Asmus Remmer was a German photographer who specialized in portraiture, genre and landscape photography. He had his own photo studio and lab. In the period from 1940-1945 he was an infantry soldier of Wehrmacht. In May 1945 he found himself in the American POW camp which he left in autumn of the same year.
Asmus wrote he was left at the railway station in Pavlinovo, Kaluga region of Russia. At the sunrise they could see the first Russian village. The houses were covered with snow. A Russian woman at the well and pink smoke of chimneys – he felt as if reading the Bible, and he exclaimed: “Is this the place where we wage war?” He felt sick at that moment and other soldiers brought him into the wooden house.
When he awoke, he saw A Russian girl standing on her knees in front of him and giving him a teaspoon with hot milk and honey. He told her: “I could kill your husband but you still worry about me.”
Soon he saw more Russian villages and understood that they had to make peace with Russians as soon as possible. It can be seen on his photos that Russians didn’t pay attention to his military uniform and were rather friendly. They overcame more than a thousand of kilometers deep into the Russian Empire and he kept thinking all the time in what condition this country would be when they leave.
All the pictures were taken in the Kaluga region in 1942-43.
Photos of Asmus Remmer were shown at the photo exhibitions in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod in 2003.
via soviet-life
German prisoners of war much preferred capture by Americans during the war. Some were sent to camps in Wisconsin, which had a large German civilian population thanks to immigration in the prior century. Prisoners were routinely greeted with gifts of food, clothing, and blankets by the locals seeking relatives or information about the old country. A most desirable assignment was to work at a civilian farm and most P.O.W.’s did not want repatriation at war’s end, knowing they would return to a country devastated and bleak, with little benefits to match their current situation.
Of course they did, as the United States had signed the third Geneva convention about the humanitarian protections for prisoners of war, which the Soviet union didn’t sign.
The german propaganda showing the russians as fierce killers without mercy also has contributed its part to this attitude.
What Red Army perpetrated in 1944 in Nemmersdorf East Prussia was no German propaganda. Educate yourself and search Youtube video.
So, what did they perpetrated?
According to Nazy investigators, they have found 26 civilians collected by German soldiers in one place. They suspected, that one woman may be raped, because he dress was torn.
But all these civilian victims have found after 36 hours of bombardment and street fights. So, tell me, how many times europeans mentioned Nemersdorf, as an instance of outrage atrocity of Red Army and how many civilians was killed in Nemersdorf by the soldiers of Red Army?
yup, as long as you had something to offer Americans were more then happy to wipe your slate clean and give nay Nazi a safe haven.
“German prisoners of war much preferred capture by Americans during the war”
As opposed to being captured by the British or the Canadians ?
“As opposed to being captured by the British or the Canadians ?”
Quite frankly, yes. The state of Wisconsin had 4 seasons which were almost a perfect match for the old homeland, and the colony of thousands of former immigrants of German descent, locals if you will, gave great aid and comfort to the internees. After the war and repatriation, many were able to successfully earn U.S. citizenship, being sponsored by relatives and friends they met while prisoners. Although Britain and Canada did in fact humanely treat their charges, they had no such colony of locals who took the German P.O.W. under their wing with such fervor and devotion as did the Wisconsin residents. No country had “clean hands” in this or any conflict, it is impossible to do, but there are times when the guns are far away and silent to people who are put together to make the best of a situation, it’s just that some do it better than others.
I know, My mother worked in Administration of one. Ended up with life long friends, that she exchanged Christmas greeting till the day she died.
how you know that he was nazi? why not simply call him german?
He fought for the Nazi regime and killed Russians. That´s why he is a Nazi solider. Other Germans defected and went abroad. So did the ex-chancellor Willy Brandt who was called a traitor after war in Germany. He was also the first politician who displayed a sense of real grief when he fell on his knees at the Warszaw monument. For this action he was also rewarded with scathing criticism.
Any one that fight against his country during time of war is by definition a traitor no matter what the regime. Willy Brandt was a traitor pure and simple.
it seems to be the common trend to call all germans of that time nazis which is not correct at all.
not all germans or soldiers were national socialists, which is what nazo stands for.
god bless the ignorant
Nazis = National Socialist Workers Party. Communsits = International Socialist Workers Party. No difference.
“how you know that he was nazi? why not simply call him german?”
It’s much the same as how Americans would call everyone in the USSR “Communists”, without differentiating about the ideology of the particular individual.
He was so called “Good German”
FASCISM CHILD OF EUROPE!
COMMUNISM CHILD OF MARX THE JEW.
‘He fought for the Nazi regime and killed Russians. That´s why he is a Nazi solider. ‘
So, he was a Nazi, in the same way that Russians who fought for the Communists and killed Germans were all Communists?
I guess you could say that every Russian that when to Berlin raped every chance he got too, which is not true. Not all the Russians acted in such a manner, and put a stain on the Army nor did All the Germans acted in a criminal way, thou both regimes were by there very nature criminal. The pain of that war runs deep. We sit here 70 years later, throwing insults at each other over a Head line for some photographs. Its a Russian Web sight one that I enjoy a lot, some times things get lost in translation, I know first hand with my girl friend. That fellow took some wonderful photo’s I thought the Rainbow was very very telling, He noticed at a time that was not pleasant for anybody.
you write nonsens, it is no russia it is sovietunion.
here you come from – from american village without school??
No. Not America. Not even close to America.