WWII Nazi Becomes Beloved Star | Tales From the Bottle

i don't have a good intro for today's video it's about a nazi who became a beloved football star in england after the war normally i tried to employ the use of metaphor or analogy to introduce a topic but honestly this story is so unusual that you're just not going to have any paralleling emotional or personal experiences that i can provoke you don't have anything in your library of memories that resembles a world war ii nazi joining an english football club straight out of a prisoner of war camp unless you already know the person i'm talking about the best i can do to entice you is to say it's an interesting story bernhard troutman was born in bremen germany in 1923. coming from a working class area troutman grew up poorly educated but intensely physically active with a love of sport playing with the local football clubs another less pleasant organization he joined at the age of 10 was the hitler youth specifically the junior section the young volk it was a bit like the boy scouts except the focus on eugenics was significantly emphasized he carried both his love of sport and his love of swastikas with him throughout his youth by the age of 17 he was a recognized athlete of unsurpassed ability and a devoted hitler-loving nazi now it's important to note that not everyone in germany during that time was a nazi not even all the german soldiers were nazis they were largely ordinary decent people their country was at war so they fought for the country many did not support or agree with adolf hitler bernhard troutman was not one of these people bernhard troutman was a committed nazi and it's not hard to see why he was a tall muscular athletic blonde guy with blue eyes he was like the perfect model of the aryan master race that hitler preached about of course it was going to be easy for him to buy into this belief system he was the [ __ ] protagonist of it he was indoctrinated from a very young age to believe that he was one of the chosen ones as soon as he turned 17 troutman enlisted to fight for germany during the second world war and became a paratrooper he was assigned to operation barbarossa germany's invasion of russia troutman made for a good soldier he was physically fit mentally aggressive and could kill without remorse after all the nazi ideology had taught him to view germany's enemies as sub-human this did not go unrecognized and he was awarded the iron cross for bravery in battle however as we all know the good times for germany wouldn't last in russia as winter set in and the soviets dug in casualties soared and morale plummeted the germans terrorized the russian countryside and committed awful atrocities troutman witnessed and even partook in these acts but the reality was starting to sink in for him he stated you didn't think of the enemy as people at first then when you began taking prisoners you heard them cry for their mother and father when you met the enemy he became a real person the longer the war went on you started having doubts but hitler's was a dictorial regime and you couldn't say what you wanted the german army you got your orders and you followed them if you didn't you were shot troutman's unit was withdrawn from the eastern front with only a third of the men surviving troutman was then rotated to the western front to defend against the allied d-day invasions it was here he realized the war was lost after an allied bombing left him buried in rubble for three days and killed most of his comrades troutman decided to head home knowing the punishment for desertion was death he stayed away from german troops but was caught by two american soldiers in france troutman escaped the soldiers leaping a wall that landed him at the feet of a british soldier who greeted him by saying allow fritz fancy a cup of thai classic in the pow camp in britain german soldiers were classified by their devotion to nazi ideology now 22 berner troutman was one of the few who was categorized as an unrepentant nazi during his time here he was subjected to re-education made work with jewish officers and shown film of the scenes inside the recently captured concentration camps soon after troutman was reclassified as a non-nazi he took up football in the camps playing center half he was injured during a game but refused to go off so they stuck him in the goals and that just sort of became his position in accordance with the geneva convention when the war was over troutman was offered repatriation to germany but by now his old life was over he was no longer a nazi the belief system he had spent his life with wasn't one he was comfortable with anymore he didn't even keep any of his things from the war not even his iron cross it was time for a fresh start and a new bernhard troutman he settled down in england bernard began playing for the local football clubs it wouldn't be my first choice but it's probably better than war his skill as a goalie got him recognized by manchester city who offered to sign him manchester city ah [ __ ] i think i would choose war this caused considerable controversy 20 000 fans protested outside the stadium his early tenure with the club was a constant barrage of jeers death threats and boycotts and it's kind of understandable this was 1949 only four years after the end of the war almost every one of these people had lost loved ones to the germans they didn't want to support a team that employed one of them even the team's captain at that time eric westwood was a war hero who partook in the d-day landings when he met troutman he said there's no war in this dressing room we welcome you as any other member of the staff just make yourself at home and good luck trachman was also helped by the fact that a communal rabbi of manchester alexander altman whose parents had been killed by the nazis urged fans to give the man a chance and judge him by his own merits he should not be held accountable for the crimes of his country i have to say this is an awful lot of acceptance for a man who used to be a devoted nazi i mean don't get me wrong it's heartwarming it's just i'm wondering where all this energy is in my life why don't people give me a chance i'm not even a nazi i'm just [ __ ] ugly troutman's reputation with the fans started to shift and he proved himself a competent goalie as he demonstrated his skill on the pitch he turned from vilified to beloved and fans endearingly referred to him as bert as bernhard was a little unusual for them the english really aren't hard to win over if you can kick a ball around it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done they'll adore you perhaps his most famous feat of footballing was in the 1956 fa cup final diving at a birmingham city player's feet to make a save bert sustained an awful neck injury he refused to go off seems to be kind of a theme in his decision making and made two crucial saves as manchester city one three one it was later discovered that his neck was broken and he had finished the game with vertebrate fragments threatening to dislodge and paralyze or kill him burt was even appointed an honorary obe that is an officer of the most excellent order of the british empire for his work in anglo-german relations and that just goes to show how well liked he had become remember he was a former nazi being appointed an obe was a big deal bernhard troutman spent his later years as a coach for international teams but he always considered england his true home saying my education only began the day i arrived in england the british made me what i am when i visit germany they say to me be honest your english through and through and i'm mighty proud to consider myself i come back four or five times a year and i always think great i'm home bernhard troutman died of a heart attack in 2013 leaving behind a legendary career as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his era although perhaps more interesting than his career was his journey there and his transition as a human being some will never forgive him some already have in the space of time it took to tell a story was he deserving of his redemption i suppose that's up to you me i'll just make the videos and ask you to like and subscribe and buy the t-shirts and follow me on twitter [Music] you

Channel: Qxir

Views: 527,280

Keywords: bernhard trautmann, bert trautmann, manchester city, world war ii, wehrmacht, paratrooper, football, 1956 fa cup, breaks neck, player, goalkeeper, goalie, funny, explained, irish, drawn, animation, qxir

Id: 2OW1w_zOKvA

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/NomadCRAYOLA]

based

[u/Andromeda306]

Pog new video

[u/Solid_V]

Really liking your comedic timing with the illustrations. I feel like it's getting better!