Why not the French? Out of sympathy, Ard.

There's a pattern in the treatment of Germans after the war by the four occupying armies: The more crimes (or damage done) the Germans had committed in their respective countries, the worse was the treatment they gave the Germans. So from the POV of a German soldier surrendering to the US army was first choice, then a close second was the British Army and by far the last choice was the Red Army.

The French came later and they were regarded third choice, but still far better than the Red Army. The probability of survival was much higher for a German POW in the hands of one of the Western armies. If one looks at the overall statistics instead of at single cases the pattern is obvious. BTW, the same pattern was there for rapes.

If my father had not been able to cross the river Elbe surrepticiously with his unit and fool the US unit at the other bank to accept the surrender (the US units in those days were not allowed to accept a surrender by German units that had fought against the Russians) I could not post here. For in the best case my father would have come home long after the day on which I have been born.

Wolfgang