When I Was A Prisoner Of War Of The Americans I Realized That Germany Had No Chance

When I Was A Prisoner Of War Of The Americans I Realized That Germany Had No Chance

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On the 26th of April the patients were given the choice of remaining at the hospital until the Americans arrived or being released at once to the location of One’s Choice I elected for the latter I thought that tanay would be a bit more lively than along the inn and requested

Transfer to a hospital there since the wound still required attention I didn’t know then that my aunt Britta was at rotach on tany but I was aware that the boshoff with my cousin britan era must be somewhere near I was given my documents medical records and rations

For the journey and after hanging my pack on my belt I left public transport had been suspended no trains or buses so I had to hitchhike there were many vermark vehicles about however and so I had no problem getting a ride but lacking a map I landed up at Brandenburg

On the Austrian border towards midday not what I had hoped for while awaiting another lift I met some Frenchmen from the French Legion who were not sure where they should be poor Lads they really had backed the wrong horse that evening I got to tanay a glorious spot nature undisturbed

Unwrecked I reported to the main military hospital and was directed to a former boarding house the bonheim now an auxiliary Hospital half the patients were officers and I shared a triple room with two Junior left tenants I took 2 days leave and hitchhiked to my cousin

Eraka on the BOS off at bber there I also found my aunt Lily from carsu and through her I received the first recent news about my parents at rat next morning I was awoken by my relatives at 6:00 and informed with excitement that a certain halman gerros had carried out a

P in Munich with the intention of surrendering the city to the Americans without a fight the P had been quickly put down but then on the BOS off at any rate there was great anxiety about the future consequences as a member of the vermar I had to make myself scarce as

Quickly as possible and so I hitchhiked back to Tans on the Bosch off I had been told that Aunt Brit was in rotach and Uncle Kurt at Schloss Tegan which had been converted into an overspill hospital I visited him that same afternoon the wound he had received at

The front in 1915 broke out again occasionally and now he lay with nine other men in a large fairly miserable Ward and was surprised and pleased to see me cordial and Kinsman likee we exchanged news and before I left he telephoned Aunt Britt at Rach do you know who is here with me

Richard Aunt Brit’s own son Richard was a medical officer with the troops in kland and she had not heard from him for a long time as Can Be Imagined the correction of this Dreadful misunderstanding was awkward next day a Sunday I accompanied Uncle Kurt to visit

Her it was a glorious spring day with many people like ourselves taking a prominade on on the shores of the lake everybody was expecting peace and the faces at least in this peaceful setting were hopeful it was very pleasant to have reestablished contact with the family Aunt Britta was just the same as

Always and seemed to have got over yesterday’s upset then the war overtook us again and on the 30th of April the Americans arrived in Munich and were expected at tany any day they advised their presence with some morar fire which landed in St quirin therefore close by from our balcony we saw Sherman

Tanks advancing very slowly and cautiously along the Lakeside road towards V although there was no German opposition we had binoculars and gave a running commentary on this show that morning I wrapped my pistol in oily rags and dug a hole for it below an imposing tree so that I could retrieve it later

Probably it is still there today towards evening it was rumored that the Americans were already in tany next next morning we were all ordered to our rooms and an American doctor went with our senior surgeon from room to room and had the individual cases explained to him an

American Soldier was posted at the ground floor entrance to the hospital and we were prohibited from leaving and no more visits by relatives were possible a German soldier from alas was taken off and appeared 2 Days Later wearing French uniform I gave him a letter for my parents in the hope he

Could deliver it in the French occupied Zone but it never arrived on the 88th of May 1945 the military capitulation came into force it had been expected for days since it was inevitable no more war though not yet quite peace but no Air Raids no shooting no deaths and no new

Mutilations now we had the prospect of life without fighting without danger and perhaps one day peace would really come tegy was lit up again in the evening and it was bright around us after the years of blackout to which we had grown accustomed but there was mourning for

The many who would not experience this day and worries about one’s comrades in arms also increased which of them had come through it were they all now in Russian captivity would one ever see them again I now spent much time with major Hannibal Von licha and an over liutenant

