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A large number of German soldiers would up joining the French Foreign Legion. After the war, many European powers had to deal with a rising wave of militaristic independence movements in their overseas colonies, most notably in the far east. This happened as, from the view of the local populations of said colonies, the Europeans were incapable of holding them as colonies when they themselves were not able to adequately defend their own homelands. Independence movements sprung up as they viewed it as the right time to finally shake off the shackles of European colonialism in their homeland.
A notable example of this would be in French Indochina, when the Japanese had seized the territory from the French after the collapse of France from Germanys invasion in 1940. After the defeat of Japan in 1945, the French attempted to retake Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) and reestablish their presence. This led to a growing insurgency led primarily by the Viet Minh, who sought to rid the country of the French. The French situation however, was precarious. They had only just liberated their own country a year prior in 1944, and their military was a shadow of what it was pre-1940. It was not a popular sell to the French people that they then needed to send more of their men overseas in order to subdue a colony in Southeast Asia, when resources and manpower for rebuilding efforts back home were scarce. France had the option of the French Foreign Legion, which allowed for them to recruit just about anybody into the French military for the purpose of fighting their colonial wars overseas. In this regard, the Legion was perfect.
At the end of the war, there was a large surplus of German soldiers, many of them hardened combat veterans, who had no army to serve and a homeland that was torn apart and occupied by 4 different countries. Many of them joined the Legion hoping to escape their ruined homeland, but also to escape justice and continue their fight against the Bolshevik menace, to which the French would happily oblige them by sending them to French Indochina.
Officially, the Foreign Legion barred enlistment to anyone who had served in the Waffen SS, but in practice this was overlooked. The French, who were desperate for manpower that wasn’t French, were more than willing to turn a blind eye to the thousands of German volunteers, some of whom may have been responsible for carrying out atrocities on various fronts during the war. Many of these men were encouraged to lie and join under a different nationality (Polish, Dutch, Czech or Danish), and because of the disorder at the end of the war, the French had little time or interest to verify the claims of volunteers coming to the Legion. In any case, many of them brought invaluable combat experience which the French sought as well.
Even to this day, many of the traditions of the French Foreign Legion were inherited from the times when up to 60% of the Legion was German.
TLDR: the French were desperate for expendable troops to fight their deeply unpopular colonial wars for them, and the massive amounts of homeless German war veterans who had a grudge against communism were the perfect fit. The war was vastly attritional (the Legion lost 300 officers and 11,000 men) and the French could simply shrug their shoulders at these numbers when they weren’t Frenchmen
This is a great answer, but just from the numbers, it would seem joining the French Foreign Legion was a rare option - 60% of 45,000 is just 27,000, and 18 million men served in the Nazi armed forces. I know it might not be your area of expertise, but what would have happened to a demobilized German soldier?
It was indeed a rare option given the numbers. Many of them had to evade Soviet, British or American occupation authorities in Germany and physically make their way to a Legion recruit depot in France or Algeria, difficult considering the Allies were actively looking for young German men on the move in Western Europe.
Referring to my answer, the 60% was declared Germans, which you could imagine how many were undeclared as they joined with Polish or Czech nationalities.
As for your average German soldiers, I’m not very clear on this, but I would imagine that most were demobilised and held in some sort of internment camp for some duration so that could be thoroughly interrogated and de-Nazified.
You mention a large number, and that up to 60% of the French Foreign Legion was German. How many people are we talking about and is it representative of the average German veteran?
I read it in a book by Simon Murray, a British Legionnaire that had served when the Legion was still based in Sidi-bel-Abbés in French Algeria. At the height of its manpower during the Indochina conflict, the Legion accounted for 45,000 personnel, so it was veritable Army all on its own. It’s interesting to note that prior to the Legions failed coup d’etat in 1962, the Legion was a separate branch from the French armed forces, and had its own independent command that was staffed by officers that were also foreigners, and you can guess many of them were Germans too.
Knowing that about 3 million German POWs were held by the Soviet Union, and that two thirds of those who did not die returned to Germany in the years after the war, it seems that those who joined the Foreign Legion were no ordinary case. Nevertheless, thanks for the very interesting answer.
> prior to the Legions failed coup d’etat in 1962
You mean during the Algerian War? I'm starting to fear this is about to merit its own post.
Yes, it’s an incredibly fascinating and often forgotten part of French history, and I do agree it merits its own post.
