IMPERIA, Italy — From the veranda of a couple’s vacation home is a stunningly beautiful view.

Brightly painted modest homes dot the high hills along the shore of this city on the Italian Riviera. On a sunny afternoon with nary a cloud in the sky, the Mediterranean Sea is blue all the way to the southern horizon.

The couple and others in their generation of Germans were youngsters and perhaps young adults in the 1930s and 1940s, when life in their country was hard.

For the then-future husband, who was away from his homeland from 1945 to 1950, life was even harder.

That experience, and others’ hard experiences, are in no way diminished by the historical facts under which America and her allies fought Germany and its allies. Besides, the people of Germany and its allies weren’t among the enemies in World War II. Rather, the enemies were the enemy countries’ leaders, a few in particular.

To be sure, that war had victors. It goes without saying that it was a good thing that the victors were the victors. Yet war is so horrible that while war can produce victors, it’s rare for war to produce winners who lose nothing. Saying that in war, everybody loses is barely an overstatement.

In war, the people almost always lose in one way or another–with some making the ultimate sacrifice, as the then-future husband’s brother did–regardless of whether their countries prevail. Ultimate sacrifices leave voids among families and friends that no one can fill. The war that ended in 1945 was no exception.

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The then-future husband’s hard experience began 80 years ago, in late April 1945, while he and fellow soldiers in the German army, having no idea that the war in Europe had been over for a few weeks, were engaged in combat in southeastern Europe, far from Germany, against soldiers from the Soviet Union.

Eventually, it became clear to the German soldiers that they would be captured.

Realizing that hunger could be their fate, and seeing piles of clothes and potatoes nearby, he gathered his comrades and persuaded each of them to put on as many layers of clothes as was practical and stuff the layers with potatoes.

Fine dining that surely wouldn’t be. Then again, they weren’t headed for a five-star hotel. The potatoes could go a long way toward sustaining them if necessary.

What they didn’t and couldn’t know then was that what he calls their Gefangenshaft–their imprisonment–in prisoner-of-war camps deep inside the Soviet Union would last not days, weeks, months, or even seasons.

The imprisonment would last years. Yes, years.

For those who survived, which most did not.

He recalls that of the 500 captured Germans, most of whom weren’t far beyond being boys, only 65 survived.

In a sense, it may be miraculous that 65 survived. Survival itself was their primary task, and it was no easy one. Work was hard, food was limited, conditions were unclean, and disease was prevalent.

As he tells his story on and off over the course of three hours, it becomes clear that other factors were indispensible to their survival: Determination, guts, and courage in the face of adversity that one can’t really imagine if one hasn’t endured it, no matter which country one calls home.

While he was working in a machine-manufacturing enterprise for which he had particular skill, he was ordered to do additional work.

His response: Yes, for an extra 200 grams of bread per day.

When the Soviet captors rejected that, he told them to build their own machines.

They relented.

Please think that one through, and imagine how standing up to Soviet captors might have turned out–to understate the point — somewhat differently.

Nevertheless, at that moment, as in many moments, he kept his focus on the goal of surviving, which the extra bread helped him do.

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His Gefangenshaft lasted until one day in 1950 when the Soviet captors called the name of a German with a similar name. That other young man was to board a train and go home. For whatever reason, the other young man didn’t respond, so the then-future husband received the other young man’s place.

After five years, he was headed home.

He recalls that others remained imprisoned for five additional years–until 1955–when West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer demanded and received the release of those still surviving.

Only upon their release was the war finally over for them.

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As the couple’s guest makes the observation about determination, guts, and courage, the former longtime prisoner of war gently smiles and nods in acknowledgment and humility.

Can you even begin to imagine the experience of such a Gefangenschaft for five days, five weeks, five months, or five seasons, to say nothing about five years?

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Not having been a prisoner of war, much less under such conditions, Dr. Randy Elf joins those who can’t really imagine what it’s like.

(c) 2025 BY RANDY ELF