Von Lindon from the foreign office the days confined in the hospital were long and we often played scat or poker the three of us discussed things a lot I found it heavy-going having to condemn what was passed day after day suddenly everything here was no longer German but

Bavarian I did not like that at all Lyon who had contacts and wanted to enter the Bavarian Administration called me the bronze Rock the nurses were no longer from the German but the Bavarian Red Cross there were still no newspapers and the radio was in the hands of the

American Military much of what we heard third was considered to be propaganda we still knew next to nothing of the Dreadful things which had accompanied the war of the Holocaust and the extent of the concentration camps we at least had no knowledge and when we discovered the facts found them at first so

Unbelievable that it needed time before we could open our eyes to these horrific scenes our time was fully taken up by what lay ahead what plans had to be made and taken in hand for the future before the military had done one thinking for one to a certain extent but now one had

To think for oneself and was responsible for oneself in mid June everybody was interrogated by American officers most of whom were German Jews family occupation membership of party organizations time as a soldier Etc were asked the interrogators knew the German circumstances exceedingly well and so their questions were precise and one had

To answer exactly I was required to take off the big bandage from my left arm to prove that I did not have my blood group tattooed under my armpit as was done in the SS it was all finished on the 25th of June and so far as medically possible everybody was

Discharged in the morning at 8:00 we had to fall in in front of the main hospital at tany in order of rank then the names were read out quickly and each individual had to step forward to receive his certificate of discharge it gave him his freedom and he could go home

The ceremony ended and five men were still standing there myself amongst them we had no idea why we had not received our discharge papers and were very disappointed then two Jeeps Drew up and we were told to get in we were taken to a giant prison camp at bad abling it

Consisted of some administrative Barrack Huts otherwise only large pens to hold 200 to 300 prisoners each without any protection against the weather and surrounded by barbed wire there was no grow grass the ground was trampled underfoot soft and muddy once in the camp we were ordered to remove the

National Insignia shoulder straps and collar Patches from caps and jackets now one was just prisoner wahi the food was a miserable offering of very watery cabbage soup with Specks of fat for the night one sought somewhere dry there was no blanket only the clothes one stood up

In the days were not summery June and warm the weather was unseasonal and it rained a lot I met un aizier gramlick from my company he had been here several days and knew the drill he could not tell me anything about the company which he had left some time before for he had

Been scooped up in the campaign known as helden Clow clawing up Heroes selecting men off the street as fit for the front and was to have become an infantryman how he finished up at abling I cannot remember now came the same interrogation as I had already gone

Through at tany this one was more imper personal and unpleasant but I got my discharge certificate meanwhile those who lived in the zone of French occupation were separated out and next day my 23rd birthday loaded on a Dodge Lorry and taken off our driver wanted to talk and asked who spoke English I

Joined him in the cab to show him the way to tuttlingen in the French Zone on the way we passed through Munich the destruction was Indescribable some burnt out ruins were still standing but then we came to of streets where everything had been raised to the ground left and

Right of us and great mountains of rubble stood either side of the thoroughfare where were the people who had once lived here we saw few of them on the street it would be Generations before it could all be rebuilt then we came to districts where the trams were still running the

Destruction on the outskirts of the city was less but it still looked appalling our route went through the countryside past neat undamaged Villages and small towns in which life seemed to be normal about 17:00 we arrived at tuttlingen I inquired the way to the camp make sure

They don’t keep you there every day transports leave here for France that was all we needed to stay prisoners and prisoners of the French to boot it seemed to us laughable that the French considered themselves one of the Victorious Nations after all they had declared war on us and we had

Overwhelmed them totally in less than two months this and similar thoughts ran through my mind as we came to the French prison camp our driver accompanied us to the Barrack Hut where our papers were examined and the French endorsement stamped on them this served at the same

Time as an authority to proceed to one’s Hometown without it one could not leave for one’s home address when we had all been processed and returned to the Lorry Our Kind driver said that next day he would be driving back via stutgart if anyone wanted to go there with him they

Were welcome aboard departure was at 9:00 that was wonderful for me for connections from tuttlingen into the Rin Valley were very Troublesome and I hoped that from stutgart I would be able to take a train we looked for somewhere to spend the night kitas or the camp of a similar

