Did the German soldiers suffer after the war was over, or were they just sent home?


 Most people think that the misery ended in 1945 when the war came to a close, but the ordinary German soldiers were forced to face a new nightmare. Remember, of these were, many of them were young boys or old men drafted at the last moment. After fighting had subsided, they were not sent home, but became living reparations for the victors.In the West, near the Rhine, they had American and British forces gathered by the thousands in open fields without buildings or tents to sleep in. To survive the cold and rain, the men had to carve out holes in the ground with their bare hands or spoons and carve out a place to crawl into. Many died by hunger or sickness in that mud and well after the last bullets were fired. The situation was tragic.


For those captured by the Soviet Union the conditions were even harsher. They were sent off to labor camps in cold places such as Siberia where they worked in mines and forests with barely anything to eat. Some did not see their families again until the mid-1950s. Imagine being a prisoner for ten years after the war was over.


In Denmark, the captured soldiers had to clear landmines by hand by crawling around on their bellies while poking up the sand. Thousands were blown up during this time of peaceful. When they finally got back to their cities, cities were gone and their world hated them enough for what their leaders had done. They spent the rest of their lives, in silence and poverty.

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