Former PoW's Life Savings Donated To Village

Good to see the money's finally arrived where it's needed. The community trust are doing a great job promoting this camp; last year they were selling shares in a bid to turn some of the huts into holiday accommodation.
And btw Hess never stayed here; it's like a WW2 version of "Robert Bruce/William Wallace/Bonnie Prince Charlie's cave"
"A Nazi prisoner of war has given his home and life savings of £400,000 to a British village where he experienced ‘kindness and generosity’ during his imprisonment.
Heinrich Steinmeyer, 90, pledged the money to elderly residents in the village of Comrie, Perthshire, where he was held captive during the Second World War.
He was grateful for being treated with humanity by both the troops who captured him and the guards at the camp where he was kept until the end of the war.
Now, following his death in 2014, the money donated by Steinmeyer - who served in a Waffen-SS combat division – has finally reached the village.
The Comrie Development Trust which bought Cultybraggan camp for £350,000 in 2007, has now received a donation of €457,180 (£386,086).
Andrew Reid from the trust said: 'This story is about Heinrich Steinmeyer's gratitude for how he was treated and welcomed in this village and other parts of Scotland.
'His gratitude will live on in the way that it will support older people in Comrie.'
Mr Steinmeyer was taken to the camp housing ardent Nazis after being captured in Normandy in August 1944. His SS Panzer division had been savaged by the Allies.
But he said both the guards and villagers treated him so well that he decided to remain in Scotland for seven years after the war.
In 2009, Mr Steinmeyer said: 'I always wanted to repay the generosity they showed me. They deserve everything I have to give them.
‘And it is far better they have it than anyone else. Cultybraggan was a holiday camp compared to the fighting. The whole place was so beautiful.
‘It went straight to my heart, and I thought "why have I been fighting this bloody war?". They were tough, but always fair. I didn't expect to find this attitude.
‘I was not just the enemy, but a Nazi. Such friendliness was a surprise, but it is in the British nature. It was so much better than being told to lie in a filthy foxhole - and to die there.'
After the war he decided to stay in Comrie after learning that his home town had become a part of Poland and was stunned by the kindness of villagers.
They even sent parcels to his mother in Germany after learning she had fallen ill. Elderly residents of Comrie knew Mr Steinbermeyer by his nickname 'Heinz'."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3993600/Nazi-solider-leaves-six-figure-life-savings-tiny-Scottish-village-experienced-kindness-generosity-prisoner-war.html#ixzz4RgcWBBty

 

Great story, thanks for posting it.

 

Rather remarkable story, Gordon, thank you for posting.

Gaines

 

Must get around to visiting Perth one of these days. I follow the developments of another similar project on the Isle of Man.

http://www.knockaloe.im

 

Thanks for posting. Good story

 

Here's a nice follow-up to that story-
"The son of a woman who befriended a German prisoner of war in a small Scottish village has told how she and her friend smuggled him out of the camp to see his first moving picture.
Heinrich Steinmeyer, a former Waffen SS soldier during World War Two, was captured in France when he was 19-years-old and was held in the PoW camp at Cultybraggan near the village of Comrie, Perthshire.
He died in 2013, aged 90, a fortnight after the death of George Carson, a close friend he had made in the village and visited regularly.
Now Mr Carson's son, also called George, has revealed the amazing story of how his mother smuggled the prisoner out of camp wearing a borrowed school uniform so he could go to the cinema for the first time."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3996722/How-schoolgirl-smuggled-Nazi-soldier-PoW-camp-visit-cinema-started-friendship-led-leave-400-000-tiny-Scottish-village.html#ixzz4RmkHaYi2

 

Great story. May the donator RIP