Locals to debate Nazi’s legacy

RESIDENTS of a village are to be asked to decide how a £384,000 windfall left by a former Nazi soldier should be spent.

Heinrich Steinmeyer was held at the Cultybraggan prisoner of war camp, near Comrie, Perthshire, during the Second World War.

Between 1944 and 1947, the camp housed around 4,000 German pows.

Mr Steinmeyer was 19 when he was captured in France and was eventually held in the camp. While there he was struck by the kindness shown to him and after the war he returned to Comrie and made lasting friendships with local people.

He repaid their kindness by leaving nearly £400,000 to the community in his will after he died in 2013, aged 90.

In line with the wishes of the former Waffen SS soldier, the money will be used to benefit local elderly people.

Details of proposed legacy-funded developments will be discussed at a public meeting next week. An interim committee has finalised 20 potential projects.

Murray Lauchlan, committee chairman, said: ‘The Steinmeyer legacy provides a great opportunity to improve the lives of Comrie older people in a variety of ways.’

Mr Steinmeyer grew up in Silesia, now part of Poland, came from a poor family and was working as an apprentice butcher before joining the SS aged 17. He was captured during the battle for Caen in Normandy in 1944 and classified as a category ‘C’ prisoner – or hardline Nazi – when he was sent to Perthshire.

Before his death, he said: ‘The place was so beautiful. It went straight to my heart and I thought, “Why have I been fighting this bloody war?”

‘I was young and had been brought up in Hitler’s system. When I was brought to Scotland, I realised the Scots were no different from us. We should never have been fighting each other.’

Cultybraggan was dubbed ‘the Black Camp of the North’ because it was home to captured Nazi officers from the SS, Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Marine Corps.