Arno Christiansen

The Barbed Wire Fence Arno Christiansen

This is not intended as a treatise on the futility of war, because that has been done before by much cleverer people. Neither is it a stirring story of escape, patriotism and bravery, because that too has been done before, by people much better qualified to write about it. This is a perfectly straightforward and true story, of an ordinary young German. Not particularly concerned about, nor interested in politics, but subscribing to the currently held idealised image of the Führer, he was called upon to fight for his country, for the Third Reich, and willingly did so. He was captured in the autumn of 1944, and became a prisoner of war in England. This is the story of his captivity, a light-hearted view. Sometimes a little sad, but often funny. This is about ingenuity in adversity, and how the fatalist more often than not survives all others.