Monday, 11 February 2013

Brits Abroad

An anxious SS report from August 1943 that British POWs are not  making the desired impression...

Some other British prisoners were singing a rude song to the tune of "Deutschland uber Alles" as they passed two high German officials in uniform. When one of these officials said "That's going a little too far, my friends", one of the prisoners who understood German called back "We're not your friends, we're British."

 The crowning insult was the disfigurement of a portrait of the Führer in a station waiting room by a British prisoner who drew rude pictures over it.

Examples were quoted of prisoners simply walking away and refusing to work - or doing their work so badly that it constituted a danger.

And...

The British are always decently dressed, their uniforms are always in faultless condition, they are shaved, clean and well fed. Their attitude is extraordinarily self-possessed, one could almost say arrogant and overbearing.

...of course that's broadly how the Brits abroad are to this day.

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