One of the strangest tales to come out of World War II concerns the story of two young men who were captured by the Americans in Germany near the end of the war.

The two were shipped to a POW camp in this country, but attempts to integrate them were to no avail. They would not or could not speak to American authorities. They kept to themselves and refused to talk to anyone, even their fellow German prisoners. In fact, the other German prisoners insisted that they knew nothing of the pair.

The American officers were puzzled. The two men seemed frightened and bewildered but not sullen or rebellious. After a few weeks in their new quarters they even seemed willing to cooperate, but when they finally did speak no one could understand a word they said. There was something else too. They did not look like Germans. Since their features were more Asiatic in appearance, an expert in Asiatic languages was called in. He soon solved the mystery. The two were Tibetans, and they were overjoyed that at last someone was able to understand them and to listen to their incredible, almost unbelievable, story.

It seems that in the summer of 1941 the two friends, lured by a desire to see something of the world outside their tiny village, crossed the northern frontier of Tibet and for weeks wandered happily in Soviet Russian territory. Abruptly they were picked up by Russian authorities, put on a train with hundreds of other young men, and shipped west.

Outside a large city, at an army camp, they were issued uniforms and rifles and given some rudimentary military training. After a few days they were loaded onto trucks with the other soldiers and shipped to the Russian front.

They were horrified at what they saw. Men were killing each other with artillery, rifles, even hand-to-hand fighting. Because they were good Buddhists, killing was against their moral principles. They started to flee to the rear, but in their flight they were overtaken by the Germans and made prisoners. Once again they were loaded onto a train and shipped, this time to Germany. After the Normandy invasion, as the American forces neared Germany, they were put into an auxiliary service in the German army. As the Americans continued to advance the two were given guns and told to fight with the Germans. Once again they tried to flee, but this time were captured by the Americans. When they had finished their story, the interpreter asked them if they had any questions. They had only one: "Why were all those people trying to kill each other?"