FORMER prisoner of war Willie Benoit will return to a camp where he was held captive to switch on the Christmas lights tomorrow.
Captured three days before the end of the Second World War in 1945, Mr Benoit was incarcerated for the next three years and never returned to his native Germany.
From Harperley Camp, near Crook, County Durham, he was sent out to work on the land where we met and married a farmer's daughter.
Now a widower, he lives in West Auckland and is a regular visitor to Harperley, where he will perform the switch-on ceremony at noon.
The event will also mark the start of German Christmas Markets, which will be open at the camp on Thursdays and Fridays, from 4pm to 6pm, and Saturdays and Sundays, from 2pm to 5pm
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