Under a warm Australian sun, a 6 ft. in. German in a shirt and burgundy shorts, crouches over a flower bed. His peaked Africa-Corps cap keeps the glare from the light blue eyes of 33-year-old Pte. Kurt F. as he weeds between the rose bushes, slowly, methodically, his mind on the task.
(That thunder rolling from the east toward his Dresden home is the judgment voice of Russian guns. In the suburban munition factory where she now works, his wife crouches over a bench, methodically checking shell calibres. Her six-year-old son has been sent to grandparents in Leipzig.)
The tennis player, tawny-haired, thickset, runs into centre court. Sweat streaking his muscular, brown torso, 25-year-old Cpl. Willi Z. grins as his sideline shot leaves his opponent flatfooted.
(As the siren's wail dies to the first barking of distant AA batteries, his fiancee Olga runs into the rubble-choked Berlin street and hurries toward a shelter. Jostled by thousands of refugees from the frontier zones, she passes the charred shell of the office where she worked till the day before yesterday when Lancasters and Fortresses came from the west in another fatal swarm.)
In a darkened hut, a slim, sallow young man sits in a biology class of 14 watching a lecturer's pointer move over a lantern-slide diagram. Twenty-two-year-old Cpl. Albert T. listens intently as the slow voice of the PW instructor explains.
(From sandbagged windows of the Rhineland college where he studied, machineguns chatter amid the crash of Allied mortar shells on the crumbling walls. Half a mile away to the west, his father and mother huddle in the cellar of their home and listen to Allied tanks rumbling through the streets above.)
As the Australian officer approaches for the inspection parade, the sandy-haired red-faced German WO snaps out an order. His squad comes to attention. Then 29-year-old Unteroffisier Erich B. throws his hand forward in salute. The Australian officer acknowledges in the orthodox Australian army manner and the inspection begins.
(On a ruin-walled square on the fringes of Stettin, his father, Arnold, 58, his brother Erhard, 14, hold their weapons awkwardly as they stand at attention. In front of the Home Guard squad, his uncle Erich, stiffens his 53-year-old body and gives the Hitler salute to the Nazi gauleiter inspecting "our gallant Volkssturm".)
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A number of surveys of the outlook of German PW have been published in Britain, America and the USSR. They have revealed mixed attitudes to the war and the world and wide contrasts in educational development, with more recent captives usually substandard - particularly among those who have grown from child or adolescent under the Hitler regime.
SALT recently obtained permission to visit a PW camp to examine the educational programme being carried out by the Germans.
Those four working, studying, on parade, typify the 1500 Germans in PW camps in Australia. Most of them have spent more than three years behind the multiple-wired barriers of a compound or working under guard within the cordoned boundaries of a PW camp group.
Inside the compound wire are their sleeping huts, mess-halls, workshops, kitchens, study-centre, library, open-air gymnasium, tennis courts and parade-ground goal-posted for soccer.
Australia adheres fully to the Geneva Convention on treatment of war prisoners. Signed at Geneva, Switzerland, on 27 July 29, and ratified by the United Kingdom, Australia and other Empire members on 23 June 31 - and by Germany on 21 Feb 34 - the agreement is keynoted by Article 2 which says: 'They shall at all times be humanely treated and protected ..."
The Convention requires rationing on the same scale and housing under the same conditions as for depot troops of the holding power.
Clothing, underwear, footwear and (where required) working kit must be supplied.
Canteens must be installed so that prisoners can buy, at the local market price, food commodities and other articles. Any profit from these canteens must be used for the benefit of the prisoners.
They must be allowed to receive individually postal parcels of foodstuffs, tobacco and other articles for consumption, and books and newspapers (after security censorship by the holding power).
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That PW camp life in Australia has been healthy and reasonably comfortable for the Germans is shown by their appearance in the camp SALT visited. Many of them have put on weight since they arrived, young men have filled out, grown taller. They are tanned, well-fleshed, fit.
