WWII German Prisoners Return Home (1955) | British Pathé

My grand uncle, my Opa's oldest brother, survived the fighting in Poland, France and then countless skirmishes and battles across Russia en route to Stalingrad but was captured there. He spent 7 plus years in captivity and showed up out of the blue at his mother's home while they were sitting down for dinner around Christmas 1950. My Opa was 15 years old and said it was like seeing a ghost because the family had been living with the thought that he was dead and they would never see or hear from him again. My great grandmother was in such a state of shock that all she could do was set another plate at the table for him. My Opa was only like 5 years old the last time he had seen his oldest brother so he was speechless and didn't know what to say to him while his sisters were all overwhelmed with joy, crying and hugging him as tight as they could. My grand uncle married within a year and then emigrated to the US where two of his sisters had been living since 1949-50. He went on to have two sons but died from brain tumors in 1956 at the age of 36. We have absolutely no history of cancer in our family so I have always assumed that during his time in the gulags that he must have spent time working in a uranium mine. That's just my guess. He is my mother's and my Guardian Angel, this I know for sure.

It's such a heartbreaking video to see the mothers, children and wives holding pictures of their lost loved ones hoping that some of the returning men might have some news of their loved ones. It brings tears to my eyes everytime.

One could only imagine the horrors that these poor men experienced and witnessed for being nothing more than men born at that particular time in German history and conscripted and driven to the Russian Front to fight a fanatical Dictators war for living space for Germany so he could go down in German history as the greatest German that ever lived.

After reading commnet section I feel that I have to clarify the logic of Stalin and his regime. More than 27 millions of soviet people were killed during war. Some areas were literally in ruins and there were no human power to restore or rebuilt economy. Therefore Germans and its allies PoW were a source of labour force. For example, after WWII german PoW worked on restoration and buildings in Minsk, Belarus. Some homes are still exist and people live there. Some coal mines were restored by PoW in Donbass region and so on.

As for high mortality rates among PoW I'd like to tell Russian proverb that can be translated in English like "Hit your own people to make fear aliens". Stalin didn't care his own people, therefore there were no reasons to care about Germans.

P.s. "Death of a human is tragedy, death of millions is statistics." J. Stalin.

My mom's family got involved in smuggling food into a pow/concentration camp. As punishment, all the adult and teenage males were aent to dangerous area mostly on the russian front. One 16 year old was on the Bismarck when it was sunk, and 7 went to Russia. My grandfather was the only one over the age of 11 to survive, and that was because he found out where the British navy was and smuggled himself across enemy lines to surrender to them. I think he did more yo help the British than anyone else.

Каждому своё...

Educativo.

We're talking about holding these German guys in prison for crimes against humanity. Somehow It sounds fair.

However, right now as we talk, there're 109 Jehovah's Witnesses in Russian's prisons just because they preach the Bible and meet together to pray.
Putin did not learn anything from Hittler's criminals deeds.
Putin refused to hear Angela Markle, the German councilor, when she advised him and said "Vladimir do not repeat history and leave those people alone".

Hey, I'm sure they could have all gotten jobs as Russian translators using their new language!

Each should have a tag on how many innocent men women and children they killed.... Rest in peace the innocents who died at their hands.

This all because of politics and idiots, and this still continues.....humans never will learn :(

Anyone gonna mention Putin at the end?

5 years for eating a chicken; 5 years for feeding a horse grain. All 'war crimes' under Soviet laws - 'stealing from the motherland'.

many had to walk back

They didn't question what their government was doing, and it had dreadful consequences. Nowadays, folk don't question what their governments are doing, and the consequences will be dreadful.😮😮😮😮😮

The Soviets gained nothing by holding these men for ten years but their unshakable and undying hatred of the USSR.

They left home as young boys and returned as elderly men. That must have been a hard 10 years.

They made their choice to go murdering Russian men women and children.
Just as Sholtz has today. Germans murdered 16 million Russians.

It was a mistake and tragic that they return home alive after all they did.

Great to see the lads come home.Ah,yeah...

Keep in mind it was the utter idiocy of America, France, Great Britain & the rest that created the troubles that allowed Adolf Hitler, Tojo & Stalin to rise to power, thus countless good people suffered for their incompetency, if it was up to me their WWI & II "leaders" would not even be given graves,

That last and closing scene, the man stroking his son's hair repeatedly while embracing his wife. Tragic and mesmerising

BUT THE SOVIETS TODAY...CONTINUE THEIR BS! Spare me of any rebuttals!

Strange things frontiers....

Probably a lot of them were drafted and had no choice. So few of them survived combat and then only about 1 in 10 survived the gulags.

Pows and soldiers stationed in foreign lands coming home coping of having normal lives, hard to get jobs, ptsd and their gf or wives are remarried and found someone else thinking they will not come back or dead. "War Is Hell"

Une bien triste occupation de faire la guerre, mais la leçon ne porte jamais.

After 10 years....poor soldiers

Lesson is not learned, mistakes are being repeated

I remember seeing the photo of a man who returned to his family home in Frankfurt only to find everything was lost.

A sea of sad faces.

The madness of war.

They look like old men ! I bet they are not as old as they look !

I feel so sad for the mothers and wives who are looking, in vain, for their loved ones to come home. Very tough to watch, even though this was almost 70 years ago.

Germans are bad people…

They came home to find out that the Russians and Americans had taken their wives and made new mixed children with them.

British propaganda. First they destroyed Germany completed, comiting genocide against the German people, then are suddenly interested in the POWS... British pate...

Boches

My German grandfather was one of them

My Stepgrandfather came home about 1953. He had been captivated in Finland, securing the Finnish border. He never talked much about the war, he was doing service with skies and in the snow. I never thought about the possibility, why he was held as a POW so long. I am a bit shocked now.

Khruschcev I will never forgive him for this.

Dziwię się Rosjanom że wypuścili tych zbrodniarzy...Powinni swoimi ciałami użyźnić Syberię o którą tak walczyli.

Frietland 1955 ..Smoleńsk ..

My grandfather was lucky enough not to be on the Eastern Front and to be a British POW. He returned home in ‘47. His experience being treated fairly as a POW led him to being a lifelong anglophile.

It's always the losing side who are dubbed "war criminals".

Грустно конечно видеть как эти женщины ищут своих мужей, братьев, сыновей, но еще хуже от того, что таких людей у советской стороны больше

When Germans were asked what Adenauer did they most admired it was this event. Bringing the last of their boys home.

Победители сраные много возвротилось к сожелению...

I am impressed by the resiliency of the German people. Eight million German refugees in 1945, zero refugees five years later. Contrast this with multigenerational refugees we see today.