I grew up in the, Hanseatic town of Bremen, Germany, which is in the northern part of Germany.

That North Germany, right below Aus Friesland.

Back during, during th beginnings of of Hitler's reign, the German population didn't have a lot to eat.

They didn't have a lot of hope.

They did not have a lot of jobs.

At the time, it was right after the Weimar Republic, was crushed.

And, so my uncle ended up just like all the other boys and girls in these activities that were now, you know, that were now placed in the German public to to help mold the youth towards what, Adolf Hitler at the time deemed at the Third Reich.

It's funny how people think that history is boring.

But do we even know what's going on inside these pages?

It's still being written, and it's packed with wild stories and unexpected twists.

Im here to tell yo the stories behind the history Its complicated.

Messy.

And often times bizarre and strange.

You are about to learn that this is not your average history lesson.

I'm Christine Darrow, but you can call me.

You know, you have the Ottoman Empire, then Roman Empire, and then you have the Thir Reich, which was one of the big.

World dominating, authorities.

I mean, we know the history about that a little bit.

And so my uncle fell mainstream.

He just fell into what, all the other, all the other young people did back then.

They just followed, followed the rules and had a hope and had a goal and had a had something to eat and a place to stay.

Place to sleep.

Things were better, just socially better.

And so they just fell into that.

The indoctrination of the German youth created an environment of total compliance and fea of what consequences may await those who spoke out and incidents where children reported their parents weren't unheard of.

They would say my, my mo doesn't want me to participate or my dad doesn't want me to participate, or, at the dinner table, we've heard my my parents talk negatively about Hitler or, they don't want us to be in the in the Hitler Youth.

And those kids would turn in their parents.

Many of them have done that.

Not everyone of of course, but many of them did that.

And the parents ended up concentration camps.

You know, my grandma said that the discussion about politics or the way things were going, I never really surfaced, during that time, during the actual war time, she said that they would not talk politics at all.

So I think for that reason, Desperation, fear and then just letting them know exactly what you wan them to know and nothing more.

Control of the head of the mind.

Independent thought.

Eradicate that.

Follow this.

Follow the line.

You know, just follow along.

You'd be fine.

Anything independent Thought?

Concentration camps pulled away not just, the Jews they took out of the circulation Gypsies.

They took out of the circulation, disabled They took out of the circulation anybody who was, against the regime, anybody they could find, tha was who was against the regime.

During the World War Two era, Fort Drum was known as Pine Camp.

In 1940, Pine Camp underwent a radical and permanent transformation.

Driven by the urgent need to prepar for modern mechanized warfare.

The U.S.

Army launched a massive expansion.

This strategic necessity came at a significant local cost To create a training ground large enough for entire armored divisions, the government purchased a additional 75,000 acres of land.

This action displace 525 families and entirely erased five villages, such as Sterling- ville, right from the map.

In their place, a military city of over 800 buildings rose in less than a year, becoming the anvil, where elite units like the fourth and fifth Armored Divisions were forged for battle in Europe.

The success of Allied campaigns, particularly in North Africa, resulted in the capture of hundred of thousands of axis soldiers.

This created a significant logistical challenge, and the War Department determined that housing these prisoners in camps within the United States was the most secure and efficient solution.

The Allied forces basically had a plan that they were going to hold the P.O.W.s as far forward in the combat areas for the capture as possible.

So the first round of axis forces that were captured by th allies were in the North Africa.

Now they kept them in North Africa.

At that point, they went up into Italy.

Italy is still a combative nation, part of the axis.

And up until that point, getting the P.O.W.s back to the camps in the United States was the big issue.

So if you can imagine trying to go in the Mediterranean, you have to go all pass through Franco's Spain, occupied France, the Italian Navy and you have to get to the choke point in Gibraltar, hook a right and get all the way back up in England.

It's too dicey.

It's too risky.

So the Americans decided they were going to start making the camps at that point.

So you're looking early 44.

Late 43 is when they started making the active measures to start getting P.O.W.

camps out here in the States.

They're either going to be coming into the port of New York, the Port of Philly, or you have Hampton Roads down there in Virginia Beach.

With those areas, you have transitory pier enclosures, basically open cattle.

And the purpose of that i to start the screening process.

Hey, Pine Camp, Fort Drum has got 30 spaces.