How has the life affected them mentally? That cannot be learnt by just seeing them or even talking to them.
This camp is one for NCOs and privates. Most of them here seem assured, unworried, adjusted to their confinement. Their morale appears high, their bearing confident.
On the surface, anyhow. For one gets the idea that "face" means as much to them as to the Japanese, that they have been trained and drilled to present a stolid appearance.
Few express any opinions that could reveal what they are thinking. Those
who do say anything seem out to create a certain impression.
When occasional comments are made about the war, they reflect either complete disbelief of the news, or echo propaganda of the Nazi leaders in Germany.
It must be remembered that most of these PW were captured in the Middle East in 1940 or early in 1941 when Nazi Germany was master of Europe and looked like becoming master of the world.
When they arrived in Australia, great German armies were plunging into the Soviet Union, over-running the Baltic States, the Ukraine, knocking at the gates of Leningrad and marching on Moscow.
The German reverses and defeats since then, the forced trek homeward from Stalingrad and EI Alamein, from Italy, France and the Balkans, from Finland, the Baltic States, and now from Hungary, Poland and inward from Germany's own borders - all these they know of only from non-German newspapers which they have always been taught to disbelieve.
These newspapers - examined beforehand to see that they contain nothing useful to the enemy or to anyone with ideas of planning an escape - are read by those who can read English. Those who can't, get the news second hand, generally from their camp leaders. It is not unnatural to expect a strong pro-German slant in the translation.
What else do they read? Well, in this camp there is a library hut with 7 000 books, most in German but several hundred in English.
The-range is remarkably wide. It is certainly doubtful if a portrait of Hitler ever glowered down upon such a diversity of opinion.
For, in the place of honour on the wall opposite the door, there is a painting of Der Fuehrer. Which makes it all the more puzzling to look at the library list almost directly under his nose and read a list of authors which includes: Winston Churchill (book on "Blenheim"), John Steinbeck (his anti-Nazi story "The Moon is Down"), Irish leftish playwright Sean O'Casey, Labour Party theoretician Professor Harold Laski ("Where Do We Go From Here?"), the liberal J. B. Priestley ("Out of the People"), Sir Richard Trevelyan ("History of England"), dead Free French airman Xavier St. Exupery ("Wind, Sand and Stars"), English socialist G. D. H. Cole ("Socialism in Evolution"). None of these are permissible reading in Nazi Germany.
There are many other books in English - travel, romance, westerns, humour. A number of these, says one German PW, seem "very childish". He includes the books of P. G. Wodehouse - conscientiously read but still more puzzling than funny.
Australian authors include Ernestine Hill, Arthur Upfield, Ion L. Idriess and Mrs. Aeneas Gunn ("We of the Never Never"). Jones' "Prisoner of the Kormoran" is there too. It is much read and much criticised by some of the PWs - they were in the Kormoran's crew. Used in English prose study are Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" and books by John Ruskin.
Most of the books, however, are in German und by German authors. Asked how many of those in English are read, the librarian is vague. "lt is difficult to estimate", he says.
Shakespeare's plays are there - in German. A PW emphasises that Shakespeare in German verse can be regarded as much a German work as a translation. The books in English are supplied by the International Red Cross. Most of the books in German (the bulk of the library) have come through Red Cross and the protecting power (Switzerland) from the Reich Government.
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Typical PWs
Here is a typical cross-section of German prisoners of war in Australian PW Camps:
Albert B., naval AB, aged 33, no religion; next of kin, iather in Hamburg. Short (5 lt. 5 in.), thickset (13,2), has blue eyes, fair hair, ruddy complexion. Peacetime job: sallor.
Willi T., cpl, aged 29, Roman Catholie; wile in Cologne. Black hair, brown eyes, dark complexion. Height 5 lt 8 in., weight 10.10. Peacetime job: miner.
