RE: Germany in the Middle of Nowhere #club100
They were working. In our city they built houses, water supply. In the 90s, I read in a local newspaper the story of a man who was a child during the war and remembers how the first echelon of prisoners of war was brought. Maybe it's just a man's invention, maybe he dreamed something wrong in his childhood. But he told a terrible story. The time was hungry and someone decided not to open the wagons with prisoners of war for several days. They were dying of hunger and wounds there.
In 1947, the USSR, the USA and the UK decided to repatriate German prisoners of war, and they began to be sent to Germany at their place of residence in the GDR and FRG. This process lasted until 1950, while prisoners convicted of war crimes were not subject to return.
Oh if they were returning by 1947, then they were not kept to long. It took many years to get everyone home or wherever they were going.
I can believe that the story about starving the POWs is true. People do terrible things during war.
My grandpa came back in 1948. A psychological broken man until his soon death.
Most men from this generation never told one word about their experience, they just wanted to forget. But there are some who start talking when they are very old - I heard a few of them personally.
So you can be almost sure that the story is true. There was much more and unbelievable cruelty.
My husband's grandfather died at the Battle of Stalingrad, and his father became a refugee. He was 13 years old on the day that Auschwitz was liberated. His mother and sister were forced to flee. He lived into his old age, but he was plagued with health problems that often impact child survivors of war.
I am grateful that I live in a nation where we have not seen the effects of war firsthand. We can only be hopeful that the world leaders will prevent us from descending into global war.
Hope and pray...