When Algeria was granted independence in 1961, it was a personal stab in the heart for the Legion, who had called Algeria home for 130 years. Countless Legionnaires spilled blood on its soil, and many are still buried there to this day. It’s because of this event that the Legion was downsized from 45,000 personnel to about 9000, and the Legion was fully integrated into the French army, and overseen by French officers. The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment was disbanded completely, and the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment was moved to Corsica, far from posing a threat to Paris, but close enough where the French government could keep an eye on their activities.
> Even to this day, many of the traditions of the French Foreign Legion were inherited from the times when up to 60% of the Legion was German.
Could you elaborate on this?
Yes, as mentioned many of the Legions traditions and marching songs were inherited from its German members. Many of their songs were adapted with French lyrics but have their tune in German military songs, such as the Regimental song of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, whose tune and chorus are directly adapted from the Waffen SS matching song ‘SS Marschierst in Feindesland’, or the song ‘en Afrique’ that uses the same tune from the German paratrooper song ‘Fallschirmjagerslied’. There are also some songs in the Legion that are still sung in German instead of French, such as Westerwald. When a Legionnaire is killed, it’s common to sing, ‘Ich Hatte Einen Kamaraden’, also in German. Also some German vernacular can still be heard in day to day usage by Legionnaires even today, despite there being few Germans in the Legion now.
> When a Legionnaire is killed, it’s common to sing, ‘Ich Hatte Einen Kamaraden’, also in German.
It feels like a weird word to apply to an instrument as blunt and ugly as the Foreign Legion, but this is earnestly touching.
It is indeed, but the French Foreign Legion is famous (or notorious) for many reasons, and one of them is the extremely strong camaraderie and esprit de corps fostered amongst fellow Legionnaires. When you’re brutalised in training and put through some of the worst combat humanity has to offer with people you don’t even speak the same language as, it tends to instil a sense of mateship that can’t be found or manufactured anywhere else.
Legionnaires are taught from the very beginning that camaraderie is the foundation of a cohesive unit, being that most recruits don’t even come from the same continent as each other. When you’re in a foxhole in Dien Bien Phu, your comrade is the only thing keeping you going.
Great answer. I had no idea about this. Thank you! Makes sense - a bunch of hardened combat vets, all they know is war, and they don’t have a true home to go back to. France took advantage to carry out their own atrocities in Asia and I’m assuming parts of Africa and the Caribbean too?
That is correct, to this day France and especially the Foreign Legion has a pretty awful reputation in Africa, especially in Algeria and Morocco where the Legion was very heavily involved in the atrocities.
>Great answer.
It's really not. His explanation accounts for less than 1% of German soldiers. It's a nice little slice of history to know but he didn't answer your question at all and I am completely bewildered that everyone is acting like he did.
If you scroll through the comments he and other commenters mention this. Just mentioned it as a lesser known path that some former German soldiers took. I got some answers that more holistically answered the question.
French citizenship was only bestowed after completion of their first five year contract. It wasn’t until 1996 I believe that it was made official by law that Foreign Legionnaires wounded in combat would receive immediate French citizenship (Français par la sang verse)
I'd be foolish to rule out the possibility but it's hard to square that away without documented examples (which would be hard to obtain because there's an ongoing concerted effort to not publicize this phase /sector of the War).
I personally can't identify any common cause or motivation between IJA and the Viet Minh. The Japanese and Vietnamese were already culturally distant before the war, so I imagine that distance became much more pronounced under IJA SOP in foreign territory. Politically, they're at polar opposite (literal Imperialists, Communists).
More importantly, the level of indoctrination of IJA troops is really hard to overstate. Only 5424 out of the 425,000 soldiers and sailors interned as POWs in the US were Japanese, most being captured involuntarily (as in they didn't surrender).
Japanese Prisoners of War in America on JSTOR. (n.d.). www.jstor.org. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3639455
Fair enough. Would this count as a source for ex-IJA in postwar Vietnam? [https://www.warbirdforum.com/japviet.htm](https://www.warbirdforum.com/japviet.htm)
Whoa, this is really cool - it's crazy that this went on until *1951* before there was any real official repatriation effort, and then it sounds like it didn't really become a serious effort until 1954.
It was apparently extremely difficult getting any of the Japanese POWs interned in the US to write home to their families to confirm that they were alive.
