The Education and Reeducation of POW 31G-23742357

About the Book

“The Education and Reeducation of POW 31G-23742357”, an autobiographical narrative, should actually be a first person story but was written as a third person tall tale to the best of this first person’s waning but still rather vivid memories. Nothing in it should be taken as earnest and truthful as a hollywoodian docudrama because much of it is composed from a German  point of view and no German writer after Goethe is a trustworthy reporter of the German soul, or psyche, or stool, and their wars and history.

Late in April 1945 Wolfgang, the storyteller, became simply a piece of disarmed enemy forces. No German soldiers taken after March ‘45 became legally Prisoners of War and treated as such, but were Disarmed Enemy Forces to whom the International Red Cross had no access and who were treated accordingly. Becoming a POW with the above mentioned number in late September ‘45 was his insurance for not winding up in one of the post WWII underworld camps of the Eisenhower-de Gaulle design in which hundreds of thousands erstwhile German soldiers perished, not the heavies of Nazidom but ordinary yokels from teenagers to aged Volkssturm invalids who - in GI  language - wouldn’t know the difference between shit and Shinola.

Nevertheless, all along his existence as a prisoner Wolfgang did in fact luck out. The foundation of this lucking out was certainly his High School English, plus having taught himself the technique of expressing himself in that fabulous Basic English plus a few dozens technical English terms like carburetor and switch board, and for comparing Schiller’s romantic drama “Die Jungfrau von Orleans” with George Bernhard Shaw’s  so much more realistic “Joan d’Ark”, in English for that matter, because GBS fascinated him and was one of the most performed  playwrights of the German stage, even during the Nazi era.

Wolfgang close contacts with Americans had its beginning when he surrendered - in a way negotiated the surrender - of the 1st Elephanten - Flak - Batterie to an armed patrol of the 99th US Infantry Division from Pennsylvania, somewhere north of  Tyrolean Kufstein in the Bavarian Alps. This surrender procedure was almost comical and may appear impossible in the context of this gruesome war, but the truth of the story may be checked out with the war diary of the Checker Board Division which may contain a thousand words describing the whole scene.

A few weeks later Wolfgang was transferred north to the ‘Red One’ Infantry Division in which, many years later, two of his American born would serve. Wolfgang lucked out being the straw boss and interpreter of the prisoner work detail assigned to the kitchen and mess of headquarters company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment. and within a couple of days enjoyed, apart from his work, being the answer man of many GIs who could not explain that shrill difference between the training propaganda films to which they had been exposed and the Germany which they now experienced , the masses of refugees (ethnic Germans from Bohemia), the DPs with many Jews among them, and the various types of camps  ranging from those of absolute horror to labor camps in reasonable order, such as the one in which Wolfgang and his buddies and other work details were quartered. These were good days and according to rumors the prisoners would be discharged rather soon but then were free to continue to work their jobs as hired indigenous personnel, living in the camp without being imprisoned. It all sounded very good.

Then General Eisenhower bounced Patton, who had earlier declared that no prisoners of war taken by his Third Army would be surrendered to camps of starvation and annihilation in France, thus  putting a dirty stain on the American flag. He would rather resign from the Army than participate in this utmost crime which contradicts the ideals and objectives  for which he had  fought this war. After being bounced but still around, General Ge

About the Author

Wolfgang D. Schmidt was born in Berlin/Germany in  November 1925 and grew up in this extraordinary city until he joined to Wehrmacht, spring 1943. Transferred to Luftwaffe Flak he saw combat in Italy 1944 and the collapse of that Third Reich along the roads from the Alsace to the Bavarian Alps.

With becoming a prisoner of war of the 99th Infantry Division in April ‘45, and then Huebners Red One, an odd process of ‘Reeducation’  had its beginning, a process which continued until this day, a quixotic search for truth in history and some meaning to human existence.

Applying his German High School English and knowing the technique of Basic English, Wolfgang had little trouble communicating with Americans but some trouble always agreeing with them on some major issues of human existence. Such troubles, however, is the very foundation of dialogue as long as the rules of common courtesy and mutual respect are maintained.

Sponsored by two brothers of his father who had assumed US citizenship in the thirties, wanting no part of that Third Reich Germany, Wolfgang arrived in America aboard the ‘AMERICA’ the morning of Christmas Eve 1951; Five years later he, too, became a United States citizen.

But these United States have been constantly at war for the past six decades, very few  “a good war” and most rather bad little wars executed overwhelmingly in a haphazard if not extremely stupid manner, wars not even recognized as wars because according to the Constitution only Congress has the power to declare war.

In the course of his American 'Dasein'  Wolfgang met many types of human beings of various skin colors and many more political shades, from extremely dumb-assed true Neo-Nazi to fanatical bagel lancers of the Jewish Defense League, seeking foolishly to persuade them to engage in civilized dialogue instead of hurling charges and countercharges, threats and counterthreats at each other as if the only substance that matters was keeping the stews of hatred at a constant boiling point. Indeed, Wolfgang's only reward for his quixotic rides amounted to a heart attack which immobilized him for several months.

Then he maintained for a couple of years a Web site "Wolfgang's Lair" which consistently was bounced off the major search engines and attracted few readers, for who wanted to know about "Those Patriotic German Jews" who had emerged during the Age of Enlightenment and the Napoleonic era and whose very existence as German patriots the Nazis denied; Or "The Conquest of the Mark Brandenburg by the Germans" and the peaceful intergration of Slavic peoples into the German nation; Or a trip back to a series of world historical events which occurred some 3,200 years ago in the Middles East and still excessively impact the politcal life and gory warfare of this days, the Web essay "Pharaoh, Ancient Israel +  'I/Ich". For that matter, this essay nobody gave a hoot about Wolfgang enlarged to book length and the title is available with Xlibris until the first hour following the next doomsday.

This should suffice as an introduction to this storyteller, Wolfgang with the suffering super Ego/Ich and the dark waters of his lamentations for most that is but should not be, and the claim that the Lord God had created all that is and called it 'Good'. But such 'God' is in error and we - the creatures of Prometheus who have eaten from the tree of knowledge - should muster the courage to call Him wrong and then - humbly but not niggardly - set ourselves to work, like a child who exceeds the father, as indeed it did happen a few times in the course of human history, in spite of all.