4. Prisoner for a Reason When Horst Alexander joined the German air force in July 1944 at the age of 17 he could not have known how important it would be that he should become a prisoner of war in England. In November 1944, like many fellow countrymen, he was captured and held in Belgium. Although it was a relatively mild winter, Horst often woke up with his legs covered in snow because of insufficient room in the shelter for his whole body. Then, in March 1945, he and his comrades were herded onto a ship. They spent hours sitting on rusty piping or lying on the floor of the ship as it crossed the Channel from Ostend to Tilbury. It was a pleasant spring morning when Horst arrived in England aged just 18 years. The morning air was suddenly shattered by a wailing noise of many sirens, precisely the same noise he had heard many times at home before running to the nearest air-raid shelter. Two V1 rockets were approaching London, and the detonation of one of them could still be heard. The men hoped they would not be harmed by their own comrades. Fortunately things began to improve for Horst and his fellow prisoners in London. For the first time for many months they were able to have a shower with plenty of soap, and new underwear and a good pair of second-hand boots were allocated to them. Their meals were served in big tents with tables and benches, and they slept in clean tents on dry straw mats. The biggest surprise was that their guards were willing to talk to them and answer their questions. From early childhood they had been indoctrinated with National Socialism and believed that, beyond German borders, hostility and inhumanity were all that could be expected. Now they began to realise that people across the sea were human beings too. Among the British soldiers interviewing each prisoner were some who spoke German so fluently that it seemed as though they must have learned the language in Hamburg, Frankfurt-am-Main or Berlin. It turned out that they were Jews, born in Germany, now serving in the British army and putting their knowledge of the German language to good use. Horst had not known much about Jews prior to this. He remembered one day as a boy of 14, visiting his father, a police officer, in the police station of his home-town. There he saw a man wearing a large yellow star on his jacket. His father had reluctantly told him that the man was a Jewish cobbler, and Jews had to report to the police station regularly.
Prisoner for a Reason 27 As a prisoner of war in Britain, Horst was moved about the country and experienced various POW camps. However, on three occasions he was sent with a small group of prisoners to spend a few days in a very large deserted country house. He learnt later that these visits were to deter squatters. The wellequipped mansions Horst Alexander, front row, second from right, and other prisoners at Featherstone Park Camp, Haltwhistle, Northumberland in 1945 were remarkable. One had six bathrooms and the men spent almost the whole of the first night in the bath tubs. During the day they enjoyed sliding down the marble banisters, making up for boyish experiences they had missed for years. As Horst points out, There are no tubs nor banisters in huts! One of Horst s worst memories of these times was in the summer of 1946 when he was at Featherstone Park Camp in Haltwhistle, Northumberland. A letter arrived from his father in Germany telling him that his mother, his sister and her little son Axel, Horst s nephew, had all been killed on 16 April 1945 as the Soviet Army invaded Germany. This information had taken over a year to reach Horst. He knew that his brother had previously been killed in action in April 1942; now Horst and his father were the only survivors of their family. Soon after the war ended all prisoners had been confronted with the depressing pictures and descriptions of conditions found when German concentration camps were discovered. The aims and beliefs of National Socialism had completely broken down, and with it had gone many of Horst s ideals. From this time he started searching for alternative beliefs and read German philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Kant, and this he did for about a year prior to his move to the Wirral peninsular, south of Liverpool. On 11th December 1946 Horst was moved to Clatterbridge Camp, near Bebington in the Wirral, a camp of only about 120 prisoners. Every week-day they were occupied in pulling down old Nissen huts, erected years before on the estate of Lord Leverhume. At weekends the prisoners were glad of a change of scenery, and Horst found his way more than once to the museum in Port Sunlight where interesting old furniture
28 The Germans We Trusted could be seen, such as a bed in which Napoleon was said to have slept. On one such visit, Lord Leverhume himself happened to come to the museum at the same time. Horst was somewhat surprised to find himself as the only other person in the room apart from two assistants who were bowing a little as they spoke to the aristocratic gentleman. Horst felt a little out of place in his POW garb as he similarly made a few bows, not knowing what else to do! As he left the museum he caught his first glimpse of a Rolls Royce motor car. The place which was easiest for the prisoners to visit was the small town of Bebington, about 45 minutes walk from the camp. Horst got to know the area well and noticed that one building had the name Bethesda inscribed prominently on the end wall, though it did not mean anything to him. However, at Christmas an invitation was received in the camp for anyone who wished to go to Bethesda Hall for a cup of coffee (not tea) on Friday 27 December at 5 o clock. Persons interested were to give their names to the camp clerk so that Mr Bennington, the person who had issued the invitation, would know how many to expect. Horst remembers this invitation being discussed among the prisoners, but for quite a number it had the smell of the attempt to exert religious influence. Eleven men decided to give their names to the clerk. At 5 o clock on the Friday in question, Horst was extremely surprised to find that the number had swelled. Scores of men were arriving at Bethesda Hall. In the end 80 prisoners turned up. With no adverse reaction to the unexpectedly large number of guests, the hosts very quickly arranged additional tables and benches as well as cups and saucers. Before long everyone had a seat, and coffee and cakes were