Schatze

By Uncle Hans

Finally got my hands this book which I have been after for years. She is a retired teacher of history from Eau Clair.The US government kept quite a few, mostly German POWs in Wisconsin near the end of the war. There was such a labor shortage that they proved very useful in harvesting crops.

The book is full of cute stories about the interaction between the prisoners and the locals. This one caught my eye.....

 

The passage reads: “ Beyond his large back yard was a cornfield and next to that was a large barracks housing German PW’s.  The Henrys had a maid whose job included feeding the family pet, a Dachshund named Schatze.  Sometimes the maid had to call Schatze for dinner as he ran into the cornfield.  She went to the edge of the field and called ‘Schatze’ several times.  The prisoners would come to the wire fence and hoot and holler back at the maid who never understood why. I don’t believe anyone ever told her that ‘Schatze’ in German means ‘sweetheart.’.”

By Uncle Hans