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| -Land of the Free |
| Günter Gräwe returns to the US to say 'Thank You.' |
| 2017-10-09 |
| [Seattle Times] JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD ‐ Gunter Gräwe spent three years as a German prisoner of war in Western Washington, a World War II incarceration he recalls not with rancor but gratitude for the chance to "live and learn in America." Gräwe always thought about returning to the state to say thank you. Last week, the rail-thin veteran, now 91, did just that during a brief visit to this base, where guard towers and barbed-wire fences are long gone but some of the two-story wooden barracks that once housed German prisoners still stand. He declared his capture by the Americans at the age of 18 "his luckiest day," and reminisced about camp life that included English, French and Spanish classes organized by other POWs and a commissary stocked with chocolate, ice cream and Coca-Cola. "I never had anything to complain about," Gräwe said. "No guard called us nasty names. I had a better life as a prisoner than my mother and sister back home in Germany." |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
#5 (FYI the Geneva Protocols require that POW's be held in a similar climate to where they were captured, not where they're from.) And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why no one was captured in the Aleutians. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2017-10-09 16:53 |
| #4 Met an old guy in central Texas (near New Braunfels) with a thick german accent. Owned a store/BBQ joint. Told me he had been captured as a Afrika Corps tank commander in WW2, and sent to a holding camp in Texas and repatriated at the end. He said "I was fighting and they forced me to come to Texas the first time, and then I had to fight to get back here the second time." (FYI the Geneva Protocols require that POW's be held in a similar climate to where they were captured, not where they're from.) |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2017-10-09 16:27 |
| #3 three of the few bright shining stars of the Seattle area,JBLM...Oak Harbor....and Bangor |
| Posted by: 746 2017-10-09 11:46 |
| #2 History Link article on Fort Lewis WWII POW Camp. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-10-09 08:33 |
| #1 My grandfather worked in that camp during WWII as a guard. He once told me the prisoners asked how they could stay in America once the war was over. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2017-10-09 08:28 |