All right.

Next 30 on a train.

Out the door they go.

The whole purpose is, is to get the paperwork, get them settled, and get them downrange to where they need to be.

As the war progressed, Pine Camp took on another crucial role born from two wartime pressures.

The mobilization of American men for combat created a severe labor crisis at home, threatening the nation's food and materiel production.

The solution was to establish a prisoner of war camp at the installation.

Their labor in New York' orchards, canneries, and lumber camps was so critical that New York's governor had personally appealed to the Army.

Warning that without them, crops would be lost.

When you look, start looking for a P.O.W.

camp, you're going to need a place that has a hospital one.

And then you're also going to need some place to be able to house all the prisoners.

Pine camp had available space and to construct the P.O.W.

camp.

We believe a thousand Italian P.O.W.

was originally came to Pine Camp and then were filtered out.

Then later in May of 44 German prisoners of war started to arrive.

We know for a fact they woul have had to been separated after Italy declared war on Germany and joined the Allied nations.

So they would have had to have been separated at that point.

There was one camp for bot prisoners, German and Italian.

Later, the confusion starts.

The Italians will no longer prisoners of war.

But they weren't going to be allowed into the local community.

So they would have been housed somewhere on the post.

And I think that's where the idea of a separate P.O.W.

camp comes into being.

The Italians would have been house separately from the Americans, but they wouldn't have been given all the rights and privileges American soldiers were given.

I do know of a famil that came up for an Italian day and came up and brought a dish to serve the Italians.

Now this would have been after they were P.O.W.s and part of the Italian service unit, but they actually came up here like an Italian American, an Italian American club, an adopted these Italian soldiers.

And they actually brought them up food.

The German-American club did not adopt German P.O.W.s, not in the least bit.

I do know of instances in other locations where, the German were allowed into the community on pass, as it were, and the local community basically treated them with respect.

But never, or curiosity might be a better term, but I've never heard of anything locally happening.

I've heard stories fro P.O.W.s who said from families who said that the best thin that happened to their loved one was that they were captured and were safe in America, well fed, well taken care of as opposed to being in Germany at the time.

My name is Birgit Albers.

My father's name was, Heinz Albers.

He was a German prisoner of war.

in Frankfort, I worked for, as a nurse for, six years.

And then my daughter decided before she had to go to school she wanted to see the kangaroos, so we came to Australia on a holiday, and that's where I met my second husband.

And, he then came back with us to Germany, and we had two children, and he decided because of his own health reasons, he didn't want to stay in Germany.

We decided then to move to Australia, and that was 1986.

My father died in 1972, and I have visit my mother regular every second year when I could afford it, with 1 or 2 children.

And, then when she died, my brothers cleaned out the house and got hold of my father's diaries.

And then my brother, said there, it's not much written in it, only the weather and things like that.

But I think he looked at the diaries later on in the 50s, 60s.

2019.

My brother gave me my father's diaries, and, there were lots of diaries, but going through them, I found the the diaries where he documented his time as a soldier and as a prisoner.

And then I started to read them from 1943 and find out that he was a soldier and was going to war.

Second World War started, and they were shipped down to Italy with the Italians together.

They went down to, North America.

No, Africa.

Sorry.

And, Tunisia.

And that's where he got captured, by the Americans and then taken to America.

So it took me quite a long time to read through them.

And then, yeah, that was sort of the second last camp here before he was moved with other, P.O.W.s down to Fort Monmouth and then back to, New York and in Hoboken, they used a big ship to transport them to England.

My father never spoke of it.

No, never.

I can't recall anything.

We were four.

He was busy.

He had had issues.

He was busy making money.

He was a engineer.

A building engineer.

So according to his diaries after the war, he was working, you know, from 9:00 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening and had four children really quickly.

My mother stayed at home.

There was no time of talking about the past.

In compliance with the Geneva Convention, the U.S.

provided opportunities for prisoners to engage in productive activities.

This included offering classes in subjects like English, mathematics, and various trades.

This was seen as a way to maintain order and morale and the well-being of axis prisoners was also considered a factor and ensuring reciprocal fair treatment fo American P.OW.s held overseas.

The majority of the classes, they wanted to learn English.

They wanted to read English speak read, write the language.

