We have all heard, if we’ve paid attention, of how stories of Americans widespread torturing of Muslims have served as a big recruitment draw for groups fighting us.  Torture is what Americans have been doing because our amoral leaders say its how best to deal with committed enemies.

Compare that logic with this story of a Waffen SS soldierwho spent the the final year of the war as a POW in Scotland.  When he dies he will leave hundreds of thousands, perhaps £400,000, to the village because, as he put it, “I came as a prisoner of war and I left as a friend.”

According to The Independent

Mr Steinmeyer was a member of the SS 12th Panzer
Division [Hitler Youth] when he was captured of August 1944 near Caen
in Normandy during the Allied invasion . He wants the money to be
administered through a trust fund for elderly residents.

Speaking from his home near the northern German port of Bremen,
he said: “I always wanted to pay something back. The people were very
kind to us German PoWs. They did not treat us as the enemy. I had so
many happy experiences in Scotland.”

Speaking
about his planned donation, he said: “I’ve always had it in my mind. I
have no children and I live on my own. I came as a prisoner of war and
I left as a friend.”

Mr Steinmeyer said his
house was worth about £110,000 and he had saved “some money”. He was
sent to the camp in Perthshire because he was a member of the feared
Waffen SS.

But then, the Brits weren’t blessed with Dick Cheney and other criminals as their leaders. 

Many thanks to America Blog for turning me on to this story.