Description
Object description
German schoolchild in Berlin, Germany, 1930-1943; served as grenadier with 230th Grenadier Regt, 76th Infantry Div in Germany, Poland and Soviet Union, 8/1943-10/1943; NCO and officer served with 583rd Grenadier Regt, 319th Infantry Div in Channel Islands, 10/1943-5/1945; prisoner of war in No 18 Camp, Featherstone, GB, 1945-1948
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Marienburg and Berlin, Germany, 1925-1930: family; education. Recollections of period as schoolchild in Berlin, Germany, 1930-1943: father's political opinions; reaction of parents to Nazi regime; family's religious practice; sight of political turmoil, pre-1933; a pro-Nazi Jewish civilian; geographical character of political allegiance; political jokes; types of individuals who supported Nazism.
REEL 2 Continues: atmosphere after Nazi takeover, 1933; benefits of Nazi regime; Nazification of youth and in education system; Catholic and Protestant support for regime; examples of Nazi teachers.
REEL 3 Continues: possibilities of religious practice; degree of knowledge of anti-Semitism; popular attitudes towards Nazi leadership; Nazi attitudes towards religion in schools; resistance leaflets; father's contact with Czech Resistance; father's knowledge of concentration camps; popular knowledge of concentration camps.
REEL 4 Continues: dangers of free speech; effect of rearmament on living standards; war tensions and attitude to approaching war; attitude towards Versailles Treaty; popular German attitudes towards Great Britain; memories of outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; attitudes towards Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939; popular feelings towards Polish War, 9/1939; peace hopes during Phoney War, 9/1939-5/1940. Aspects of period as grenadier with 230th Grenadier Regt, 76th Infantry Div in Germany, Poland and Soviet Union, 8/1943-10/1943: call-up for military service, 8/1943; sight of anti-German slogans in Poland, 1943.
REEL 5 Continues: Polish-German tensions in Poland, 1943; opinion of training he received as grenadier; attitude towards Nazi regime after his family was bombed out; partisan activity in Soviet Union, 1943; fear of service on Eastern Front; attitude towards Soviet Partisans; four week train journey to France. Recollections of period as NCO and officer served with 583rd Grenadier Regt in Channel Islands, 10/1943-5/1945: posting to Channel Islands, 10/1943.
REEL 6 Continues: German garrison on Guernsey; attitude of Channel Islanders to German occupation; lack of sabotage and hostility towards Germans; lack of rations, winter 1944-1945; distribution of Red Cross parcels; British propaganda leaflets; problems of troops' not receiving news; sight of Soviet prisoners of war on Guernsey; presence of Georgians in German Army; Channel Islanders' attitude towards RAF raids; privations at war's end; troops' reaction to death of Adolf Hitler, 30/4/1945.
REEL 7 Continues: his attitude towards defeat of Nazi Germany; attitudes towards Allies' unconditional surrender demand; attitude towards prospect of captivity; overeating danger at the liberation, 5/1945; first sight of British troops and impression they made. Aspects of period as prisoner of war No 18 Camp, Featherstone, GB, 1945-1948: hostility of German Jewish captors in transit at No 9 Camp, Kempton Park Racecourse; loss of possessions; impressions during train journey to No 18 Camp, Featherstone; conditions in camp; camp life.
REEL 8 Continues: attitude towards captors; anxiety amongst prisoners of war for repatriation to Germany; organisation of cultural activities in camp; degree of freedom to leave camp; prisoners of war puppet shows given to civilians; how he met his English wife; relations with English civilians. German troops' respect for property on Guernsey. German Army songs.