So that was very big.

A lot of the local church communities came in and did the Bible study classes and whatnot.

They also did things for the soldiers to prepare them for life after the war.

Then it was kind of neat how they did it.

It was a home ec class, home economics.

They were teaching these guys how to cook and how to sew and stuff they weren't learning in a foxhole.

A lot of them went up to higher end stuff.

Electronics.

It was it's nothing.

All you need is chalkboard to teach electronics.

And these guys are being taught electronics, plumbing, Hvac, automotive engine, stuff like that.

And a lot of them stayed here in the United States and use those skills.

It really case by case basis.

Some of them got to stay here, but the majority of them had to go back and then make their way back here.

And a lot of them did.

If you think about it, if you were given the choice of staying in Pine Camp or going back to Frankfurt, that's been bombed flat, what would you choose?

After the war, and according to his diaries, he was devastated.

He never imagine that Germany was so destroyed.

He came from Hamburg.

His mother's house was bombed out where he was born.

His father's house.

His parents got divorced during the war.

But shortly after the First World War and, his father's house, he was still alive and he's still living there, and that's where he could go back to.

But Hamburg was pretty much bombed out, and he had a lot of problems, finding work, finding his way around after, three and a half years, being in capture in captivity.

He had a friend with whom he did the training as a building engineer and he tried to get work there.

Or, it was not there.

There was lots of work around, but nobody wanted to pay them to rebuild the town.

So he then, finally, after a couple of years I think he has written letters, 47 — 1947, writing back to contacts he had two years in, in, in America trying to get somebody to get him back over.

That he wanted to work here.

He he was.

Yeah.

He tried to find a way out.

He tried to find a way to survive.

Birgits father eventually stayed in Germany, but moved with her mother to West Germany shortly after It was divided to avoid communist rule.

While Heinz Albers kept his time as a soldier and prisoner of war a secret from his children, some families and the older generations found the indoctrination from their youth hard to outgrow, even decades later.

For reasons stated earlier you know, we never talked about, you know, the war and Hitler and I had a totally different take on that from wha the family was, you know, doing.

I thought we needed to process that, you know, these these things happen.

Ugly things happen during war.

We could not just chalk it off as collateral damage.

And, you know, means to an end.

So that said, I was, I bumped into an American soldier, and I had, fell in love with the soldier on the American soldier, and, he eventually ended up in th United States and stayed here.

But it was not without a lot of toil, because my family did not want me to be with an American soldier.

And I was called names about dating an American soldier.

It was not pretty.

My parents disowned me for some time after that.

And, after my daughter was born was the first time we had contact.

So about three years later.

We went back to, to the United States after our, stay in Germany and, I was in Wisconsin with my husband at the time.

He couldn't find good work.

My husband had since left the military, and, it was a decisio whether he would go back in or I would try it.

And, sad story.

I said, I'm going in.

And he said, no, I'm not going in.

And he then challenged me, said, you'll never last through basic training.

This is way too tough for you.

And so I challenge accepted.

So that's why I ended up in the military.

I remembe my father was very strict, very, anti-American, anti allies.

It's very strange and that I didn't really, truly understand until I was a teenager and I went to school.

And we're learning about the war and how the, society had changed.

And I guess the toughest part for m was that my father would not set foot into the United States to even visit his own grandchildren, which were my kids, because he had such strong, aversion against the American way of life.

Well, my uncle, basically, I was one of one of his favorite nieces before.

And, when we got together at that birthday, at my dad's birthday, 60th birthday, my uncle said I have 58 kills against your kind.

And my dad ushered him out of the hous because it could have escalated.

The situation could have escalated even all these years later.

And so, my uncle was whose name was Carl Hines.

And I, we never spoke after we the the relationship was completely dissolved.

We had not talk to each other and then he passed on, which I thought was very sad.

I mean, I was an adult by then and I'm thinking, wow, this is this is, this is scary because the the propaganda from back in those days and those experiences resonate with the people tha really bought into the program, for life.

Where in reality 2 people squatted around a table were now sent, only six apparently enjoying a life of leisur in the style of a feature movie.

And to make it all seem less overcrowded.

The SS had created space by deporting several thousand inmates to Auschwitz.

The film simply does not convey how the inmates really experienced life in these huts.

