70 years after its citizens showed kindness to a young Nazi prisoner of war, the village of Cultybraggan is working out how to spend a generous legacy
A Perthshire village is enjoying a windfall 70 years after it showed kindness to a Nazi soldier in a prisoner of war camp.
The people of Cultybraggan near Comrie are now £400,000 richer thanks to a legacy from Heinrich Steinmeyer, who was captured in France during the Second World War when he was just 19 years old.
He spent the rest of the war in the Cultybraggan prisoner of war camp, which housed 4,000 German prisoners of war between 1944 and 1947.
Having been trained in the Hitler youth, the Polish soldier was surprised and struck by the kindness shown by local people during his years of imprisonment.
After the war he regularly returned to Comrie and developed strong friendships there.
Speaking years later, he said: “The whole 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. I was part of the Hitler Youth, we were all young boys in our Panzer division.
“When I was brought to Scotland, I realised the Scots were no different from us. We should never have been fighting each other.”
Now, the village is reaping the rewards for its kindness after Steinmeyer, who died in 2013 aged 90, left £400,000 to the community in his will. Steinmeyer requested the money be used to benefit local elderly people.
A public meeting in the village hall is to be held next week to discuss the legacy. Local people will be asked to stand for election to a committee to manage the fund and to contribute ideas on how to use the funds.
So far, 300 people have returned surveys with improving support and care, mobility and transport, creating social places and environment and leisure activities all rating highly.
An interim committee will be delivering papers for a community vote on 20 proposals for funding in the coming weeks.
Murray Lauchlan, interim committee chair, said: “The Steinmeyer legacy provides a great opportunity to improve the lives of Comrie older people in a variety of ways.
“People in Comrie are about to be asked to make choices about what improvements the bequest should fund.”
