With me keeping on trying to figure out ways and means – in the UK certainly, and I’d imagine in North America too, there was plenty of contact post-war, between POWs and the general citizenry: POWs were put to work in many capacities; and some folk, in a spirit of charity, voluntarily befriended POWs. Maybe there would be a chance for our guy to have a local contact of one kind or another, send / receive letters on his behalf?
In fact it was part program where Nazis were encouraged to have illegitimate children with “aryan” occupied populations. Its that program that the band Joy Division takes its name from.
I wonder if Abba and Joy Division ever crossed paths in the music business and Anni-Frid was like “Joy Division!? Really? Not fucking cool arseholes”
Not exactly what the OP is after but there is the story of Bert Traumann:
He is famous as the goalkeeper who broke his neck during an FA cup final and carried on playing, and basically part of English footballing folklore. He’s was actually a German Paratrooper who was taken to England as a POW, and opted to stay after the war. Not what the OP was looking for, though he did marry an English woman and have children, it wasn’t until after the war.
My bolding – one feels that this happening, would have the Brits saying things to the effect that “the Germans have the virtues of their faults” !
There were indeed many instances in the UK of German, and Italian, POWs striking up relationships with British girls; and post-war and post-release, the pair getting married and the POW husband staying in Britain. I was slightly acquainted with one such gentleman – chiefly, he was a friend of my late uncle, who was also of the generation “at the sharp end of” WWII, though things so worked out that my uncle never heard a shot fired in anger. Herbert, the ex-POW (also now deceased) was a very sweet guy – captured in the Battle of the Bulge. He and his wife were most happily married for 60-odd years.
Maybe they could also invite the American gay rock band Pansy Division to join the event. Should make it a real interesting meeting.
I don’t know that in yor original post the statement about the occupation of the Channel Islands being the least nasty- the occupation of Denmark was “reasonable”. And the British colloboration with the occupying forces on the Isles is a pretty murky area. Denmark of all occupied countries came out of the conflict with the least stigma regarding the Final Solution than anywhere else- then again the occupation was more benign.
This is not an answer to your question but there was a romance at Auschwitz between a Jewish lady and an SS soldier. This was totally forbidden- for a start the SS were told the Jews were sub human and it could mean an extreme penalty. However there was no marriage etc however she did testify for him in his trial after the war.
This was fairly common despite the penalties, though the typical outcome was the Nazi executed the woman they had the relationship with as doing that (unlike the relationship itself) carried no penalties. There are numerous examples (in the allied recordings of German POWs) of German soldiers talking among themselves about this happening.
A question of which of adjoining circles of Hell were better or worse…? In the C.I., small islands with no “outback” to hide out in, and an enormous German garrison: violent resistance of any kind, inviting reprisals, was out of the question (and for obvious reasons, there was no British bombing); also, re C.I and Denmark equally – in the deranged Nazi scheme of things – if you couldn’t be German: Scandinavian, or British (even as in the Channel Islands, mongrel Brit / French) were pretty high runners-up on the racial scale.
Without belittling the Danish people’s heroism in saving their Jews – it was providential to have next door, to which to transfer them, neutral and acquiescent Sweden.
I gather that the Channel Islands’ civilian authorities handed over to the Germans on demand, the islands’ very few Jewish inhabitants – one would figure, a painful decision to “sacrifice the few for the sake of the many” – easy to censure, when one isn’t, oneself, in that fix. I have a WWII Channel Islands occupation connection-by-marriage, of a sort – not German / local lass, but Brit (uncle of mine) / local lass. My aunt-by-marriage’s father was a high official in the government of Guernsey during the occupation: he was, post-war, offered by the British government, honours for his role then, “doing the best for his people”; he was a highly-principled guy, and agonised over whether he ought to accept – wondering whether he should have been less “collaborative”. It must have been a horrible tightrope to have to walk.