Charity it was my first night of Freedom my first night as a civilian for now I was no longer a prisoner of war we were also warned here if possible not to show ourselves in the city the French couldn’t be trusted they just kidnapped people off the street at will what I saw

Of their military at tuttlingen did not Inspire much confidence either next morning a Sunday our Lori arrived at 9:00 on the dot and took us to stutgart we were set down at the last tram stop and we took our leave of our driver who had been so helpful and friendly to us

With much thanks I had the impression that he had sympathy for us I can’t remember in which suburb of stutgart we we found ourselves we stood around rather lost in a church for court the bells rang and the people left Mass they were all dressed in their Sunday Best

And in Holiday mood we discharged soldiers must have made a pitiful impression people came up to us spoke and invited us to their houses in a few minutes we were all amongst friendly people sharing their Sunday lunch with us they gave us good advice don’t take the tram through stutgart at the

Schlossplatz junction they take off anyone who looks like a former Soldier they do just what they like and we have no rights take the train the long way around the city to zuen Housen the railway stations are still in American hands and the French can’t touch you

There I followed this advice got to zofen Housen without a problem and had to wait on the station platform for several hours until a Goods train left for cars rwer we arrived there at midnight not at the main station but at car’s R West there was curfew from 22:00

Therefore we had to stay at the station I curled up and slept with many others in a Goods yard tomorrow I would definitely be home as early as allowed I walked across the city to the main station to ask about trains the next train for aat would not be leaving until the afternoon

I strolled around the streets even here there was much destruction but Munich looked a lot worse the Americans were in Carl’s R so one could move about without fear the Border between the US and French zones of occupation ran through durmersheim between Carl’s ruer and rat it was a proper border with barriers

Across the street and checkpoints the passenger train left for rat at 17:00 when I went through the ticket barrier there I asked the railway official how things were in sbil and stasa everything is still standing was the comforting answer I crossed the rail installations the ludwiig wihelm staser

And then turned into our siil and staser it was was an Indescribable feeling this return home after everything that lay behind me I recognized my mamama from afar shopping for the evening meal at the colonial varen store and she came towards me how tired she looked then she

Recognized me and we hurried to meet son I can’t believe you’re back home I cannot describe how moving this moment was mama took me by the hand we went through the house and garden to the rear gate Eric Richard is home she called out

As we went up to the veranda and papa I can still see this clearly jumped up and unable to speak came down to me his face lit up a rare urance after years of worry difficulties and humiliation how thankful I was to be back home with my

Parents knowing at last that they had also survived reading these lines the reader can perhaps empathize with my feelings of happiness that beautiful July evening we sat for hours on on The Veranda looking out over our blossoming Garden I could hardly believe that I was home again no

Longer having to go back to the front seeing my parents alive if visibly older and careworn how many were denied this pleasure even my parents had come to life again their greatest worry how and whether I would get through the last months of the war and the capitulation

Had been shed I was back home if with a mutilated arm but otherwise hail and hearty determined to let nothing get me down there was so much to tell for so much had happened in the time in which we were out of touch the last letter my parents had received was sent shortly

Before the operation at the river Gran in mid-February 1945 therefore a few days before my last wound none of my letters written during my time in military Hospital given to various Messengers had arrived there had been no proper postal service for months my first question was about my my

Brother and sisters at the Russian Advance vuler had fled from Dresden to Ober barenburg and married Ruth Von Quast there that he had survived the horrific bombing raids on Dresden I had found out while in Hungary Aya was in Sweden there was no news from her but we

Believed she would be safe in a neutral country at that time we did not know that she had been intered and deported Elizabeth was working as a nursing assistant in a military hospital at Barden Barden and was happy to be of Serv service in this way she had

Finished her schooling at spart this was all good news but on the other hand my mother’s brother Uncle Willie seidlitz had been killed at eak on the 31st of March 1945 in a fighter bomber attack and my mother’s elder sister Aunt Mary shonne after losing burnhard had also

Lost Conrad and gotfried in the last months of the war three sons Fallen how could one bear that Oscar Von Lois had also fall Fallen my brother-in-law to whom I owed so many thanks it had been in September 1944 that I had last spent

