German POWs Expected a Cold Cell for Christmas. Then the Guards Brought a Tree

December 1944. In the prisoner-of-war camps of America, more than 300,000 German soldiers were bracing for the Christmas they had been promised by their own side: a cold cell, a thin soup, a guard's contempt. Instead, in camp after camp, the same impossible thing happened. Trucks came through the gates carrying fir trees. Guards carried them into the mess halls. Lights were strung, choirs rehearsed, and the kitchens sent out turkey. This is the story of that Christmas — the letters from a burning Germany, the news of the Ardennes offensive that reached the camps on 16 December, the trees that went up in the mess halls, the Christmas Eve services and Stille Nacht behind wire, and the prisoner-built nativity at Camp Algona that an American town still displays, free, every December. Drawing on Arnold Krammer's "Nazi Prisoners of War in America," the Provost Marshal General's records in Lewis & Mewha's official Army history, the Algona POW Camp Museum's records of Eduard Kaib's nativity scene, and state historical society camp accounts from Iowa, Kansas and Texas, the narration is an original script built on documented accounts. No quotation is invented. CHAPTERS 00:00 — The Christmas They Braced For 01:05 — From Africa and France 02:11 — Letters From Home 03:00 — The Sixteenth of December 04:16 — Made by Hand 05:09 — Parcels and Camp Funds 06:22 — The Trees Arrive 07:14 — Heilige Abend 08:11 — Stille Nacht 09:11 — The Christmas Table 10:24 — Small Kindnesses 11:22 — The Gift at Algona 12:52 — The Same Week, Elsewhere 13:53 — They Wrote Home 14:48 — The Scoreboard 15:43 — One More Christmas 16:35 — The Ships Home 17:36 — The Verdict Sources are credited in the film's closing card: Krammer (1979); Lewis & Mewha — History of Prisoner of War Utilization by the U.S. Army (PMGO history); Algona POW Camp Museum — the Kaib nativity scene and Camp Algona records; Office of the Provost Marshal General camp records; state historical society camp accounts (Iowa, Kansas, Texas). Photographs: U.S. Signal Corps / National Archives and Imperial War Museums — public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. #WWII #POW #Christmas #History #Documentary Displaying desc54.txt.