A bit long (50 minutes), but an interesting look at how the experiences of German POWs seeing first-hand the industrial might of the United States shattered their previous false views of American weakness and near-collapse formed by relentless Nazi propaganda. And perhaps even more importantly, the video shows how the treatment of POWs by U.S. military personnel, and by the civilians the POWs frequently came into contact with - with kindness and dignity - moved many of them to reject their totalitarian ideology completely and absorb American concepts of freedom and democratic institutions which they put to use in rebuilding Germany after the war.
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That is an outright stunning history lesson. I wasn't aware of the secret education program, nor of the POW responses to what they had seen in America.
ReplyDeleteThanks for finding it!
Can you imagine what it must have been like, to be a German POW - half-starved after the loss in North Africa - seeing an American shipyard, miles and miles of factories, even the small towns lit up at night when their own large cities were forced to ration electricity. And then to eat better than they had in years, with regular access to ice cream and Coca-Cola. They must have been totally awestruck.
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