A day at home up to that time rat had still been spared Air Raids but soon afterwards in the Autumn of 1944 the Allies Western Front moved up rapidly Strasburg fell in November and heavy fighting raged along the western banks of the rine in alsas from December the

Front ran along the rine and was thus only about 10 km from rat which became a Frontline town the first air raid did severe damage to the area around the railway station and the town came frequently under enemy artillery fire my parents had left the house in cibil and

Stasa unattended and found shelter at Schloss rotenfels they took all they could carry on bicycles leaving everything else behind nobody could predict that this situation would last into the spring of 1945 at first my parents parents could cycle to and from home to collect valuable items from the seller and

Return with a ruck sack full papa compared himself to a man on an island whose wrecked ship lay offshore but could be reached on the E tide later German soldiers were bitted in the house and then in March came the French occupation initially my parents dared not venture to rustat to look after

Things besides plundering troops with loose trigger fingers whole gangs of displaced persons released from camp mostly poles and Russians roamed the district making everybody uneasy the great rat hospital had to be cleared out for them they set up in it and made it the base for their criminal

Operations when my parents returned to zabil and stasa for the first time they found the house still standing but all ground floor Windows broken inside it looked as though a hurricane had hit it instead of using the toilets these vandals defecated in the rooms or the drawers of the furniture

There were some art connoisseurs amongst them however for several of the valuable impressionist paintings the fine bronze statuettes by munier porcelain from Ral and the old family silver not locked in the two house safes had been stolen or destroyed Papa told me that he had thought the house could not be made

Habitable again but mamar got to work on it and gradually every room was cleaned and cleared out missing items of furniture such as the sofa and chairs had found their way into other neighborhood houses carried there by soldiers gradually life began to get back to normal there were no longer any

German authorities the rule of law was in the hands of the occupying troops the French had installed a mayor an old communist who had survived the Nazi period and had Now set up a Kind of Town Council with others of like mind lord of the town was a French Colonel given the

Title of military Governor the real lord of the manner was a small leftenant from alas by the name of schaer head of the Sur National he exercised police powers and his German informers supplied him at his HQ the villaire with persons to be interrogated and often tortured rat was

In the hands of French and German Communists and many personal scores were settled there was no German jurisdiction and not until December 1945 was the establishment of an inferior Court permitted until then my papa was unemploy de loyed just as well that it was summer and one could live on The

Veranda or in the garden needed no Heating and had the produce from the garden in the French occupied Zone food rationing was particularly harsh only 800 calories per day being allotted food production and trade in the rat area had collapsed totally and long cues waited outside shops there was no bread or

Potatoes in summer it could be tolerated but what when winter came Pap once wrote to an acquaintance healthwise we are not badly off but we have in Prospect an evil winter since we can only heat one room and as regards food we are staring famine in the face I am in the same

Situation as yourself and others and my memory fails me my eyes are suffering from the poor rations lacking any fats I cannot see anywhere any Prospect no matter how remote that we old people will know better times on the contrary it will get worse an incapable government at the head and the prevalent

Will to crush us underfoot on the part of the occupation forces of whom the most hated are the French at first I was just happy to have my own bed in my own room I still had no thoughts about the future and how I could make a new life

For myself as a civilian not under military compulsion in a civilian occupation I was happy that I had the last 5 years behind me with Good Conduct but the Fate that might have befallen my comrades caused me great unease on the first morning home I awoke early the sun

Shone into my room I went to the window and drank in the old familiar surroundings here there was no destruction here everything seemed peaceful everything was unchanged and remained just as I remembered it my first problem was what to wear the old clothes I still had no longer fitted

Until my call up I had worn short trousers then I found something or other shirt and trousers sufficed it was still summer after all I had no shoes though I went with Papa to burnhard the Glazier each of us carried a leaf of casement window they were very heavy window glass

Was unobtainable but a substitute was so-called wire glass thin glass on a wire fabric which could be rolled but was not very stable even this was scarce so that there was little point in making window frames and the existing frames we boarded over with plywood for the

