One of the odd little byways of the war:

Father Godfrey Diekmann, son of German immigrants to Minn., and the Benedictine
monk who was instrumental in having the Catholic mass spoken in the local
language rather than Latin, and was an advocate of other reforms in the Church,
including allowing priests to marry, had a cousin in the POW camp at Douglas,
Wyo., Geoffrey Diekmann, a bomber crewman shot down during the Italian
campaign. He stayed in the US after the war, for a number of years managing
the Safeway in Douglas. As a kid he had read many of Karl May's books and was
fascinated with the old west. So he was actually quite pleased to find himself
interned there. Without the war, it's unlikely he would ever have emigrated.
But as a result of his personal fortunes of war, he spent most of his life in
the "wild west," an avid antelope hunter, hiker, horseman, animal rights
activist and conservationist, with a passionate interest in all things Indian,
even marrying a Crow woman he met on a trip to the Custer battlefield. He
seemed quite a happy man, reluctant to talk about his wartime experiences
without a little lubricating peach schnapps....and not at all interested in
religion.


Chris Mark