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A FORMER NAZI prisoner of war has left his entire estate in his will to a small village in Scotland to show his appreciation for the kindness he received there during his captivity.
Heinrich Steinmeyer, a Waffen SS soldier during World War II, was captured in France and held in the Cultybraggan POW camp near Comrie in the Scottish highlands, where the 19-year-old received an unexpectedly warm welcome.
The acts of kindness began when local children reportedly befriended him through the fence and smuggled him out of the camp to watch a film at a nearby cinema.
“Throughout his captivity, Heinrich Steinmeyer was very struck by the kindness shown to him by Scottish people, which he had not expected,” said Andrew Reid of the Comrie Development Trust, which will administer the legacy fund worth £384,000 (€458,000).
The former German soldier stayed on to work in the Perthshire village for a time after the war and later returned to visit, making lasting friendships, said Reid.
“He vowed to leave everything he owned for the benefit of older people in the place he wanted to thank,” Reid added.
Steinmeyer died in 2013, aged 90, a fortnight after the death of George Carson, a close friend he had made in the village.
However, his estate has only now been settled following a lengthy legal process in Germany.
In his will, cited by the Comrie Development Trust, Steinmeyer said: “I would like to express my gratitude to the people of Scotland for the kindness and generosity that I have experienced in Scotland during my imprisonment of war and hereafter.”
The money from the sale of his house and possessions will be spent on services for the elderly in the area, to be determined by members of the local community.
Carson’s son, also called George, described his father’s friend as “a wonderful man”.
“It sounds like an unbelievable story but it’s absolutely true,” he told BBC Radio 4, recounting how his mother and her friends befriended the prisoner through the camp fence.
“They discovered that Heinrich had never seen a moving picture, so,” dressing him in a school uniform, “they smuggled him out of the camp through the chain-link fence and into the cinema where he saw his very first film… He was absolutely blown away by the whole experience.”
“Mr Steinmeyer always maintained he was lucky to be captured by the Scots,” said Reid.
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A good story,which shows despite wars, conflict, ethnic, racial or political division human nature can and does shine through. For every one issue that divides people 7 to 9 more unite them. Out of all the horror of WW II came this.
Should read Bert Trautmann autobiography
Nice touch.
Wonder what film he saw?
Schindlers List….
Where can I buy the rights to this story? It would make a great movie.
Try having some talent and writing it.
@Niall Mulligan:
LOL!
@Dave O Keeffe.If I wrote it then it wouldn’t be a true story Doh!
They should call the movie “Stockholm syndrome”
@Niall Mulligan brilliant
Billy, that’s what based on a true story means.
@Dave O ‘Keeffe.Yeah true but you’d still need to buy the rights to the basic story.
From whom?
Billy, you wouldn’t. Also, the two main characters are now sadly deceased. What a studio buys is a script.
O.k Dave I’ve sharpened me pencil.Gonna write that damn screenplay tonight!
The bell tolls.
@Billy Larkin:
Dave’s probably a litigation lawyer, don’t listen to him.
Lovely story
Shows how war divides peoples who are all ultimately similar in their needs, emotions, humanness….and here the villagers realised this enemy soldier was in reality a rather innocent 19 year old when he was taken out of his army surroundings.
Or what it looks like when The Geneva Convention is adhered to. There are many similar stories of German POWs in America. Always nice to hear.
Maybe those German POWs held at the Curragh during the Emergency will leave something to Ireland. They made very nice wooden dolls. Fingers crossed.
They weren’t prisoners of war. They were internees, and were not treated as POWs.
have your say