Immediate future I would have enough to do keeping the house windproof but I at least could relieve Papa of the heavy physical work I still carried my wounded left arm in a sling the wound had not healed and was still suppurating small bone splinters every day I went to have

It re-bandaged at our old fortress prison converted into a civilian outpatients Department after the hospital would no longer treat Germans I met some old acquaintances from school and the Yung vok it was appalling to learn how many had fallen in the last last months of the war many

Of my good friends would never be coming home when I came across their parents I almost had a bad conscience that I had come through it almost unscathed on the first day a French officer stopped me in the street to check my discharge certificate as a former active officer I

Had had to register at the office of the local commandant and Report every Saturday morning I was forbidden to leave rat there were numerous minor irritants for example you had to step down from the p pavement into the road if a French officer came towards you and

Do your cap in salute or before the town halls of the smaller communities flag poles were set up with the French trick likewise as you went past one you had to do your cap as a salute to the flag one day Papa cycled through one of these rind villages in order to collect

Something from a fisherman and he failed to salute the tricka in front of the Town Hall a French Sentry stopped him he had to Dismount go back and walk past the flag pole cap in hand the French were a laughing stock but it was humiliating all the same the French had

Loudspeaker vans drive through the streets of the town to announce the latest regulations instigated by the military Governor yesterday all sewing machines had to be placed on the doorstep at 8:00 a couple of days previously all thigh or riding boots had to be handed in all radios had been

Confiscated in the first days of the occupation hours had been taken but it was no great loss it only broadcast the French occupation news which nobody believed anyway we still had no newspapers it would be still some time before the occupation Force issued the necessary licenses thus we remained without news

As in other occupied zones of Germany and fixated on our intimate Circle naturally the aversion to the French occupying Force grew constantly drunk with the arrogance of their Victory and hate-filled intention to humiliate us every sensation of Liberation was suffocated but now the byword came to be caught together be hanged together we

Learned constantly and at every turn that the will of the French Victors was not pacification but Collective punishment the repression and dismantling of Germany from the very beginning what we experienced was not Liberation but defeat total and our own fault we had had no Illusions but whoever dreamt of Ethics morality and a

Reform formed way of living was soon disappointed destruction hunger hopelessness 4 million dead 10 million prisoners and missing all laws lawful claims and contracts without validity nobody was spared it we all had to bear the consequences but there had been much more destroyed the desertion of so many

Who had been folk ganos un folos a national socialist term for all male and female members of the vul and blood one now experienced denunciations originating from a desire for revenge against colleagues neighbors supervisors and the rich an Indescribable degeneration of the spirit it was all the foreplay for the

Denazification process which followed it in the French Zone it was mostly the Communists who settled old scores against the class enemy going back to 1919 and on through the Nazi years the French occupation force was also thoroughly infiltrated by Communists the troops here were mostly newly formed units made up of former resistance

Fighters into whose ranks the French Communist Party had placed a large number of its adherents thus it was not surprising that the German Communists and all who now claimed to be so received special treatment all this bore down heavily on the people in such a small town as rat nevertheless the

Revival began Gallows humor plans and a wish for culture a good book good music after long deprivation A good sermon one long for them life then consisted of barter and improvisation black markets developed in which mainly displaced persons offered food and other luxuries not to be found

In the shops gradually one felt that this immediate post-war period was almost possibly tolerable so long as one kept hoping for improvement the hand of the French occupation Authority lay on all our everyday Affairs and soon we saw that their uniforms and vehicles merely replaced the golden pheasants of the na

Es I had been home 3 weeks when one morning the loudspeaker Vans drove through the streets interspersed between French marches the following order was broadcast all former soldiers had to report the day after tomorrow for registration at camp malbach near Bon Barden bringing their release certificate rations for two days and a

Blanket this set the alarm bells ringing as far as I was concerned we had often seen how the French kidnapped released prisoners of war from the streets and deported them to France here there were no rights and no law the purpose of this new French registration was not clear

But some underhand business was suspected I had a short talk with my parents and we were all agreed that I should disappear as soon as possible the same day I crossed the green Frontier into Carl ruer in the US Zone from there I rode Goods trains for 36 hours to tany

