[chris vickery]

Here's a POW story, passed to me from my father from a fellow he knew.
Just shows the difference between one monster and another.

The guy my father had worked with had the opportunity to see things from both sides. Turns out the man was a Polish soldier who was captured by the Germans shortly after the Blizkrieg. While in captivity with the Germans, he said they were treated humanely, fed, sheltered and clothed as well as could be considering the circumstances at the time.
As time wore on and more and more prisoners were taken by the Germans on the Eastern front, the POW camps began to overflow with Russian prisoners.
The Russians were savages, and it was not uncommon for them to fight amongst one another for the smallest scrap of food.
As the Germans began to suffer increasing losses at the front and POWs began to be problematic a simple solution was derived; Offer the Poles a chance to fight for the Fatherland in exchange for their freedom. Afterall they were closer to being Germanic than Russian.
Many thousands of Poles defected to the German army in light of the "deal".

Apparently this fellow decided it was a way out, ignorant of the deplorable conditions on the front. Face the Russinas and get shot or run from the Germans and get shot.
Well, shortly after his "enlistment" he was once again a guest, this time of the Russian army.
He said the conditions and treatment in the Russian camp was no where near the same as the Germans; the Soviets were barbaric, inhumane and cruel to the German prisoners, a bit of payback in a way for the treatment of Russians by the Germans. He vowed that he would have stayed in the German POW camp for an eternity rather than been a guest of the Russians...