Steffen, Klaus Fritz Hermann (Oral history)

German gunner served with 3rd Artillery Regt, 3rd Infantry Div, German Army in France, Germany and Soviet Union, 1940-1941; NCO served with 203rd Artillery Regt, 203rd Infantry Div in Germany and France, 1944; prisoner of war in No 23 Camp, Le Marchant Camp, Devizes, No 2 Camp, Glen Mill, Oldham, No 60 Camp, Overdale Camp, Skipton and No 300 Camp, Wilton Park, Beaconsfield in GB, 1944-1948

REEL 1 Background in Germany, 1922-1940: family; education; reasons for lack of support for Nazis in Silesia; effects on his further education of his non-membership of Hitler Youth; his labour service with German Labour Service, 1940. Aspects of enlistment and training with German Army in Germany, 1940-1941: call-up into German Army, 10/1940; basic training at Glogau. Recollections of operations as gunner with 3rd Artillery Regt, 3rd Infantry Div in France, Germany and Soviet Union, 1940-1941: joining unit in France, 1941; his duties; relations with French civilians; move to East Prussia, Germany, 4/1941; start of campaign in Soviet Union, 22/6/1941; state of Soviet civilians and attitude towards them; return to France, 11/1941; contracting jaundice and hospitalisation, 1941; period of protracted medical problems, 1942-1944. REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of period as NCO with 203rd Artillery Regt, 203rd Infantry Div in Germany and France, 1944: formation of division in Silesia; decimation of unit in France, 8/1944; his capture by British Army troops near Amiens, France, 1/9/1944; family attitude towards England; handling by French Canadian Army troops, then French Resistance, 9/1944. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in No 23 Camp, Le Marchant Camp, Devizes, No 2 Camp, Glen Mill, Oldham, No 60 Camp, Overdale Camp, Skipton and No 300 Camp, Wilton Park, Beaconsfield in GB, 1944-1948: transfer to GB from France, 16/9/1944; verbal abuse of German prisoners by eastern Europeans in No 23 Camp, Le Marchant Camp, Devizes, 9/1944; move to No 2 Camp, Glen Mill, Oldham; rations; selection as interpreter and how he learnt English; cultural life of camp; move to No 60 Camp, Overdale Camp, Skipton to do agricultural work, 1945; relations with civilians in Skipton area. REEL 3 Continues: first occasion when prisoners of war allowed out of camp, Christmas, 25/12/1946; organisation of camp Brains Trust; his volunteering to go to special re-education No 300 Camp, Wilton Park, Beaconsfield; meeting English wife; transfer to hostel in Brondesbury Park in London, 1947; work he did preparing educational materials for German schools in London, 1947-1948; political screening of prisoners of war and how he was graded; reasons he wanted to stay in GB rather than return to Germany; German language lessons he gave. REEL 4 Continues: conditions in No 2 Camp, Glen Mill, Oldham; conflict between Germans and non-Germans prisoners of war in camp; degree to which individual prisoners of war supported Nazis; question of tenacity of German Army troops in Second World War; his lack of pride in his military service; relations between German Army and German Air Force.