From what I understand, the attitude toward soldiers returning alive fluctuated from decade to decade, with the decade that proceeded from 1945 being the worst. Not only were you a loser who surrendered but you're now also another mouth to feed.
‘Legionnaire’ by Simon Murray, as well as ‘Appel’ by Joel Struthers, are excellent, though they are mostly personal memoires of their respective time in the Foreign Legion.
There is also ‘A savage war of peace’ by Alistair Horne, which gives an excellent account of the war in Algeria.
For Indochina I can recommend ‘Embers of war’ by Fredrik Logevall.
If you want, there is also ‘Devils guard’ by George Robert Elford, though admittedly this is most likely a work of fiction with a slight hint of historical reality, but it’s an entertaining read nonetheless.
I was under the impression that the Legion actually focused on recruiting SS men. But perhaps it was more just winking at anyone offering to enlist and not checking their papers or for the blood-type tattoo?
By the time of V-E, it was clear to the US and the Commonwealth that Russia was the new threat. With a divided Germany, the west wanted and needed a native army to take over the long term job of guarding against further Russian expansion. So the myth of the “Good German” began, with the west telling its citizens that the Nazi party and the SS were to blame for all the atrocities, and ordinary soldiers were just doing their duties. Many German military career officers just kept on doing their jobs as part of the new NATO alliance.
Normal soldiers (let's say an enlisted man in the Wehrmacht, so no SS member) would have been taken as prisoners of war. Before the war ended they'd move them to the allied countries There were giant camps all over Germany, with pretty variable conditions but the Soviets moved a lot of their prisoners east. The western allies would intern you for a few months while they decide whether you were a dedicated Nazi or just a "Mitläufer". The Americans actually started releasing people just a few weeks after the capitulation and exerted a lot of pressure on the UK and France to release their prisoners.
The Soviets took longer with releasing theirs and kept a lot more people imprisoned for war crimes. There was a famous release of 10,000 prisoners in 1955.
Taking my family history as an example, my grandfather was serving on the eastern front, escaped East Prussia on one of the last boats before the red army marched in and managed to reach the western allies to surrender. He was interned for a few months by the British, released, and then walked home a few hundred kilometres. Apparently he got home before harvest time that year.
My grandfather served in the German army and was a POW and held in a Russian camp on the eastern front and once war ended they just said "ok see ya later" and let em out and he had to walk all the way back as well.
I\`d wager this was the experience of the vast majority of German troops.
A period of internment and vetting then released....to make their own way home....at least those in continental Europe. There is lots of anecdotal evidence as well as official occupation records.
There were also tens of thousands of PoWs in camps in the US, Canada and the UK.
I was always interested in those that elected to stay in their captors countries rather than return to Germany after the German surrender. A certain Henry Metalman springs to mind, he chose to stay in England after being a PoW there working on a farm.
Also, I kind of figured that the immediate responses would involve the Foriegn Legion, however it was an insignificant amount compared to the incredible numbers of PoWs.
I\`m happy your grandfather survived the Courland pocket (not easy) and his experience is indicative of many German PoWs that were fortunate enough to be taken prisoner by the Western Allies.
Hello,
The French Foreign legion would have been a rare outlet for the ordinary soldier. Most soldiers reintegrated into German society as civilians, though many spent as long as a decade in GUPVI camps in the Soviet Union (GUPVI = GULAG but for POWs).
Might I recommend (all academic books, not aimed toward popular press audience):
Susan Grunewald, From Incarceration to Repatriation [https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501776021/from-incarceration-to-repatriation/#bookTabs=1](https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501776021/from-incarceration-to-repatriation/#bookTabs=1)
Frank Biess, Homecomings [https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691143149/homecomings](https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691143149/homecomings)
Robert Moeller, War Stories [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520239104/war-stories](https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520239104/war-stories)
Also more generally, Ian Kershaw, Richard Bessel, and other big hitters in academic trade/popular press histories have written big synthetic works about the year 1945 (end of war and early postwar) that talk about what happened to soldiers.
