All across Europe, behind gates such as these, over 350,000 service personnel were held as Prisoners of War, existing on the most basic of rations in crowded unsanitary and barely tolerable donditions for up to 5 years.
Fir some repatriation came early due to serious medical reasons or non-combatant status, whilst others were liberated directly from their camps by advancing allied armies. For most, however, freedom came only after forced marches of up to 880 km, starting in 1945, during the harshest winter on record at the time; across open hostile countryside and often at risk of friendly fire.*
*Quoted from a memorial plaque next to the gates
What horrific stories these prisoners could have told, Cherie
It is so sad to think about.
The gates look rather Auschwitz-y.
They are supposed to.