The US Zone was run more correctly and I felt more secure here with my US release newpapers Aunt Britt arranged a room for me at rotach at the tomoff with fral Fon liberman in the neighborhood where I spent the next 3 weeks my wounded arm

Was still in a sling and I was not up to looking for work I went wandering in the mountains bathed in the lake and recovered from the strains of the preceding years at the Town Hall I received ration coupons enabling me to have a cheap basic dish at a restaurant

Every day in between I spent three days at Cy in the Clinic with my cousins Hines and Richard May who carried out a minor operation on my grossly swollen left arm and extracted the remaining splinters of bone then I felt I should return home I had no idea what I was

Going to do when I got there but it was clear to me that I had to make my mind up soon about which trade or profession I should follow many opportunities were not available to me as a former active officer but in the various zones of occupation the regulations tended to be

Widely different after all my experiences so far I saw that the British Zone looked the best first I hitchhiked to the address in nurburg of my former orderly room sergeant groman from him I heard how at the end of the war the company had found itself in the northern part of

Czechoslovakia always retreating and under heavy pressure at the time of the ceasefire zaap 5003 lay between the American and Russian lines because the Americans declined to to accept the surrender of troops on the far side of the demarcation line the abong commander halman Fon D Kerber released all the men

From their obligations and recommended that they attempt to cross the American lines in small groups and head for Reich territory to that end every man received his military pass pay and rations groman had succeeded in getting back with a few men of the abong how the others had

Fared he did not know in fact a third had got home but the remainder were caught by the Americans and handed over to the Russians where they spent many years in captivity liutenant copper who commanded three company after I was wounded was not released until Christmas

1955 back at rustat I was happy to learn that during my absence nobody had inquired about me and therefore I seemed to have a clean slate my rustat comrades in arms had all been hauled off to malbach camp but all came back home Papa

Told me how he had also been a iged to surrender himself for malbach although he was 65 and had not been in military service for 30 years he had been an officer however and apparently that was enough this time I spent only a few days

At home I wanted to get to the British Zone and seek its better opportunities therefore I set off via dorf to Essen where I met my former company leader Walter Sher other stops I made were at Hanover Breman and Hamburg I spent the night nights in station bunkers ate in communal Kitchens

Hitchhiked on ramshackle lores or a top the coal on Goods trains a curiosity even on Goods trains tickets were inspected the conductor climbing over the loads wagon to Wagon my ticket was my release certificate for my story was always that I was on my way home from

Captivity I spent some time with Aunt Eber at cluster loon near lunberg bringing her news from home and helping out with her chores there was still no post service at that time and so receiving any news about relatives was always a happy event I made inquiries at the universities of gingan and Hamburg

But no possibility existed for a former active officer to become an undergraduate if I could have got accepted anywhere I would probably have studied law which I thought would offer me the best prospects of employment once qualified at many stations on my list I

Had an address to go to if not I could request the address for a given surname at at the residents registration offices in this way I met many men from my former abtong on my trip each would know two or three other addresses so that

Soon I had compiled the first list of ab tyong members that was the beginning of an association which we expanded and was to last to the present times at the beginning of October 1945 I returned home to find the situation unchanged as for my own future I was no

Better off than when I started my sister Elizabeth had finished her nursing duties at Barden Barden and applied to the agricultural Technical College at stutgart hoenheim for a training position as an agricultural assistant in those days this is the type of thing one could expect to happen

Elizabeth had taken my bicycle to scout around locally for food from farms and had been quite successful on the way home some poles blocked her way threw her off the bicycle and made off with both bicycle and vegetables the return of Elizabeth was so overdue that we

Began to be anxious for her finally she turned up on foot shocked and outraged she had actually got off lightly for rape was common then not only by poles and Russians but also by French Colonial troops one night some shadowy figures visited our garden again and stole the

Last of the fruit on the trees Papa went to the Russian Bureau at the former hospital and complained in Russian he was actually successful and a sign was nailed on our front door in cilic script entering this property is forbidden a Russian family lives here after that we