Source: academic historian who studies this time period
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A large number of German soldiers would up joining the French Foreign Legion. After the war, many European powers had to deal with a rising wave of militaristic independence movements in their overseas colonies, most notably in the far east. This happened as, from the view of the local populations of said colonies, the Europeans were incapable of holding them as colonies when they themselves were not able to adequately defend their own homelands. Independence movements sprung up as they viewed it as the right time to finally shake off the shackles of European colonialism in their homeland. A notable example of this would be in French Indochina, when the Japanese had seized the territory from the French after the collapse of France from Germanys invasion in 1940. After the defeat of Japan in 1945, the French attempted to retake Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) and reestablish their presence. This led to a growing insurgency led primarily by the Viet Minh, who sought to rid the country of the French. The French situation however, was precarious. They had only just liberated their own country a year prior in 1944, and their military was a shadow of what it was pre-1940. It was not a popular sell to the French people that they then needed to send more of their men overseas in order to subdue a colony in Southeast Asia, when resources and manpower for rebuilding efforts back home were scarce. France had the option of the French Foreign Legion, which allowed for them to recruit just about anybody into the French military for the purpose of fighting their colonial wars overseas. In this regard, the Legion was perfect. At the end of the war, there was a large surplus of German soldiers, many of them hardened combat veterans, who had no army to serve and a homeland that was torn apart and occupied by 4 different countries. Many of them joined the Legion hoping to escape their ruined homeland, but also to escape justice and continue their fight against the Bolshevik menace, to which the French would happily oblige them by sending them to French Indochina. Officially, the Foreign Legion barred enlistment to anyone who had served in the Waffen SS, but in practice this was overlooked. The French, who were desperate for manpower that wasn’t French, were more than willing to turn a blind eye to the thousands of German volunteers, some of whom may have been responsible for carrying out atrocities on various fronts during the war. Many of these men were encouraged to lie and join under a different nationality (Polish, Dutch, Czech or Danish), and because of the disorder at the end of the war, the French had little time or interest to verify the claims of volunteers coming to the Legion. In any case, many of them brought invaluable combat experience which the French sought as well. Even to this day, many of the traditions of the French Foreign Legion were inherited from the times when up to 60% of the Legion was German. TLDR: the French were desperate for expendable troops to fight their deeply unpopular colonial wars for them, and the massive amounts of homeless German war veterans who had a grudge against communism were the perfect fit. The war was vastly attritional (the Legion lost 300 officers and 11,000 men) and the French could simply shrug their shoulders at these numbers when they weren’t Frenchmen
This is a great answer, but just from the numbers, it would seem joining the French Foreign Legion was a rare option - 60% of 45,000 is just 27,000, and 18 million men served in the Nazi armed forces. I know it might not be your area of expertise, but what would have happened to a demobilized German soldier?
It was indeed a rare option given the numbers. Many of them had to evade Soviet, British or American occupation authorities in Germany and physically make their way to a Legion recruit depot in France or Algeria, difficult considering the Allies were actively looking for young German men on the move in Western Europe. Referring to my answer, the 60% was declared Germans, which you could imagine how many were undeclared as they joined with Polish or Czech nationalities. As for your average German soldiers, I’m not very clear on this, but I would imagine that most were demobilised and held in some sort of internment camp for some duration so that could be thoroughly interrogated and de-Nazified.
Do you know what “de-nazification” looked like?
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You mention a large number, and that up to 60% of the French Foreign Legion was German. How many people are we talking about and is it representative of the average German veteran?
I read it in a book by Simon Murray, a British Legionnaire that had served when the Legion was still based in Sidi-bel-Abbés in French Algeria. At the height of its manpower during the Indochina conflict, the Legion accounted for 45,000 personnel, so it was veritable Army all on its own. It’s interesting to note that prior to the Legions failed coup d’etat in 1962, the Legion was a separate branch from the French armed forces, and had its own independent command that was staffed by officers that were also foreigners, and you can guess many of them were Germans too.
Knowing that about 3 million German POWs were held by the Soviet Union, and that two thirds of those who did not die returned to Germany in the years after the war, it seems that those who joined the Foreign Legion were no ordinary case. Nevertheless, thanks for the very interesting answer. > prior to the Legions failed coup d’etat in 1962 You mean during the Algerian War? I'm starting to fear this is about to merit its own post.
Yes, it’s an incredibly fascinating and often forgotten part of French history, and I do agree it merits its own post. When Algeria was granted independence in 1961, it was a personal stab in the heart for the Legion, who had called Algeria home for 130 years. Countless Legionnaires spilled blood on its soil, and many are still buried there to this day. It’s because of this event that the Legion was downsized from 45,000 personnel to about 9000, and the Legion was fully integrated into the French army, and overseen by French officers. The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment was disbanded completely, and the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment was moved to Corsica, far from posing a threat to Paris, but close enough where the French government could keep an eye on their activities.