George S., naval AB, aged 44, Protestant; wile and one child in Goettingen. Very short (5 lt. 1 in.), nuggety (9.12), sandy hair, grey eyes, tanned coinplexion. Peacetime job: bootmaker.
Ernest E., warrant officer, aged 32, Roman Catholic; wife and two children in Vienna. Tall (6 lt. 2 in.), heavy (13.9), lair hair, blue eyes, fair complexion. Peacetime job: town inspector.
Kurt D., Luftwaffe epl, aged 24, Protestant; mother in Lubeck. Height 5 lt. 10 in., weight 12.7, red hair, blue eyes, light complexion. Peacetime job: merchant.
Erhard K., sgt. aged 28, Roman Catholic; wile in Breslau. Height 5 lt. 11 in., weight 13.1, brown hair, blue eyes, fair complexion. Peacetime job: teacher.
Johann T., pie, aged 23, Protestant; parents in Leipzig. Height 5 lt. 9 in., weight 10.12, fair hair, hazel eyes, ruddy complexion. Peacetime job: student.
Arnold H., Luftwaffe pte, aged 25, Roman Catholic; wile in Munich. Height 6 lt., weight 12.3, deep brown eyes, black hair, sallow skin. Peacetime job: carpenter.
Not all, though, for some of the authors are not officially favoured in Nazi Germany. Thus the liberal Goethe is included with Kant, Hegel and Fichte, whose philosophies have been fitted into the Nazi ideology.
There is a book about Beethoven, who hated tyranny, but it is written by Wagner, the favourite composer of Adolf Hitler.
Modern works include books by Dr. Ley, head of the Nazi Labour Front;
by Rosenberg, the Baltic fifth-column organiser and the man who introduced the forged "Protocols of Zion" to the Fuehrer; by D'Annunzio, the Italian Fascist poet; and by Sven Hedin, the pro-Nazi Swedish author-explorer ("a favourite", said a PW). A number of the newer German authors include younger men who have had official Nazi Government sponsorship.
Permitted periodicals include "Life", "Time" and the "National Geographic Magazine". Cover of the last copy on "Life" file shows a bunch of captured Germans being marched down a West Front road. [ ... 1
About 150 books are taken out daily and as each may be kept for eight days the amount of reading is heavy. The library list reveals that most of the books are not anti-Nazi though there are exceptions, mostly in English. But it is difficult to learn accurately what works of a serious nature are the most studied and whether the anti-Nazi books are approached with an open mind or just as samples of "Jewish-plutocratic-communistic decadence".
Of the 7 000 books in the library, 1600 are used for extensive educational Programme organised by the PWs.
The reference books are housed in the "school" building 150 yards away, past sleeping huts, workshops, cookhouse and mess hall.
The "education leader" is Sgt. Friedrich D., fair, of medium height, solid build. He is now 42, was a lawyer in Lubeck before the war. As he rises and gives the Hitler salute, one notices his pale blue eyes are quick-moving, calculating. Another portrait of Hitler, done in "heroic" style, glares down from above the desk where the sergeant keeps the list of reference books.
Sgt. D. is cautious, taciturn, and prefers to use an interpreter, though one gets the impression that his knowledge of English is pretty extensive.
He has a list of the classes. This shows that there are 450 PWs studying under 73 instructors. Although the instructors are NCOs and privates, they include university Professors, lawyers, doctors, architects, business men, journalists, a missionary, a Bavarian count and a couple of barons.
Under their tuition, 302 are studying German; 110 English; 25 French; 12 Italian; 11 Spanish; 19 Latin; 3 Swedish; and 13 Russian.
The teachers of English include: a pre-war Pacific Island merchant; a Bavarian count; a mine manager from South Africa; a journalist baron who worked in Shanghai and many other places (he also teaches Russian). Swedish is taught by a timber merchant who did business in Scandinavia.
Mathematics (the list showed) are being studied by 230; geology by 23; biology by 20; physics by 4.
