# WW2 hold outs in Germany... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-hold-outs-in-germany/319119 "2005-08-29T16:58:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-hold-outs-in-germany/319119/1 "2005-08-29T16:58:15Z")
I was reading an article somewhere about the Japanese soldiers in the philipines that stayed hidden for 20-30+ years after the end of WW2 because they did not know the war was over. I’ve heard these stories before, but started wondering if there were any similar cases of Russians or Germans who held out for months to years after the war officially ended not realizing it was over. I’ve never heard of anything. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-hold-outs-in-germany/319119/2 "2005-08-29T17:07:35Z")
It’s hard to see how that could have happened. Europe was and is a very densely populated part of the world, as opposed to remote island holdouts in the Pacific. No doubt there was the odd remote farm or valley here and there, where the news might have come a few days late, and the same might have been true of villages and towns on the Frisian Isles along the North Sea coast, but it couldn’t have lasted for months or years. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-hold-outs-in-germany/319119/3 "2005-08-29T17:16:37Z")
Weren’t there islands in the Arctic which had to wait some months for their surrender to be taken? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-hold-outs-in-germany/319119/4 "2005-08-29T17:53:24Z")
No cite, but my father was stationed in Germany in the early 50’s. He said that, yes, very occassionally a few German soldiers would come down out of the hills to surrender.