In 1945, when the war in Europe came to a close, 150,000 German prisoners were already being held behind barbed wire in prisoner of war (POW) camps in Britain. Most had arrived within the previous twelve months, following Allied gains after the D-Day invasion. But the end of hostilities did not mean that the Germans were to be immediately sent home. On the contrary, the last ones to be repatriated would not see their own country until the end of 1948 – more than two-and-a-half years after the war’s end. In fact, their numbers increased in 1946, when a further 130,000 were brought to the UK from North America, where they had been held on Britain’s behalf.
Britain had several reasons for wishing to keep the prisoners. Most importantly, they provided an indispensable workforce – especially in agriculture. The nation had been forced to double its agricultural output during the war, and the German prisoners accounted for 25 to 50 per cent of all agricultural labour across the country. Others were employed clearing bomb-sites and helping to rebuild the nation’s shattered infrastructure.
British politicians believed that while the Germans were still in the UK they might as well be taught to reject the Nazi doctrine they had grown up with and converted into peace-loving democrats. 'Re-education' – as it was called – met with some success, though it was later acknowledged to have been a hopelessly over-ambitious plan, with results that were seen as 'patchy and qualified.'
A distinct shift in public attitudes towards the prisoners became apparent as time passed. Residents of Chatham, Kent, protested at first when they learned that a POW camp was to be built near their homes. But when prisoners were allowed in late 1946 to mix with the public, many of the same local families invited the Germans to their homes for Christmas.
POWs engaged in agriculture frequently lived as part of the farmer’s household: to his dying day, one former prisoner referred to the farmer and his wife as 'my English parents'. And the prisoners quickly gained a reputation for being industrious and reliable: ‘We felt that working is good for you,’ one German said. ‘We met the farmers, we met English people and liked them as human beings and there were often really friendly relationships. And we didn’t want to let the farmers down so we worked hard.’
There are numerous examples of German POWs meeting local women and falling in love. Although at first fraternisation of this kind was strictly verboten, it eventually became possible for the prisoners to marry their British sweethearts. When this news was announced in the House of Commons it was greeted with loud cheering. Around 800 marriages took place almost immediately, and hundreds – possibly thousands – followed.
Britain began to repatriate the prisoners in September 1946, and by mid-1948 virtually all of them had been sent home. But by this time many had forged strong links with the UK, and wanted to stay in the country instead of going back to Germany. A last-minute change of heart on the part of the government made it possible for 25,000 to remain in the UK permanently. A famous example was the legendary soccer player, Bert Trautmann, who received the OBE in 2004 for promoting Anglo-German understanding through football.
Others have made a valuable contribution to their adopted country in their own individual ways. And to quote the distinguished academic, Dr. J. A. Hellen, Britain’s experience with the German prisoners ‘had the unintended and long-term effect of re-educating the British themselves in their perceptions of and attitudes towards the German enemy in particular, and to Europeans in general.’
Robin Quinn is the author of Hitler's Last Army. 400,000 GERMAN TROOPS ON BRITISH SOIL! In 1940, when Adolf Hitler planned to invade Britain, his greatest wish was to read a headline like this. Yet, five years later, there really were 400,000 German servicemen in the UK – not as conquerors but as prisoners of war. They were, in every sense, Hitler’s Last Army. Using exclusive interviews with former prisoners, as well as extensive archive material, this book looks at the Second World War from a fresh perspective – that of Britain’s German prisoners: from the shock of being captured to their final release long after the war had ended.