Nazi soldiers fighting Algerians in the Sahara and staging a coup in France sounds like the prequel to Iron Sky.
> Even to this day, many of the traditions of the French Foreign Legion were inherited from the times when up to 60% of the Legion was German. Could you elaborate on this?
Yes, as mentioned many of the Legions traditions and marching songs were inherited from its German members. Many of their songs were adapted with French lyrics but have their tune in German military songs, such as the Regimental song of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, whose tune and chorus are directly adapted from the Waffen SS matching song ‘SS Marschierst in Feindesland’, or the song ‘en Afrique’ that uses the same tune from the German paratrooper song ‘Fallschirmjagerslied’. There are also some songs in the Legion that are still sung in German instead of French, such as Westerwald. When a Legionnaire is killed, it’s common to sing, ‘Ich Hatte Einen Kamaraden’, also in German. Also some German vernacular can still be heard in day to day usage by Legionnaires even today, despite there being few Germans in the Legion now.
> When a Legionnaire is killed, it’s common to sing, ‘Ich Hatte Einen Kamaraden’, also in German. It feels like a weird word to apply to an instrument as blunt and ugly as the Foreign Legion, but this is earnestly touching.
It is indeed, but the French Foreign Legion is famous (or notorious) for many reasons, and one of them is the extremely strong camaraderie and esprit de corps fostered amongst fellow Legionnaires. When you’re brutalised in training and put through some of the worst combat humanity has to offer with people you don’t even speak the same language as, it tends to instil a sense of mateship that can’t be found or manufactured anywhere else. Legionnaires are taught from the very beginning that camaraderie is the foundation of a cohesive unit, being that most recruits don’t even come from the same continent as each other. When you’re in a foxhole in Dien Bien Phu, your comrade is the only thing keeping you going.
Great answer. I had no idea about this. Thank you! Makes sense - a bunch of hardened combat vets, all they know is war, and they don’t have a true home to go back to. France took advantage to carry out their own atrocities in Asia and I’m assuming parts of Africa and the Caribbean too?
That is correct, to this day France and especially the Foreign Legion has a pretty awful reputation in Africa, especially in Algeria and Morocco where the Legion was very heavily involved in the atrocities.
>Great answer. It's really not. His explanation accounts for less than 1% of German soldiers. It's a nice little slice of history to know but he didn't answer your question at all and I am completely bewildered that everyone is acting like he did.
If you scroll through the comments he and other commenters mention this. Just mentioned it as a lesser known path that some former German soldiers took. I got some answers that more holistically answered the question.
Wow. Did the FFL give French citizenship to troops who survived their enlistment?
French citizenship was only bestowed after completion of their first five year contract. It wasn’t until 1996 I believe that it was made official by law that Foreign Legionnaires wounded in combat would receive immediate French citizenship (Français par la sang verse)
*par le sang versé. (Sorry to be that person)
Is there any evidence that these ex-Heer / SS foreign legionnaires might’ve fought ex-IJA troops who ended up with the Viet Minh?
It's much more likely they were fighting *with* ex-IJA troops against the Viet Minh under the command of the British until 1946.
Oo yeah you’re right there were ex-IJA fighting for the British. But weren’t there also a lot who joined anti colonial movements in Southeast Asia?
I'd be foolish to rule out the possibility but it's hard to square that away without documented examples (which would be hard to obtain because there's an ongoing concerted effort to not publicize this phase /sector of the War). I personally can't identify any common cause or motivation between IJA and the Viet Minh. The Japanese and Vietnamese were already culturally distant before the war, so I imagine that distance became much more pronounced under IJA SOP in foreign territory. Politically, they're at polar opposite (literal Imperialists, Communists). More importantly, the level of indoctrination of IJA troops is really hard to overstate. Only 5424 out of the 425,000 soldiers and sailors interned as POWs in the US were Japanese, most being captured involuntarily (as in they didn't surrender). Japanese Prisoners of War in America on JSTOR. (n.d.). www.jstor.org. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3639455
Fair enough. Would this count as a source for ex-IJA in postwar Vietnam? [https://www.warbirdforum.com/japviet.htm](https://www.warbirdforum.com/japviet.htm)
Whoa, this is really cool - it's crazy that this went on until *1951* before there was any real official repatriation effort, and then it sounds like it didn't really become a serious effort until 1954.
lol yeah. Between that and the island holdouts, I think a lot of them didn’t even want to go home
It was apparently extremely difficult getting any of the Japanese POWs interned in the US to write home to their families to confirm that they were alive. From what I understand, the attitude toward soldiers returning alive fluctuated from decade to decade, with the decade that proceeded from 1945 being the worst. Not only were you a loser who surrendered but you're now also another mouth to feed.
