Prisoners Found Freedom—Life of German POWs in Western Massachusetts

Описание: Prisoners Found Freedom—Life of German POWs in Western Massachusetts

🚂 In 1944, hundreds of captured German soldiers stepped off trains in Massachusetts. They expected brutal treatment, hunger, and despair. Instead, what they discovered inside America’s prison camps shocked them.

For years, German propaganda had told these men that the United States was weak, divided, and cruel. But life behind the barbed wire at Camp Westover revealed something entirely different.

In this video, you’ll see how:
• 🇩🇪 German POWs arrived in New England expecting hardship—and found order and routine instead.
• 🏚️ Camp life offered food, shelter, and even cultural programs far beyond their expectations.
• 🌾 Working with local farmers created friendships that defied the boundaries of war.
• 🎶 Recreation, music, and even newspapers gave prisoners a glimpse of American life.
• 📜 Decades later, these men remembered kindness more than propaganda.

This is the forgotten story of how hospitality, not hatred, became one of America’s most powerful tools of the war.

Based on the article “Hospitality Is the Best Form of Propaganda: German Prisoners of War in Western Massachusetts, 1944–1946” by John C. Bonafilia, published in the Historical Journal of Massachusetts (Winter 2016).

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