A German POW Escaped an American Camp After the War Was Over. Then He Hid for 40 Years

In September 1945, a German sergeant crawled under the wire of an American prisoner-of-war camp in New Mexico, climbed onto a freight car, and vanished. He did not run from America. He ran to stay in it. For four decades Georg Gaertner lived as Dennis Whiles, a ski instructor and tennis pro, until one phone call to a Texas historian ended his secret. Chapters 00:00 The Phone Call 01:43 Who Was Georg Gaertner 02:26 Afrika Korps and Tunisia 03:02 Across the Atlantic 03:40 What the Prisoners Expected 04:15 Camp Deming 04:32 Life Behind the Wire 05:31 Work for 80 Cents a Day 06:02 The Darker Side of the Camps 06:53 The Pictures 07:42 When Do We Go Home? 08:09 Why He Ran 09:32 Becoming Dennis Whiles 11:12 The Secret at Home 11:41 What the Record Says 13:02 Hitler's Last Soldier in America 13:23 Released the Same Day 15:17 Not a Simple Story SOURCES Arnold Krammer, Nazi Prisoners of War in America. Camps, food, work, and prisoner reactions. Arnold Krammer, Hitler's Last Soldier in America (1985). Gaertner's escape, life as Dennis Whiles, and surrender. Geneva Convention of 1929. Rules on housing, feeding and treatment of prisoners. Contemporary press reports of Gaertner's surrender (1985). Immigration and FBI statements. Sources & Archives U.S. National Archives Internet Archive Wikimedia Commons Periscope Film Archival Footage Archival footage: U.S. National Archives, Prelinger Archives, Die Deutsche Wochenschau; some scenes use illustrative footage of the period not the people named. How This Episode Was Made Original research and script by World War 2 Desk. Archival film, photographs, documents and other historical material from the U.S. National Archives, Prelinger Archives and other collections are re-edited to match the narration and combined with our own maps, document reconstructions and graphics. Some scenes use illustrative footage of the period to represent locations, events, equipment and environments described in the narration and are not necessarily footage of the specific people named. Sources are listed above.