boy in Italy when nazis took over his town and their home. They forced his family to flee into the forest where he lost 2 of his baby sisters due to starvation and hypothermia. He's 88 and still remembers

[alwaystruetoblue]

My mother's best friend had a brother who was interned at a POW camp in Germany. He lost his mind from the treatment and torture at the hands of the Germans. He was never the same.