Nazis, a political belief, a statement.

And after 45, if you follow, there was vicious de-nazification program.

Vicious.

And it was a highly effective thing.

They basically de-Nazified these guys.

Not every one of them were quote unquote Nazis.

But to put it in perspective, from 1934 on, you couldn't even attend church unless you were a Nazi.

You couldn't have a library card unless you were a Nazi.

You had to be a card carrying member of that political organization.

And 99.9% of the probably did it as lip service.

You couldn't even get a driver's license.

You couldn't get a job.

In extremist, you had doctors wouldn't even see you.

That's the reason why they were what they were.

With Birgits visit winding down we gave her a presentation on some of the history of Pine Camp, its expansion and the creation of the P.O.W.

camp, and what daily lives of the prisoners were like.

There was the formation of a German band, a theater group, and even rings made from metalwork.

I also discussed where cuisine and how meals were refined to fit cultural tastes.

A tour of the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum Museum followed, where Birgit was able to see artifacts such a P.O.W.

uniforms up close.

Then she took time to reflec upon her journey across Africa and the United States retracing her father's footsteps and recounting some emotional moments.

Most emotional was when he was in, in England.

And the last six months, they were still living in prison camps, but there were not such prisoners anymor they were free to go and working and, in, in nurseries and at one stage he was riding a bicycle to the nursery, and I went to see the nursery and, of course the nursery had changed.

The lady showed me the old buildings.

But in the middle of the, nursery was an old tree.

And I hugged this tree.

Makes me even tear up now, because I know that the tree was already there when my father was there.

You know.

It's, that that was the most emotional thing.

In Marion, there is a big tree, too.

When you look at the old photos of the camp and the prisoners where they had th the pine trees, very young tree.

And now I took a picture of the tree.

It's still standing there.

It's nice.

Yeah.

When trees, when trees could talk.

Oh my goodness me.

I wouldn't say the most emotional, but the most interesting way to connect with him beyond that was that he described the movies they were watching and the music they were listening to.

And today with Google, you can Google all of that.

So when I was sitting there writing his diaries onto the computer, I could listen to the music that he was listening to, and that was very special.

Yeah, Barbar reflected upon her own journey to the United States and how it changed her life.

Birgit and Barbara then left us with some final thoughts of both caution and hope.

By the grace of God, I escaped my family.

I hate to say it.

I escaped my family.

I love them, but I am very glad that I'm over here.

And I have liberties, and I've had opportunity here that I don't think I would have been able to realize in, in Germany.

So I'm, I'm sitting here with a very grateful heart and, call, call America, my home now as a as an American patriot, actually.

So.

Yeah.

I believe that that we have to believe and we have to have hope that the, the past telling the past that the future won't repeat.

Yeah.

I mean there has been so many gruesome stories but, but we and we hope we always hope and pray that we that th world comes to a peaceful end.

A lot of people don't want to talk about, concentration camps.

Although I will tell you, I have visited Dachau.

I recommend that people go visit Dachau.

I recommend people remember history.

I still get goosebumps just thinking about the, the barracks in Dachau and the ovens where the, human remains were destroyed.

Those are those were the real thing still intact a few years back.

And I think it's important for us to remember not to go there again.

the German, American club Lays a wreath here.

That's a big official thing, actually.

We usually have the, Fort Drum command group representing us as well.

We have a bugler here playin taps, Ich hatt' einen Kameraden which is the Taps version.

German Taps version.

We usually have a good crowd visiting u because the Germans do remember.

Remember the war, particularly the older generation, if you will.

And we do that here.

And in Germany during that day, the Bundestag, they're there actually Parliament will stop for, for a while and they will commemorate the war victims.

It's kind of a I think it's a nice it's a nice, conduit to what used to be a nice little remembrance saying hey, we are not forgetting this.

We're not forgetting this because we know that when we forget our history, we're going to repeat it.

So.

And we don't want that.

So if you notice here, when they cleared this land, they left these two very large pine trees.

Yeah.

Beautiful.

That's what I said.

If trees can tell stories, they would have something to say.

I feel like your story kind of adds layer to that.

It really just comes full circle.

Yeah.

Good.

Birgits story is a testament to how a daughter's love transcends both time and distance.

Until next time, Im your host Christine Darrow.