Penal Units

[WallShadow]

My godfather Uncle Lou was a plutonowy (lance sgt) in the Polish Army, survived the Blitzkrieg because he had a useful pre-war skill (butcher/sausage-maker), was captured and put to work by being shared out to farmers to help with butchering the cattle and pigs. My uncle was a clever and cunning fellow, and was able to wheedle and cadge extra food from the less-vindictive farmers ("We could make you such _good_ sausage, but we are weak; if only we had a little more food...."). When assigned to pour concrete for German fortifications, he made sure there was a little too much water in the mix, so the prisoners would be able to stretch out the relatively less onerous job, because despite how long they raked it, it wouldn't set up. At the end of the war, he was actually driving trucks without guards (where would they go? was the rationale), and he and his co-driver ran into an advancing American column, pulled off the road under a bridge, waited for the column to start past, then got out, with hands in air, yellling "Polski! Polski!" One Polish-American GI translated for them, they were sent to the rear, and my Uncle eventually got shipped to the US.
Feel free to use this as a character, with a few strings: his name was Ludwig "Louie", he was clever, but with a good heart, he was generous and kind to children (he adopted an immigrant child later in life), personable, charming, 5'6" tall, wiry, with short silver-blonde hair, bright sparkling blue eyes, energetic, a little larger than life but not boastful. (Kind of like Popeye if he were Polish and without the squint or pipe.) His English was a little broken (25%--35%) He could garden with minimum requirements (he first taught me about mulching with kitchen scraps), loved the ocean (many summers at the Wildwood, NJ shore), loved dogs, hated cruelty and injustice, was slightly casually anti-Semitic but not to the point of malice or violence just pre-conceived attitudes, and loyal to his friends and faithful to his invalid wife and visited his institutionalized brother-in-law regularly for many years.

If you can do Uncle Lou justice, please include him in your game, perhaps as a subtle Deus ex Machina who knows a workaround, or where to get a needed item, or is buddies with a certain guard.... He has a brother and a niece near Krakow, with whom he has confirmed their safety. He might have a cluster of abandoned kids he's supporting in some previously abandoned house he's helping them make liveable. He has a small nest egg he's squirreled away for urgent necessities, and he doesn't live large, only modestly. He can "make things appear" with a little advance notice: nothing big, just urgently needed. He'd be a great NPC for a group that needed a real "angel on their shoulders".

[Raellus]

It's cool that you have a personal connection to this topic, Wallshadow. I've only ever read about prisoners of the Germans.

In a PbP I ran, the PC's encountered an American POW "paroled" to a Polish farm family as an internee laborer. He joined the party when they left but decided they were too dangerous and excused himself, heading back to the relative safety and stability of the farm.

I got the idea after reading about forced laborers in East Prussia in Antony Beevor's amazing, The Fall of Berlin, 1945. Apparently, it was fairly common practice to assign low-risk POWs to assist with agricultural work. Many were placed, in small batches, with local farm families.

[unkated]

Originally Posted by Raellus

It's cool that you have a personal connection to this topic, Wallshadow. I've only ever read about prisoners of the Germans.

In a PbP I ran, the PC's encountered an American POW "paroled" to a Polish farm family as an internee laborer. He joined the party when they left but decided they were too dangerous and excused himself, heading back to the relative safety and stability of the farm.

I got the idea after reading about forced laborers in East Prussia in Antony Beevor's amazing, The Fall of Berlin, 1945. Apparently, it was fairly common practice to assign low-risk POWs to assist with agricultural work. Many were placed, in small batches, with local farm families.

German and Italian POWs in camps in England during WW2 were put to similar uses, either dropped off to work, checked in/out of camp, or (for more remote locations) out for a fews days of labor before being returned.

It's all the same general theme - using POWs to replace labor used as soldiers.

For the US camps, I would have the last Russian/East Bloc prisoners would come to the US/Canada from Europe in 1998; there may be some in camps in the NW with prisoners from the invasion of Alaska taken after that date. Later POWs in Europe would be in camps in Europe - Germany, mostly, as transport breaks down. These would also be the easiest to exchange for your own capture troops.

I could see NATO Penal units being used for (unpleasant) labor (rubble clearing, sewer repair) under guard. Releasing soldiers in the military penal system for farm work in West Germany seems more like a reward rather than a punishment; on the other hand, throwing away trained soldiers (that can be reused after detention) seems wasteful, especially when facing shortages of trained troops.

Uncle Ted

[Rockwolf66]

One idea I had for a group in a Story started out as 200 Germans doing Community Service(In lew of a criminal sentence). Who get caught up in the Fighting for Berlin. by 2000 they are down to a group of 21 and they have almost as many poles as Germans and a couple of Russians to boot.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

My godfather Uncle Lou...

Man, I really like Uncle Lou and I've never even met him! He sounds like a hell of a guy.

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by Targan

Man, I really like Uncle Lou and I've never even met him! He sounds like a hell of a guy.

Oh, and one more thing: for a little old man, he could dance the Polka fast enought to make young girls exhausted!

[James Langham2]

This might be useful - there was a discussion before - http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.p...&highlight=5th