Daily Times

LONDON: Showing appreciation for the kindness he received during his imprisonment, a former Nazi prisoner of war – in his will – left his entire estate to a small village in Scotland.

Heinrich Steinmeyer – a Waffen SS soldier during World War II – was captured in France and held in the Cultybraggan camp, near Comrie in the Scottish highlands, where the 19-year-old received an unexpectedly warm welcome. The kindness began when local children reportedly befriended him through the fence and helped him escape the camp momentarily to watch a film at a nearby cinema.

“Throughout his time in prision, Heinrich Steinmeyer was awestruck by the Scottish people’s kindness, which he did not expect,” said Andrew Reid of the Comrie Development Trust, which will administer the legacy fund worth $489,000. The former German soldier stayed on to work in the Perthshire village for a time after the war and later returned to visit, making lasting friendships, said Reid.

“He promised to leave everything he owned for the benefit of the elders of the place he wanted to thank,” Reid added. Steinmeyer died at the age of 90 in 2013, a fortnight after the death of George Carson, a close comrade he had made in the village.