Law Students number 21; Medicine 4; engineering 12; agriculture 30; navigation 10; art 8; and 'gastronomy" 4. "Gastronomy" is apparently a mistranslation and should have been gastrology, the science of cooking, although the course covers all aspects of hotel and restaurant management. The instructor was assistant manager of a big Munich hotel.
Special lessons for those PWs preparing for high school exams are attended by 49; what is described as `general education for NC0s as prescribed" by 121; and ten are studying to be "Labour Service officers" (the German government organisation run by Dr. Ley, one of the Party big-shots).
A "master tradesman" course is being taken by 65, including 8 joiners, 12 bakers, 8 tailors, 11 mechanics, 8 painters and 14 bookbinders. Eight PWs are studying building as a post-war trade.
Not listed as a subject of study, but obviously known almost by heart is the Geneva Convention. The German PWs never miss an opportunity to get everything possible under its terms - and try always for a bit more.
Asked about a play recently staged by the PW in their compound, the sergeant says it is called "The Sword" und was written by a "new German writer" called Langenbrucher. The sergeant had assisted in the production. Did he have any prewar experience with the theatre? No, he is not interested in acting technique, but in the play's "message', he says.
Sgt. D., apart from being the 'school" organiser, is an instructor in the Labour Service course and one of two tutors of »German History". The other history tutor is a professor, now a warrant-officer specialist, from a Rhine university. According to the last report on the education Programme (sent back to Germany through the International Red Cross), the professor's lectures cover such aspects as: the extent of the German Reich; Reich administration; creation of the Greater German State since 1933 (when Hitler took over); in particular, the details of the absorption of the Saar Basin, Austria, the Sudetenland, and Bohemia (Czechoslovakia).
The report showed these questions were asked at the end-of-term exams:
State relationship of Bohemia to German Empire for past 1000 years.
Relationship of West Prussia to German Empire and its princes over last 1000 years.
To what countries did following belong in 1925: a) Saar Basin b) Austria c) Sudetenland d) Memel.
What were main demands of Sudeten Germans on Czechoslovakia? On what did they depend? Where and when formulated?
What posts has Gauleiter Buerckel held since 1935?
What were main dates, personalities and results of Munich Conference in 1938?
What State posts has Dr. Seyss Inquart held since 1937?
The questions were set on lectures given during the term and indicate detailed study of German expansion under Hitler and of the careers of leading agents of expansion, such as Seyss Inquart (now starving the Dutch to death) and Buerckel who played key parts in the undermining and seizure of Austria.
The lectures on "Reichskunde" (German Affairs) given by the other tutor, Sgt. F., covered: "Citizenship of the German People; Foreign Races in the Reich, Preserving Racial Purity; the Nuremberg Laws; Third Reich Land Laws" (The Nuremberg Laws cover punishment for acts of "racial shame" such as marrying or being connected with Jewish or part-Jewish people).
Sgt. F. and another tutor, a 30-year-old private, conduct the course for the Reichsarbeitsdienst officers. The Reichsarbeitsdienst is the Labour Service which replaced the banned trade unions and is an integral part of the present German system.
The private's lectures of these students include (according to the report sent back to Germany) the organisation of Labour Service parades and sports gatherings, of Party festivals and celebrations, of Nazi-ordained days of national commemoration, the great Nuremberg Rally, and the part played by Labour Service and Party officials in the building up of such festivals.
This education course is conducted by the PWs under Article 17 of the Geneva Convention which says: 'Belligerents shall encourage as much as possible the organisation of intellectual and sporting pursuits by the prisoners of war."
Summing up on the basis of their reading and their educational studies:
* These German PWs obviously assumed that they would return to the same kind of Germany that they left. They have anticipated and prepared for jobs within the governmental framework of the Third Reich.
* Now that they realise that they will go back not to a triumphant Greater Germany but to a defeated nation, the PWs hope 'to return as a united bloc capable of strong influence on a disunited people.