served in abundance. Mr Bennington, his wife and the other church members all seemed to be cheerful, radiating kindness and openness, an attitude which the prisoners had not really expected. The men were asked to sing German Christmas carols, while Mrs Bennington came round with more cake and coffee. She spoke to them in German, and it was German with a pure Saxon accent, a familiar sound to some of the men. Gradually the visitors discovered that Mr and Mrs Bennington were Germans. He was a trained engineer, who had owned an electrical appliance company in Hamburg, but who had been driven out of Germany with his wife in 1938 because he was Jewish. A number of his relatives had been killed in German concentration camps. One of the prisoners present came from Hamburg, and Mr Bennington recognised the accent and embraced him as a fellow countryman. The hosts all belonged to the Bethesda Assembly, a branch of the Open Brethren Christian denomination. They spoke of the love of God in Jesus Christ, a message not new to the men and perhaps not welcome to some. However, everything was presented in an acceptable way, with
Prisoner for a Reason 29 personal conversations, obvious warmth and affection, from people who only an hour before had been complete strangers. The men were amazed. Horst explains the prisoners feelings as follows. We were a company of men more or less rough and ready, who for years had to live behind barbed wire, when suddenly we found ourselves sitting in English church rooms at tables laid for all of us, and being attended to by ever so kind civilians, who only two years ago had been our opponents in a terrible war. On the way back to the camp many of the men discussed intently what they had experienced. It was a remarkable encounter for them all, but for Horst it was something astounding. Even now, although it is more than 50 years ago, I remember precisely these hours. I was totally soaked with perspiration and almost all the way back to the camp, a walk of about three quarters of an hour, I was shaking all over. I was hardly involved in the discussion. I think I was moved to such an extent I was incapable of talking much. The following night I could not sleep. Horst s main fascination was with the attitude of these people. What had enabled them to overcome their natural human reaction when confronted by the enemy and to show such genuine kindness? He determined to find out more. From then on he attended not only the Sunday morning breaking of bread services at Bethesda but also Bible and prayer meetings on weekdays. He began to learn what Open Brethren were and became very friendly with other members of the Assembly, such as Harry and Elsie Dumbell and William and Rosa McMillan who invited him to their house many times. He read Christian literature very carefully and with great interest, by authors he had never heard of before, and he set himself the task of comparing the English and German translations of the Bible. Of course, other prisoners wanted to continue the friendship begun on that Friday after Christmas. Mr and Mrs Bennington s Horst Alexander as a POW in Mr and Mrs Dumbell s garden in 1947
30 The Germans We Trusted Programme of the wonderful concert attended by Horst Alexander in 1947 flat was very often crowded with German prisoners who enjoyed the homely atmosphere. The rooms were so full of men that if Horst wanted a personal talk with Mr Bennington they had to go into the bedroom or the kitchen. It was during a quiet time together in the small kitchen of the flat that Horst accepted Jesus as his personal Saviour. A Jew had led a German into the Christian faith. Herr Alexander now regards this time in Bebington as a special gift of God. Five days before Horst was moved away from the Wirral to another camp, he had a different experience which he remembers well. On 19 April 1947 he visited the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool to listen to Handel s Messiah conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Over the intervening years he has kept safely the programme of this wonderful event. When the time for his move to another camp came, Horst found that his Bebington friends had already informed the local Assembly about him. On the first Sunday morning, Brethren picked him up at the gate of the new camp to be their guest for the day. Although they had never met each other before, Horst remembers that the greeting was a hearty one as perhaps usual amongst relatives. This happened the next time he moved camp as well, so that his German comrades wondered how many uncles and aunts he had in England. It was at an Assembly in Worcester that he was baptised, together with another prisoner who had become a Christian. After Horst s release, he naturally continued the contacts with his friends in Bebington who had played such a crucial role in his life in England. Over several decades many visits
Prisoner for a Reason 31 Horst, Ruth, Birgitt and Jörg Alexander with Rosa and Bill McMillan, in Bebington, in 1966 were made from Germany to England and from England to Germany. In 1964 Horst returned to Bebington, with his wife Ruth and children Jörg and Birgitt aged eight and four, to stay with Bill and Rosa McMillan. He was puzzled to see rooms that he had not known existed, although he had visited the house many times as a POW. Seeing Horst s bewilderment, his friends explained that in one room there had been an air-raid shelter made from heavy steel sheets. During the war a German bomb had exploded by a wall in the back garden resulting in the demolition of six ceilings in the house. Horst comments, I cannot count how many times I have been to their house as POW and at wintertime I was still wearing my blue uniform coat of the German air force but never during all that time a word was mentioned about the damage caused by that bomb nor the existence of this air-raid shelter. Horst Alexander s captivity in Britain was filled with an experience he can never forget. The fellowship with his friends in Bebington lasted more than 40 years and spread to his children. Now those English friends have passed away, but their legacy can still be felt. All the members of Herr Alexander s family, including his grandchildren, are active members of the Open Brethren in Germany, and he can look back on over 50 years of fellowship within the movement. He now knows there was a reason why he had to become a prisoner of war in England. It gave him a new life.