Read an interesting story about a German POW in Canada

He was taken captive in 1940 and sent to Canada. Canada is a very big place and he wound up at a POW near Lethbridge Alberta. He spent some months in the camp and was shown to be not one likely to run away so he was hired by a local farmer to work on the farm. Canada's farmhands were all overseas so the farmer and his family really needed the help. Imagine the surprise of the German when he got to the farm. The farmer promptly handed the German a rifle and some bullets and told to go shoot some gophers. A POW given a rifle and bullets???? So he went out and shot as many gophers as he could. Soon he was able to stay at the farmers house instead of going back to camp every night. At the end of the war he applied to become a Canadian.

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Thinkerbell · 41-45, F

He was probably very happy not to be fighting, especially after Operation Barbarossa began. He might have ended up in Stalingrad, and then Siberia.

hippyjoe1955 · 70-79, M

@Thinkerbell Yes he was captured very early in the war and came to Canada in 1940 He was returned to Germany in 1946 and came back to Canada in 1948. He said he was most impressed by the complete lack of fence around the camp. Just a line of rocks that he was told not to cross. He asked how the rocks were going to stop anyone and the guard laughed and asked him 'Where would you go?" He thought about it and realised that there was really nowhere to go. He didn't speak English and Canada was huge and surrounded by oceans. He said he had heard about an escapee who had got away in northern Ontario where he lived in the bush for several months. However he came back to prison when winter set in. He was freezing and starving!

Thinkerbell · 41-45, F

@hippyjoe1955

The escapee learned about The Great White North the hard way. 🤭

hippyjoe1955 · 70-79, M

@Thinkerbell I wonder if the escapee was disappointed when no one came looking for him.

Thinkerbell · 41-45, F

@hippyjoe1955

Maybe.

But getting warm and getting something to eat probably greatly overshadowed any feelings of disappointment he may have had.

hippyjoe1955 · 70-79, M

@Thinkerbell From what I could glean that camp was for the most Nazi of the prisoners. Very remote and impossible to really escape from. It must have been a real humbling experience for such a Nazi to come back asking for some bed and a bunk. lol

Thinkerbell · 41-45, F

@hippyjoe1955

Yes, if he was from the Waffen-SS, he would have been a true Nazi believer, and having to crawl back to camp would have been a blow to his ego.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Thinkerbell The crawling back to camp was likely more practical than anything. Until "adopted" by the farming family, where else could he go? Nevertheless I like to think that his experience opened his mind to life above and beyond Mein Kampf.