大象传媒

All the family, (5 children, my parents and grandmother)were on a train in 1940. As little boys do my brothers and I were runing up and down the corridor when there in a carriage we saw 2 soldiers with guns and bayonets fixed, guarding German prisoners. I rushed back to my parents shouting "Daddy Daddy there are some German prisoners up there." So my father came with me. When he saw these rather woebegone prisoners sitting there he stuck his head through the carriage door and wished them a good journey in German. The german prisoners beamed back at him while their guards looked extremely displeased.

My father was a pacifist and I think in some way he wanted to be arrested so that he could testify. He had been through a tibunal and was a registered conscientious objector. He actually wanted the Germans to win the war as he felt England was getting very "prideful" forgetting its morals. It wasn't that he thought Germans were better people it was just that he thought England had lost its way and should return to its spiritual roots. When asked what he would do if a Nazi storm trooper came down the road he said he would give him a cup of tea.

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