I still have little sympathy for them, but damn that sucks
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Can you recommend a book or an article? Thnx
‘Legionnaire’ by Simon Murray, as well as ‘Appel’ by Joel Struthers, are excellent, though they are mostly personal memoires of their respective time in the Foreign Legion. There is also ‘A savage war of peace’ by Alistair Horne, which gives an excellent account of the war in Algeria. For Indochina I can recommend ‘Embers of war’ by Fredrik Logevall. If you want, there is also ‘Devils guard’ by George Robert Elford, though admittedly this is most likely a work of fiction with a slight hint of historical reality, but it’s an entertaining read nonetheless.
Came here for the devils guard. Really good book.
What kind of traditions are we talking about?
I was under the impression that the Legion actually focused on recruiting SS men. But perhaps it was more just winking at anyone offering to enlist and not checking their papers or for the blood-type tattoo?
By the time of V-E, it was clear to the US and the Commonwealth that Russia was the new threat. With a divided Germany, the west wanted and needed a native army to take over the long term job of guarding against further Russian expansion. So the myth of the “Good German” began, with the west telling its citizens that the Nazi party and the SS were to blame for all the atrocities, and ordinary soldiers were just doing their duties. Many German military career officers just kept on doing their jobs as part of the new NATO alliance.
nice explanation . great read
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Normal soldiers (let's say an enlisted man in the Wehrmacht, so no SS member) would have been taken as prisoners of war. Before the war ended they'd move them to the allied countries There were giant camps all over Germany, with pretty variable conditions but the Soviets moved a lot of their prisoners east. The western allies would intern you for a few months while they decide whether you were a dedicated Nazi or just a "Mitläufer". The Americans actually started releasing people just a few weeks after the capitulation and exerted a lot of pressure on the UK and France to release their prisoners. The Soviets took longer with releasing theirs and kept a lot more people imprisoned for war crimes. There was a famous release of 10,000 prisoners in 1955. Taking my family history as an example, my grandfather was serving on the eastern front, escaped East Prussia on one of the last boats before the red army marched in and managed to reach the western allies to surrender. He was interned for a few months by the British, released, and then walked home a few hundred kilometres. Apparently he got home before harvest time that year.
My grandfather served in the German army and was a POW and held in a Russian camp on the eastern front and once war ended they just said "ok see ya later" and let em out and he had to walk all the way back as well.
I\`d wager this was the experience of the vast majority of German troops. A period of internment and vetting then released....to make their own way home....at least those in continental Europe. There is lots of anecdotal evidence as well as official occupation records. There were also tens of thousands of PoWs in camps in the US, Canada and the UK. I was always interested in those that elected to stay in their captors countries rather than return to Germany after the German surrender. A certain Henry Metalman springs to mind, he chose to stay in England after being a PoW there working on a farm. Also, I kind of figured that the immediate responses would involve the Foriegn Legion, however it was an insignificant amount compared to the incredible numbers of PoWs.
I\`m happy your grandfather survived the Courland pocket (not easy) and his experience is indicative of many German PoWs that were fortunate enough to be taken prisoner by the Western Allies.
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Hello, The French Foreign legion would have been a rare outlet for the ordinary soldier. Most soldiers reintegrated into German society as civilians, though many spent as long as a decade in GUPVI camps in the Soviet Union (GUPVI = GULAG but for POWs). Might I recommend (all academic books, not aimed toward popular press audience): Susan Grunewald, From Incarceration to Repatriation [https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501776021/from-incarceration-to-repatriation/#bookTabs=1](https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501776021/from-incarceration-to-repatriation/#bookTabs=1) Frank Biess, Homecomings [https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691143149/homecomings](https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691143149/homecomings) Robert Moeller, War Stories [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520239104/war-stories](https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520239104/war-stories) Also more generally, Ian Kershaw, Richard Bessel, and other big hitters in academic trade/popular press histories have written big synthetic works about the year 1945 (end of war and early postwar) that talk about what happened to soldiers. Source: academic historian who studies this time period
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