The words scratched on this roof tile are ‘Arbeit macht das Leben suess’ (work makes life sweet). A touch of irony perhaps? Or was the work a welcome relief from the monotony of a POW camp? (Picture credit: Brian Grint / Great Yarmouth Mercury)
A reader of Hitler’s Last Army has sent me details of an article which recently appeared in the Great Yarmouth Mercury. Builders renovating a house in the Norfolk village of Acle have found a Nazi swastika as well as slogans in German scratched on roof tiles. It’s believed that German prisoners of war may have been used as a labour force to renovate the building during – or just after – the Second World War. The building in question was the village telephone exchange at the time in question, and it’s entirely possible that POWs could have done work of this kind, especially on an official building such as this. To see the original article click HERE