Were left in peace Meanwhile my other sister Asha had also come home the swedes had intered her as an undesirable alien of the German Academy Gerta Institute and then deported her to Lubec now she was home and had plans to work as a secretary in Breman in mid- October

Five Frenchmen made a sudden appearance in order to conduct a house house search while the family was locked in the dining room they ransacked the house and left everything in chaos we were unable to imagine what it was all about and only much later discovered that my father had been denounced they were

Searching in vain for incriminating material when they came to my room on the Upper Floor the Frenchman found a photograph with the panzas of my company on the shamps Eliz which apparently upset them they also discovered my paper weight a diffused French mortar bomb and confiscated it they made a very close

Inspection of my books before they left half an hour later they reappeared to arrest me I was taken away and locked in a Cell at the jail on Engel straser I can still hear the rattle of its keys in the lock a stool a table a folding bed a

Toilet milky glass in the small barred window blocked the view outside although I could just see the sky through a small slit a naked bulb provided dim lighting I sat on the stool considering in the situation besides the French controllers at this jail were some German prison

Staff Who provided a support service the door opened and a German official entered asking my name and the reason for my arrest what you are the son of the inferior Court magistrate Fon Rosen he shook his head left the cell and returned with two bed sheets and a

Blanket in the morning when you wake up leave these under the mattress at once so that the French don’t see them it did me good to have met this friendly man in the evening I received my washing kit and some underclothes left at the prison

Gate by my parents I spent three days in that cell without the French taking any interest in me no interrogation no questions nothing I was left alone I thought about what books they might have confiscated from my bedroom as I saw it there had been nothing compromising in

My bookcase when I had been the prisoner of war of the Americans my mother had taken out anything anything which she thought might be considered National Socialist they fetched me on the fourth day escorted by an armed Soldier I was walked through the town to the former

Fortress prison I knew it well for in earlier times it had been our Jung vul hostel the French had Now set up in this large building what they called a camp to concentration with 100 inmates all minor party functionaries from the rasat area and a couple of harmless people who

Had been denounced ha kapler of former engineer at Mercedes-Benz in gagano and her Von Blan from rotenfels a friend of my parents were also there I was shown to a bed in a dormit of 20 men the camp was guarded by spis Algerian Moroccan Cavalry they were friendly to us since

They had the same feeling of being repressed by the French as we did at night we were locked in our large communal cell with a bucket which by morning was filled to the brim all prisoners had to work and were LED in small squads each morning to the various

Workplaces because I still had my left arm in a sling I did not do manual labor visiting hours were from 15:00 to 17:00 on Saturdays one’s relations came to the camp gate then the prisoner was called and could talk for 5 minutes through the barbed wire fence visitors were allowed

To bring underwear food and reading material mamama always had something tasty for me from the butcher or Baker I asked for English Lang language school books for the periods when I sat alone in the cell this annoyed the French who though I should be learning French I read gulworthy foresight saga which I

Had started at home mamama brought me the second volume Asahi looked them over at the camp gate and asked her what type of book it was when she said it was by an English author it was confiscated England many Jews Jews no good no comment meanwhile the French had set up

A Military Tribunal at rat the presiding judge Colonel brayman visited our camp and asked to be presented to each inmate voy mon Colonel Ki du Baron von Rosen and here Colonel this is the son of the Baron von Rosen OHA vetc oh but why are you here he had a

Long conversation with me about my service during the war my period as a p and the reason for my present remand he showed me the scars on his head which he had received in a German concentration Camp which I replied by showing him the wounds on both my arms his escort said

Le Nazi let him be he is and will always be a Nazi to hear this from a French mouth made me grin I was not going to let them grind me down a few days later I received orders to pack my things accompanied by the explanation vous Nets pal pris

Politi criminel you are not a political prisoner you are a criminal therefore I was returned to the jail on Engel stasa where I was offered work in the kitchen in order to avoid the monotony of the Single Cell I accepted willingly with too much older prisoners on remand I had

To get up before breakfast each morning to heat the large kitchen range peel the root vegetables and assist in the preparation of the thin soup served at midday one of my two companions was awaiting judgment for illegal slaughtering the other had killed his wife with a letter opener at gerbach she

