A story of generosity reciprocated

Heinrich Steinmeyer was just 19 years old and a member of Hitler’s dreaded SS when he was captured in August 1944, shortly after D-Day. Like all young men in his situation he had been thoroughly brainwashed into despising the enemy, and expecting them to be beneath comtempt. Consequently, he was mightily surprised when he ended up in a prisoner-of-war camp in Britain and found that the truth didn’t quite match up to what he had been given to expect.

He spent the remainder of the War in Cultybraggan Camp, near Comrie in Scotland. It proved to be about as far from his expectations as it could possibly have been. He found the Scots villagers showed prisoners nothing but kindness and generosity. Not exactly the treatment he had been expecting!

The full unimaginable horror of the Nazi regime wasn’t yet fully known, but even so the British, like so many others in the free world, had good reason to hate German prisoners of war, and Nazis in general. Years of rationing and deprivation, of husbands and fathers away fighting for freedom, and stories of horrific war crimes were enough to sour anybody’s attitude towards the Nazis and Nazi POWs. Yet the villagers of Comrie showed them kindness and compassion. It must have been an astonishing turn of events for Heinrich and the other prisoners.

Cultybraggan Camp, where the ‘worst’ Nazi POWs were held

Cultybraggan Camp, just south of Comrie

Comrie is a small village, population currently less than 2,000, and the camp that was situated to the south of the village was what was known at the time as a ‘black’ camp, meaning it was reserved for ardent Nazis, and members of the SS qualified richly for that. It became infamous after Wolfgang Rosterg, an anti-Nazi German prisoner, was lynched there by his fellow inmates (who themselves were hanged after the war for their part in his murder).

The kindness and generosity Heinrich encountered while at Cultybraggan must have affected him deeply because he returned to Comrie after the War and made lasting friendships with the locals. The generosity shown to him changed his attitude completely. In fact, he vowed to leave everything he owned for the benefit of the elderly of the tiny Highlands community.

Kindness remembered … and rewarded

In his will, Heinrich said:

His will stated that the proceeds from the sale of his house and possessions were to be used for “elderly people”. When he died, aged 90, in 2014, his ashes were scattered in the hills above the camp where he spent most of his War years.

Now, just over two years later, his bequest of £348,000 has been gifted to the village’s Community Trust. The Trust has placed it in a Heinrich Steinmeyer Legacy Fund, set up “exclusively for local developments for older people, suggested by older people”.

Andrew Reid, from the Comrie Development Trust, said:

Heinrich joined the SS at just 17 and was captured in the battle for a bridge at Caen, Normandy. After his release from Cultybraggan Camp he stayed in Scotland, working on farms, and returned to Germany in 1970. He credited the Scots with changing his life with their kindness. The wonderful way the Scots villagers treated their unwanted guests was reciprocated, albeit many years later.