Friday, November 8, 2013

Jehovah Witnesses with Communist Caps

This photograph shows a group of Jehovah's Witnesses in their camp uniforms after liberation. These men were imprisoned in the Niederhagen bei Wewelsburg concentration camp, Germany, 1945.
Interestingly, they seem to be wearing berets, in the camp jargon these were called 'communist caps', but I haven't found out why (I imagine after Soviet POW's, but the Red Army wasn't really into wearing berets...). 
Some interesting details: the prisoners seem relatively healthy and well fed (immediately after their liberation) and (bottom left) one prisoner has his arm comradely around the shoulder of his guard. 
Again, I can only imagine. Maybe these prisoners received a slightly better treatment than other c.c. prisoners, working on Himmler's pet project, the Wewelsburg Castle

1 comment:

  1. Hmm...i find it interesting that the JW's transitioned from wearing the lovely, emblematic, and quite comfortable beret to simply wearing a suit and briefcase and annoying people on the weekends when they perform their door-to-door "teritorial drives" from Spring to late summer in North America.

    ReplyDelete