Had been having an affair with a Frenchman he made a point of saying that he had stabbed her 35 times which was proof that it had been a crime of passion and he wanted me to put in a good word with my father such cases did not fall within my father’s jurisdiction

However once we had cleaned the kitchen in the afternoon we did not return to our cells under the pretext of having to do more work later but stayed in the kitchen playing scat should a Frenchman appear unexpected Ed L the cards would vanish like greased lightning and we

Would get busy one Sunday afternoon this happened quite suddenly and Colonel Brahman appeared in the kitchen showing his wife and daughter the jail our shout of attention rang out particularly loudly and we stood at attention Brahman told his wife who I was and after an astonished a I received the sympathetic

Looks and encouraging Smiles of both women I felt like an animal at the zoo next evening Brahman visited me in my cell to inform me that I was to be brought before the Military Tribunal on the 22nd of December and wanted to know which books had been found in my room

During the house search I gave him a few harmless titles but at that time even military literature was as illegal as that of the Nazis next day I received my RIT of summons and the indictment possession of military literature and ammunition Papa let me know that he had

Got me a lawyer that was comforting after our last conversation I had the impression that Colonel Brahman was well disposed towards me the Military Tribunal was held in the rasat shadow in the rooms where the inferior Court used to sit an armed Sentry made sure I didn’t escape and delivered me to the

Court in the waiting room I found my papa and to my great surprise my brother vuler he had come the day before from Dresden across the green demarcation line in company with his wife Ruth the trial was public there were eight cases most of them breaches of the pass

Regulations being out after curfew and similar crimes then came my case I had only a brief talk with my Advocate and was surprised by his lack of Interest my name was called and I stood before the judge’s desk an interrogation was begun using an incompetent interpreter several

Times I had to object when my denial of this or that was turned by him into an admission then it was the turn of my Advocate who mentioned in his pleading Conrad Rosen marishal def France then I was led out and the next case called I waited outside until the verdict was

Ready as a mitigating circumstance Colonel Brahman mentioned that I had become a soldier at the age of 18 and had fought bravely for my country been wounded five times and was a descendant of a marishal def France the sentence four weeks imprisonment my period on

Remand to be counted so that I was free at once vouet Libra were the last words and I left the courtroom very relived I thought I would be able to go home immediately but the French overseer explained that I had to serve the present day out and would have to wait

Until the morning for my discharge the cell door slammed behind me once more more fun and games in the middle of my darkest thoughts I was called into the court office where to my surprise I found Colonel Brahman completing my discharge papers while I stood waiting

He snapped to my guard aportes Don po roosan bring a chair for Baron von Rosen then the man had to obey what satisfaction for this was one of the most hated of the French and had kicked the seat of my pants the day before Colonel Brahman then accompanied me home

And on the way told me how unpleasant he had found it to have me before his tribunal but the high command at Barden Barden had ordered him to make an example of me originally they wanted to prove that I had been active as one of hima’s werewolves but this had been

Going too far I hope I find you in agreement with the solution I found he said therefore there were decent Frenchman this experience was the beginning of a less emotional and more just assessment of our neighboring country for me we arrived home and when my father opened the front door Colonel

Brahman said to him Simply Her Baron here is your son without any further explanation he offered us both his hand and disappeared into the darkness of the still unlit Street at this point I must digress in 1964 I was general staff officer to the CNC Allied troops in Central Europe based at

Fontan Blau by chance I discovered that ex Colonel Brahman lived nearby it was a joyful reunion under quite normal circumstances and a friendship evolved which lasted until his death he was a great man and contributed much to my better understanding of the French people in my post-war career I worked

With some intervals a total of 12 Years in France attached to Allied staffs in the EOL Superior dear and finally as military attache at the West German Embassy in Paris over the years my family and I got to know and love the country gained French friends and thus became protagonists for Franco German

Cooperation and friendship to return to my Tale the day after my discharge was Christmas Eve we had a tree lit with a few burnt down candle stubs we needed no presence for the greatest present was to be all together having all survived the war Aya was also there we sang together

The carol Silent Night and never before had I sung with so much gratitude and confidence the last lines of the song Christ the savior is here