Carl Giles was a fascinating man. A few months after this he was with the Coldstream Guards when they liberated Bergen-Belsen.
The German camp commander got excited and kept banging on about how much of a fan of Giles war cartoons he was. Kept asking for a signed drawing. /1
The German camp commander got excited and kept banging on about how much of a fan of Giles war cartoons he was. Kept asking for a signed drawing. /1
Reposted from
Steve Smith
Giles certainly had foresight when it came to battlefield guiding 😂
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So many of his boat cartoons had sails flapping free in high winds
And sometimes when you tug at those threads, the result is something fascinating.
You get a follow for that!
“Yes, I liberated Belsen”
The conversation stalled and we ate lunch in silence.
And he and the other soldiers are just stood there, the utter horror of the holocaust unfolding finally around them. /3
And Giles said the worst thing was that if he hadn't been standing there, seeing the utter death and disease around him that this man had caused, he'd have found Kramer perfectly normal and charming. Because that's how he was to Giles. /4
Think Giles also ended up with his SS dagger and red nazi dress uniform armband.
I honestly cannot imagine how surreal that whole encounter must have been.
"I have to say, that I quite liked the man. I am ashamed to say such a thing. But had I not been able to see what was happening outside the window I would have said he was very civilised. Odd, isn't it?" /6
I never sent him an original. What was the point? He had been hanged." /END
Like I say, a man of hidden depths.