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Amusing tale
I had a doc's appointment, he had a few spare minutes, and we talked a bit. He mentioning knowing a fellow in his 90s who'd been, in WWII, a POW--he was a German, and was in the POW camp in the US. He said that "Hogan's Heroes" was modeled on their experiences, with roles reversed so that the German prisoners were Americans. The guards got pretty friendly after a time, and didn't mind if the POWs sneaked off into town so long as they returned. The POWs were happy, good food rations, no risk of getting shot up. The only escapes came after the end of the war, when they were to be repatriated. They got letters from home telling how the place had been bombed and destroyed, hunger was rampant, the economy was nonexistent, and in his case, he would be set to East Germany, looted by the USSR and under communist rule.
He and others chose that time to escape. They'd learned a good deal of English, and just blended in. Eventually he married an American, had children, became naturalized, and settled down.
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That is a neat story, but it doesn't always go that way. My great-uncle was a POW for more than two years during the Korean War. He didn't like to reminisce much, but when he did, the stories were horrific. I only wish I'd paid a little more attention when he did talk about his experiences because colon cancer ended his life about 10 years ago. Note to any man 50 or older, no matter what fears you may have, get tested!
It all depends on whose captive one was. I know of lots of similar stories regarding the POWs in the old WWII camp near my home town. I don't recall any involving "escapes", but heard many involving prisoners paroled for the Christmas and Easter holidays to attend local churches and celebrate with local church member families. Never heard of that sort of thing happening in Vietnam, Korea or occupied Europe.
When my mom was a young girl they had Italian POWs here in Salt Lake, and they used to have them doing stuff like picking up trash, doing maintenance in the parks, etc. They wore a POW shirt, but no one felt threatened by them, and many tried to stay here after the war.
Yes, whose prisoner you were made all the difference, with prisoners of the Americans and the Canadians being the best treated. Worse were prisoners of the Japanese, and next worse was a tie between Russian prisoners of the Germans and German prisoners of the Russians. I don't know how you'd factor in the Soviet treatment of returning POW's.
Fun story. Thanks for sharing.