The German POW Who Escaped INTO America — and Hid for 40 Years

Why the Last German POW Hid in America for 40 Years While hundreds of thousands of German prisoners of war were shipped back to a ruined Europe in 1945, one man made a completely different calculation. Georg Gaertner slipped under the wire of a New Mexico POW camp and jumped a westbound freight train. But he did not run for the border. He ran straight into the American heartland. This is the incredible true story of the longest escape in American history. Discover how a former Afrika Korps soldier built a new identity as Dennis Whiles, working as a lumberjack, a ski instructor, and eventually a country club tennis pro while the FBI manhunt slowly went cold. For four decades, he hid his past from everyone, including his own wife, before finally surrendering on live national television in 1985. source Google Images (Historical Photographs) YouTube Archival: @British Pathé