Letters: French kindness saved my POW father
A reader recalls her father's experience of being a German prisoner of war during World War Two
Millions of soldiers remained prisoners of war after the surrender of Germany in 1945
Everett Collection/Shutterstock
To the Editor,
The prisoner of war article in November's issue rang several bells with me!
Like the author's father, mine too was a German prisoner of war of the Americans. He was in a camp in the Marseille area before being "handed over" to the French.
Unlike Christian's father, mine was in his 30s, a family man with a wife and four children (then living in the Eastern zone of Germany).
My dad did not have a kind word for the US soldiers and camp personnel.
Not only did they almost let the German prisoners starve (and treat them badly), but he also described that surplus food was burnt rather than given to the starving French women often standing at the fences.
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He ended up at a French farm near Arras. At first, he was regarded with great distrust, his quarters being the former pigsty.
Once they saw that he was a person and that he worked hard, they treated him well.
My father, too, was released in 1948, and later, from about the 1970s, he occasionally visited the family and stayed in touch, especially once we were established in the Perigord, and he came by car.
Ute Chell, by email
Do you have any stories about your parents' or grandparents' experiences in World War Two? Share them with us at letters@connexionfrance.com
