SS officer leaves wealth to Brits who jailed him..

[max_tranmere]

I read this in the newspaper today. A former German SS officer, who was captured in France during the war and was held in a POW camp in Scotland for the remainder of the war, has left his money, totalling nearly half a million pounds, to the people of the town in Scotland where he was held prisoner. He is now 84 years old and in the Will he recently wrote he wants all his money left to the people in that town as he says he was treated so well by them when he was held captive.

He apparently remained in the area, by choice, for 7 years after the war ended as the people there had been so nice to him. He has sent presents to the people there every year since the war ended and he wants them to have all his money when he dies. I was quite touched when I read this. I think it confirms what many people have said over the years that army's, and the populas's of opposing nations, in wars generally have no issue with one another, and it is really the Government's of the countries who are at war.

Those who ordered, or carried out, the extermination of vast numbers of people in camps during WW2 could never be seen as anything other than evil men, but this fellow, and quite a few like him, weren't involved in any of that but instead were despatched to France (as he was) to fight for the further expansion of an Empire that his masters instructed him to do. After his field batallion had been decimated he and those left were rounded up and imprisoned in Scotland.

The role this man's battalion was reported to have had is as a unit which engaged in warfare within the rules of the Geneva Convention, even though many parts of the German military machine of course did not. Now, as an old man, who has kept in touch with people from that town in Scotland for every year since the conflict ended, he wants to leave all his savings, and the value of his house, to them. A nice story...

[Deuce Bigolo]

Maybe the article you read missed this little snippet

"Mr Steinmeyer joined the Nazis in 1941 at the age of 17, and joined the Hitler Youth SS 12th Panzer Division - which has been linked to war crimes, notably the execution of 140 Canadian prisoners in 1944. "

He was your typical brainwashed Nazi Youth.

His story sounds like a rarity

Home Village given to Poland...no home return to...spends further 7 years after war with the enemy...obviously left a lasting impression





I agree its the alpha idiots at the top who perpetuate war

[Deuce Bigolo]

[one eyed jack]

I refuse to believe that every single german soldier was evil though they were guilty of being part of it.

Watching The Pianist was more moving for the fact that Polanski (a polish jew himself) made such a moving story where one such german officer was merciful in such a way

War is madness out of control`

[crofter]

The Russians and to a lesser extent us Brits were probably evil bastards as well when it came to the two World Wars so please don't think we were not capable of such evil and it was solely the Nazis that did the unspeakable acts ...

[RoddersUK]

!cool!
The British Army did not set up Exterminatiion Commandos as did the SS. That is a fact.
The Wermacht on the whole conducted itself professionally and with honour and was recognised as so by the Allies whenever both sides met. For example, the Desert War was hard fought and bloody on both sides, but captured soldiers of both sides were treated well and cared for with compassion. If soldiers were left to get on with things there would be no conflicts I suspect. The conflicts are started by arseholes called politicians.
I dare say that the British Army had some dubious bastards in it, but the point of being a soldier is to defend ones nation as required and it aint a boy scout set up, of that I can assure you all.
The British Armed Forces swear an Oath of Allegiance to our Sovereign Majesty, her Heirs and Successors and are duty bound in honesty to faithfully defend her against all enemies. I suppose we could call the present bunch of bastards in Westminster her enemies.
Lets have a revolution and shoot all the twatts in Westminster and hand the country to Queen Elizabeth.

[max_tranmere]

Crofter, there were things outside of the rules of the Geneva Convention done on both sides - yes. Like when we bombed the crap out of Dresden for example, it wasnt a military target and more people died there in one night than died in Britain in the entire 6 years of war combined. I dont think there is anything that we, the Americans, or the French did that was comparible to The Holocaust though...

[max_tranmere]

Rodders, you say some interesting things there. What are your views on Oliver Cromwell? It was him who took things away from the unelected, titled, gentry, and put it in the hands of elected people - and the public were given the power to elect and remove those people from office. Some say Cromwell was one of the greatest Brits ever, others vilify him. What are your views?

[RoddersUK]

!cool!

Yeh, Dresden.

London, Birmingham, Coventry, Manchester, Liverpool, Plymouth, Brighton.
Brighton never was a military target but the fucking krauts would jettison their bomb loads when they were turned back by the RAF, out of spite some say as they only had a few more seconds to go when they would be over the channel. One sad target was a clinic full of children, I believe that nearly 2 dozen were killed. My brothers wife was in it at the time but she was lucky, she survived.
Most of the high rise flats in Brighton are the result of Luftwaffe bomb sites. The coast off Brighton is full of shot down German bombers I'm glad to say.

The fucking Nazis started the bombing and to paraphrase Bomber Harris, they sowed the wind and will reap the whirlwind. They did in spades.
The Nazis mistake was to begin a bombing campaign with more than useless bombers. The fucking things couldn't carry much and a Lancasters bomb load was a couple of squadrons worth of German bombers. Still the fucking Nazis were exceedingly stupid as they couldn't see past Hitler or their own stupid noses. Same for the Japs. Only one high ranking Jap foresaw the retribution that would be dealt out once the US geared up to war production. Japan lost the was when the first bomb fell on Pearl Harbour.

[RoddersUK]

!cool!

In some ways Cromwell was a great man. In others he was a complete bastard. He saw the rotteness of the Monarchy and took action. What he did in Ireland will never be forgotten nor should it.
If our elections ever matterd then they would probably be banned by the bastards in Westminster.
I am totally opposed to anything Eu. I voted for a Common Market, not the United States of fucking Europe being run by the biggest bunch of unelected corrupt bastards you could ever imagine.
My views on the Monarchy are that they would make good rulers. Our present Queen is in my mind the finest Monarch that the world has seen since Henry the 8th. Elizabeth the first and Victoria along with Elizabeth the 2nd have served this nation well. It is just a shame that fucking politicians are fucking it up.