-Alemaster
Astonished German POWs roll through Texas expecting brutality—and find coffee, wages, and cowboys. This episode traces how enemies became ranch hands, neighbors, and, eventually, Americans.
- A train window view: Amarillo, chaps, and culture shock
- Camp life: hot showers, scrip pay, Western swing
- Cotton fields & cattle drives with ranchers who shake hands
- The Papago Park tunnel…and a very dry “river”
- VE Day goodbyes—and surprising returns as immigrants
What happens when propaganda slams into Texas hospitality? The answer rewrites what captivity—and humanity—can look like.
I watched that a few days ago and it is immensely saddening - the world shown there is one destroyed by decades of rising matriarchal influence, and the poison of unrestricted immigration.
ReplyDeleteMy grandpa had a farm close to POW Camp Atlanta in Nebraska. He had several German POW's working for him. At war's end several of them asked if he would help them move to the US.
ReplyDeleteDad was doing construction on the east coast and had several POWs working with him. Said there were no problems, they all got along
ReplyDeleteFrequented a Geust Haus in Germany, early 80's. The owner and the group of men who were there most evenings had all been captured at Kasserine Pass, held at Ft Dix and worked the farms in South Jersey. It was about 2 years before they let on they spoke English. We butchred the German language, but always attempted. Good times
ReplyDeleteThat was good!
ReplyDeleteThe county next to the one I grew up in had a POW camp. My grandfather would make the drive to pick 2 of them up to work on the farm. They both came back after they were repatriated to become US citizens. A lot of them came back.
ReplyDeleteWhile living inn Alabama, my wife and me traveled around for my wife's job as a State Library consultant and we got introduced to a curator at the museum of WW2 German prisoner camp in Aliceville, Alabama and we traveled back several times for weeks at a time to help document the life and times of the POWs there. What struck the Germans were how kind and approachable and friendly and generous the town and rural folks were to them. They expected anger and brutalities. They worked the local farms and lumber mills and some cattle farms and were included in local celebrations and holidays. The POWs made prison art and painted pictures and handed them as mementos and gifts. As we found in the official documents and correspondence a lot of long lasting friendships and over a hundred Germans immigrated with their families to the area.
ReplyDeleteI have learned to beware of these WWII vids--some are legit, but AI is overrunning YouTube, including many such channels. They're bogus.
ReplyDeleteThey are our brothers. That needs to be a thing again.
ReplyDelete