大象传媒

As the war was drawing to a close(or may actually have been over,I'm not quite sure now)there were some german prisoners camped on Chingford plains that were employed in building council houses very near to where i lived.Now i was only about 10 or 11 at that time and toys were virtually unobtainable but i did have a very good clockwork car passed onto me by my brother.Unfortunately it had a broken spring and so my mother with some kind of logic,thought that as it was of german manufacture(shuco as i remember)perhaps one of the german P.O.W's could repair it.
Well with this in mind we went over to where the germans were working and just picked one at random while they were sitting on the site eating their lunch.We showed him the car and asked if he could fix it!Incredibly after a short look at it he said'Ja'.
I can't imagine how with very limited resources he was able to do this but he bought it back the next day fully functioning.This episode started a friendship between him and our family which lasted til he was repatriated and even then we corresponded for a time afterwards.During the time with our association with him he bought another german round with him and they used to have meals with us.In return they used to help re-decorate our house and i remember they made me a wooden windmill for my birthday.It was beautifully decorated with hot poker work.
It became a habit to lend the first german(namely Herbert as i remember)some civilian clothes when he visited us and he and I went on walks together.Incredibly trusting of my parents as the prisoners wore distinctive denim type uniforms with a large circle on the back and i am sure it must have been illegal to allow them the use of normal civvies.
On one occasion when Herbert and I were out walking someone asked for directions.Fortunately i had the presence of mind to direct him before Herbert could reply,it might have been a problem otherwise.
Herbert taught me a folk song in german that i still remember(which is strange because i can't remember what happened last week sometimes).
Although the two germans fought in the war they hated Hitler and I am sure they were forced into the german army.

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