August 18, 2007

Sleeping with the enemy. The British women who fell for German PoWs.
posted by some wander by mistake 17 years ago
  • Assholes. Ex-cons. Violent, assaultive men. Inmates. Women love bad boys. Who was more of a bad boy in 1940's England than a German POW? This doesn't surprise me at all.
  • One of the nicest stories my mum tells me about her childhood is her memories of them having one of the German POWs from the local camp round for dinner on Sundays after Mass. My grandad was from a family of staunch anti-fascists and labour activists and well-known in the community, so I presume he wasn't much bothered about any negative comment from the neighbours. Him and my nan just felt sorry for these young lads feeling lonely and a long way from home I think.
  • Well, there you have it folks--the vast range of humanity's response in just two posts. Good on the oldsters, A-C!
  • This is an interesting article, thanks swbm. Growing up, I knew the child of a German internee* and an Irish woman. Had I had any sense at the time, I would've asked about how the parents got together. But I was more interested in how the dad had crashlanded his plane in County Meath. * Though officially neutral during WWII, Ireland interned Axis combatants but sent Allied combatants back to Britain.
  • "You would like Enzo to stay in this county. And you would like your daughter to be married."
  • I heard a story, possibly apocryphal, about a German POW who was put to work after the war ended, tending an old woman's garden. She thought he was lovely etc. He was eventually sent home to Germany and the next spring she was treated to a beautiful floral swastika in her front garden. I hope that's true.
  • I hope that is true, and well it could be. Back in the day, a forestry school near my alma mater was asked to plant a hillside with trees for the latter. They did so, but put just enough larches into the mix that, as the years passed, in autumn the initials of the forestry school appeared in vivid yellow on that hillside. All derails aside, this was quite a good read as well as a reminder that the heart is a mysterious and unpredictable thing. The couples in the story sounded quite fortunate to have found each other.