A German child meets her father, a WW2 soldier, for the first time since she was 1 year old, 1956

A German World War II prisoner is released by the Soviet Union and reunited with his 12-year-old daughter, who has not seen him since childhood. The child has not seen her father since she was one year old.

The incident, where this famous photograph was taken, was part of an event known as "Die Heimkehr der Jahntosend" (The Return of the 10,000), as they were the last German prisoners of war to be released by the Soviet Union. . of World War II.

On a visit to Moscow in the fall of 1955, Konrad Adenauer secured the release of the last approximately 10,000 German POWs from Soviet prisons. In return, the Federal Republic agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

West German press reports emphasized how well the newly released men had survived their time in prison and how happy they were to reprise their roles as the family breadwinner.

The Soviet Union temporarily withheld the release of prisoners when it became clear that the Federal Republic was seeking to delay the exchange of ambassadors for as long as possible.

Most German prisoners of war returned home via the Grenzdurchgangslager Friedland, a transit camp for refugees, house-workers, soldiers and displaced persons, in September 1945 in the German federal state of Niedersachsen, then located on the East-German border. ,