NAZI SYMPATHIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 175, 26 July 1945, Page 8

NAZI SYMPATHIES

GERMAN VILLAGERS

IMPRESSIONS OF P.O.W.

Ninety per cent of the German villagers he had met were strongly pro-Nazi, said Private R. L. Luxford, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Luxford, of Remuera, when commenting today on his experiences while a prisoner-of-war in Germany. Obviously the villagers were in fear of the S.S. troops, he said, and all shops had carried swastikas and banners inscribed with such slogans as, "We have managed from 1939 to 1945; we can still manage." It was a different story, of course, after the Allied occupation.

One villager appeared very earnest in his protestations that he was opposed to the Nazi regime, said Private Luxford, but it was significant that he had been with the forces that had occupied France and was quite proud of the photographs he possessed of British aircraft shot down.

Whil£ it was possible to carry out discussions on political and economic subjects with the Germans any conversation ceased immediately Hitler's name was mentioned.

! Following his capture at El lAlamein in July, 1942, and his imprisonment in Benghazi and Northern Italy, Private Luxford was transferred to a camp near Gorlitz in Germany. Here he gained an idea of the bitter hatred that existed between the Germans and the Rus-

sians. Russian prisoners, who were treated like slaves, were dying at the rate of three or four a,day. Similar treatment was accorded the Poles working in a coal pit at Milowitz, in' Poland, where 500 New Zealanders were engaged in coal-face work, shovelling and trucking. The men worked in sections, one New Zealander being accompanied by three or four Poles. As it was the New Zealanders' policy to "go slow" and endeavour to hamper production as much as possible, the Germans would force the Poles to work after the New Zealanders had returned to camp in order to reach the day's production uuota. About 50 of the New Zealanders worked "on top," said Private Luxford, but were only permitted to be there on medical grounds. Authoritative opinion had it that the mine was worked-out though the workers were kept busy for three weeks on end before being granted a free Sunday.

In the face of the oncoming Red Army last January the Germans closed the Polish camps and the prisoners joined a great stream of 20,000 Allied captives and civilian refugees in a march to the west. There was no semblance of organisation in the march until the Oder was crossed. A feature of the march was that the prisoners of war outlasted their German guards. Private Luxford said he had read of retreating armies but he did not realise the confusion involved until he was part of the confusion himself.

Private Luxford said Allied bombing last September and October ruined, the German civilians' morale completely. It was a great sight to see the bombers passing overhead, ignoring the flak and unopposed by fighters. Following the bombing of a railway yard at Oderberg a German official commented: "That is perfect bombing."