When dad was near Munich he befriended a young Russian who was held as a POW by the Germans. Oh, how he hated them. He spoke fluent German and was used by my father and some others a an interpreter. They called him “little Joe” and even took up a GI uniform to fit him. He wore the uniform when they were on patrol.
My father considered adopting him and bringing him to Texas when he returned. He talked to the CO about it but did not, he was concerned that the war so hardened him that he might be a problem. His CO was receptive to the idea.
When I was a young man he told that I almost had another brother and then about “Little Joe”. He has often wondered what became of him.
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Patton detractors had best avoid the subject in Dad’s presence.
Stalin blackmailed the Western Allies into forcibly repatriating Russians, Ukranians, and others in exchange Anglo-American and other Western Allied POWs detained by the Soviet forces as bargaining chips. Stalin ordered these repatriated POWs to be shot after they debarked from the transport ships at the Crimean docks. Allied officers raged in vain as this happened. When the U.S. refused to continue these reppatriations, thousands of American detainees were allegedly disappeared into the Soviet gulags.