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Y34rZer0 t1_ivclrb1 wrote

Reply to comment by anon83479953 in They fled persecution in Nazi Germany. Then the British put them behind barbed wire by lanzkron

Also some were shipped to Canada where they were model prisoners and were allowed out to help on farms and they even obtained university degrees via correspondence. A lot emigrated to Canada and I remember once saying that being taken POW was the best thing that ever happened to him in his life.

What was funny though was that the Germans created their own stricter camp rules

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Cetun t1_ivcveuv wrote

>What was funny though was that the Germans created their own stricter camp rules

Your probably referring to the fact the Nazis in the camps attempted to maintain loyalty amongst the non-nazi members who rather enjoyed not being on the front lines anymore by harsh extrajudicial discipline.

However, rank is still maintained in POW camps, POWs must follow orders of superior officers and nominally they are under the command of their superior officers who are themselves obligated to follow the lawful commands of the camp commanders. So discipline was largely handled by the prisoners rather than the guards. At the same time enlisted guards had to show superior rank prisoner a certain amount of respect and enlisted prisoners had to show superior rank camp staff the same amount of respect they would their own superior rank officers. Being in a camp wasn't like being in a prison, it was like being in the army but instead of doing combat your being kept busy because you aren't allowed to move freely.

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bludgersquiz t1_ive866i wrote

And to Australia. There was a TV series made about it called The Dunera Boys.

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Y34rZer0 t1_ive8jey wrote

I’m in aus too. Did you know that during the war Japanese reconnaissance planes flew in land as far as Uluru/Ayers Rock, and it was suppressed from the papers to avoid public panic?

The reason I mentioned it is I can’t help but laugh because the pilots must have thought they were going crazy, there’s just miles and miles of absolutely nothing and even today Japanese people who visit are stunned by the scale of distance out there.

I’m in Adelaide and one morning in the city a Japanese couple in a Toyota Camry wagon stopped next to me and asked ‘ excuse me please which way is it to Ayers Rock?’. I swear on my life this is a true story.

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arran-reddit t1_ivebal5 wrote

Japanese troops also landed in WA but turned back before encountering anyone

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Y34rZer0 t1_ivebi99 wrote

oh yeah… Are you a fan of Mark felton’s channel?

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arran-reddit t1_ivedbry wrote

I’ve watched it a little bit, very informative but not a huge fan of his delivery style.

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116YearsWar t1_ivehjkc wrote

It's probably not as informative as you think it is. He is a proper historian, but his YouTube channel is just full of 'extraordinary' tales which have been rushed through with little proper research, which is why he can post so many of them. He's also been caught outright plagiarising other people's work and just reading verbatim from a WW2 enthusiast forum.

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charlie_do_562 t1_ivehbdw wrote

I’m not familiar with the geography of Australia, how far is Adelaide from Ayers Rock?

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Y34rZer0 t1_ivehskx wrote

Nearly 2000 km. They very probably could have got lost and died. Their vehicle was empty.
I told them not to attempted, and to ask about it at the tourism office.
I told my mother about this and she told me about her friend her in Japan whose child didn’t walk on grass until they were about 10.
She said it’s not standard like that but they would have expected a level of population density like Japan, with fuel stations and good roads all the way there. This was before smart phones as well.
I used to drive to roxby downs from Adelaide, which is much closer and it’s still scary to think of being lost out there and running out of fuel

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Painting_Agency t1_ivf7jm9 wrote

> I told my mother about this and she told me about her friend her in Japan whose child didn’t walk on grass until they were about 10.

That's very odd because I'm sure even Tokyo has parks. Not to doubt your mom or anything.

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Y34rZer0 t1_ivf81to wrote

It does. I imagine it’s a slight exaggeration or maybe that family just didn’t visit them. I do recall hearing most people living in the cities spend almost all their time within a very small area, something like a square kilometre. They live that close to where they work etc

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Painting_Agency t1_ivf95f7 wrote

> They live that close to where they work etc

Nice, but I'd get fat - I need the exercise of biking to work 😄

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Stegasaurus_Wrecks t1_ivgeffs wrote

Give directions like Brad Pitt in True Romance.

"well you go down that way and you keep driving and you keep driving and you keep driving and then you take a left."

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Termsandconditionsch t1_ivtsqtc wrote

Holup.. no they did not go to Uluru. Why would they? It’s out of range for them and nothing useful there anyway. Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns and Broome, sure. Those flights happened. But there is zero reason for any Japanese plane to go to Uluru..

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Y34rZer0 t1_ivuzaml wrote

They weren’t going TO uluṟu, they were flying reconnaissance and got that far inland before turning around, I assume because they needed fuel

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Termsandconditionsch t1_ivv2pgx wrote

Umm but why would they waste fuel going that far inland even if they had the range? There’s nothing there. The one thing of military interest there, the Woomera range, wasn’t established until 1947. I can’t find a single source for this.

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