My time in Germany: Memories of the German Army

When I worked in Germany at a bank in Frankfurt 1966-68,one of my colleagues had been the censor at Stalag 20B in Danzig. His name Eduard Muench. He would come up to me and say "Hows tricks?" and talk about the prisoners he had at the POW camp, he was very pleased with the British prisoners who he befriended in the limited way he could. The British Officer asked him if he would allow a letter through uncensored. His reply was that he was not a spy for the Germans and he didn't intend starting as a British spy. He asked me how he could get in touch with the ex prisoners. I suggested he write to a British newspaper, but I assume he didn't.

I also knew the head of our Credit Dept. who had been a Captain in the German army. He told me that at the end of the war, he was bringing his soldiers from the east they were mixed in with a lot of refugees. He came to a crossroads where one road led to East Germany the other to the West. There was a British soldier at the crossroads leaning on a motorbike nonchanantly and pointing towards the East road. Captain Beyer went up to him and said "I have a fully armed troop of soldiers among the refugees, if you insist we take that road, we shall have to shoot you". Without hesitation the British soldier gesticulated to the West, telling them they should all go that way.

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