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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
How Enemies became Friends, 29 Sep 2003
A book about Second World War POWs may arouse images of creative deeds of folly to break out from behind the wire, with those who succeeded in achieving the “home run” instantly being proclaimed as gallant national heroes, while those who fell receiving a momentary martyrdom and a glorified obituary while performing the final self-sacrificing duty for the nation. Besides being a method for the servicemen to regain their personal worth by returning actively in the conflict, the successes of Airey Neave from Colditz or Hauptmann von Werra from a camp in Canada were seen by each nation’s leaders as morale boosters, as one of the many necessary measures for the continuation of the war by other means. Despite the general theme of POWs Pamela Howe Taylor’s book is light years away, and not in the same mould. Most POWs were not escapers, but survivors. Among the Germans the POWs included Nazis and Germans; and contrary to the common held belief during the War that though Nazis were Germans, not all Germans were Nazis – it is the former category which once again Howe Taylor latest work is concerned. Following the interest in the author’s previous book ‘Enemies become Friends’ (1997), based on the material left by her father, Rev Joseph Howe, a British padre to a camp near Blackburn, highlighted in the BBC Timewatch programme ‘The Germans We Kept’, and the German television documentary film ‘Wie aus Feinden Freunde werden’ (How Enemies became Friends), Howe Taylor has over a further five year period extended her sources, contacts and research methods, and effectively compiled a work of 36 real stories varying in length from 2-13 pages, and accompanied with photos and illustrations of the protagonists at work as they were in their youth and today. When peace was declared in May 1945 400,000 Germans were housed in 1,500 camps in Britain, remaining as late as early 1948, with new arrivals making up numbers as Canadian and American camps closed. In 1946 169,000 were employed in agriculture, and 22,000 in the construction of roads. As “fraternization” was only officially allowed in December 1946, contacts with the past foe required courage and well-meaning by both captives and locals towards one another. Against distrust and fears from others, a few opened their homes to for dinner and tea and at Christmas, or invited them into their churches, where German choirs won over the hearts of assemblies of listeners through the international language of music. Kurt Geibel, former paratrooper from Frankfurt, had to admit that had people in Germany shown equal kindness, they and their families would have risked severe punishment. From early meetings, where gifts were exchanged, the friendship persisted until the moment arrived for their release, and their return home, when many tears were freely shed – many Germans continuing to keep contacts and passing on their tales to their families; individuals of the British pre-war Peace Pledge Union, and the Prisoners of War Assistance Society setting up relief committees sending aid and food parcels to those in need in Germany and Austria for up to ten years. Günter Anton, a rear gunner of the Luftwaffe and a master glazier, showed his gratitude for the trust shown by the inhabitants of East Chinnock, near Yeovil, by painstakingly crafting over twenty years seven elegantly decorated stained-glass windows for the local church. A few chose to live on in England – either because they had met local British girls and wished to settle down and marry, or because with deaths in their families and the division of Germany they felt their past roots were no longer relevant. The author had observed key Christian humane characteristics prevalent among individual Britons which the former foes appreciated and admired. These cemented the foundations for future bridge-building. She never claims these tendencies as exclusively British, nor questions the reason why other nationalities across the Channel faced by the subjection of four years of jack-boot occupation would have behaved differently to the oppressors and the collaborators on Liberation. Each of the British reacted in a manner due to compassion and the real desire to help those most in need, even if they knew they would have caused resentment from other locals who had lost loved ones in wartime, who initially treated any such fraternizing acts as unnatural. Over time these others observed that the Germans proved to be as honest and good as any good Briton in the community except that they were foreign. Though Pamela Howe Taylor concludes that the institution of war is wrong, Douglas Hurd underlines that her book is not political. Since wars exist, and will persist, she emphasizes that those who see the foe simply as fellow members of the human race in a different uniform doing their duty should have the courage in peacetime to act accordingly. ‘The Germans We Trusted’ will interest all concerned with military history both in the traditional and more modern sense. In “If Trees could speak” Günther Scheffler, a 17 year old Grenadier in the German Officer Cadets, added an unwritten episode in the history of the Monmouthshire Regiment, in the Teutoburg Forest, between the Ems and Weser rivers, in April 1945, during which one of its gallant fighters, Cpl Edward Chapman, was awarded the V.C. In 1997 a reunion was arranged on the site by representatives of both veteran associations. The Germans admired the bravery of the British, who in turn recognized the fairness and correct behaviour of all soldiers towards the enemy even in the heat of the battle in attempting to arrange a temporary cease-fire to permit stretcher bearers to collect the wounded. The book furthermore will interest servicemen who served in Germany for many years and established permanent roots there, as there is reference to the work carried out by Clemens Schwertmann, former POW around Plymouth, and Bürgermeister of Melle, near Osnabrück for 16 years, who established links with the British garrison. It should be read by school teachers in both Germany and Britain. German teachers of English on holiday in the UK have recently been reported to have complained of the rise of anti-German and Jingoist attitudes, which they attribute to the decline in German language teaching and learning in British schools. The appearance of Howe Taylor’s book at this moment becomes an opportune safety-valve. It allows teachers to act as educators of youth first rather than subject instructors by explaining the real experiences of Germans and Britons in war and after in the mother tongue, in order to overcome the cultural-linguistic barrier. Teachers ought to listen carefully to the protagonists who have an explicit message for them, and to liberals, who feel it is risky or uncool either to reminisce seriously or speak in jest in the Basil Fawlty manner about the War. The ex-POWs confident reply: Do speak about the War!, for as well as the destruction and sorrow it caused to all nations, it brought together former enemies who might never have met on a personal level, and these direct relations helped establish a lasting harmonized future. That was the best contribution. In a sense, they and the group of British hosts were the first peacemakers emerging from the conflict. It should also be compulsory reading for members of the European Commission who seem to forget that it is the real life experiences of ordinary people that helped fuse the conditions in the post-war world, and the fact that these friendships have survived and been passed on to successive generations is a valid lesson for all. ‘The Germans We Trusted’ is not a book that will have immediate effect if read all it in one sitting; like good wine its lessons mature on reflection. It is a useful charming and pioneering work about courageous pioneering endeavours of others completed when the author was bravely struggling against the pains of leukaemia, and problems with loss of eyesight: in short it is a tome about bravery, by a brave person, and for other brave people.
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