How do German citizens treat their WW2 veterans?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - How do German citizens treat their WW2 veterans? (Page 1 of 4)

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:02:01 AM EDT

I was watching the Auschwitz documentary (recommended in another thread) in which they interviewed an apparently unrepentant former SS soldier. He appeared to believe that what he did during the war was the right thing to do. I have to believe that lots of former German veterans feel this way––they fought, and almost won, a major world war.

In the US, we know that WW2 veterans are highly respected-even called the Greatest Generation. We have movies, documentaries, parades, holidays, etc. all honoring their achievements in the war. I would presume that most if not all of the other countries in Europe and elsewhere that helped win the war have similar traditions.

My question is, how does the average German today view their veterans who fought in WW2?

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:02:56 AM EDT

[#1]

Prolly too busy pooping on each other and listening to David Hasselhoff to care.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:04:29 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
Prolly too busy pooping on each other and listening to David Hasselhoff to care.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:05:18 AM EDT

[#3]

All the old timer Germans I ever talked to in the 2 years I lived over there, claimed to have fought the Russians. None a single one would ever admit fighting Americans.

Aviator

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:05:46 AM EDT

[#4]

Interesting question.

In the case of the SS officer I'd have hoped they would do the world a favor and lynched him, other than that conscripts I mean they were forced into the army but the actions of the SS are unforgivable.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:06:54 AM EDT

[#5]

I bet it is a case of they support and are proud of the soldiers but would stab the leadership in the eye with an unsharpened pencil if they could.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:07:35 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:

Interesting question.

In the case of the SS officer I'd have hoped they would do the world a favor and lynched him, other than that conscripts I mean they were forced into the army but the actions of the SS are unforgivable.

Depends on what SS we're talking about. The Waffen SS was just basically Germany's version of the Foreign Legion, and their only job was to fight battles like the rest of the German army, they didn't do any of the rounding up and executing of jews that the other factions of SS did.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:08:05 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Prolly too busy pooping on each other and listening to David Hasselhoff to care.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:09:11 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Interesting question.

In the case of the SS officer I'd have hoped they would do the world a favor and lynched him, other than that conscripts I mean they were forced into the army but the actions of the SS are unforgivable.

Lame. Do yourself a favor and actually learn some history.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:11:24 AM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Interesting question.

In the case of the SS officer I'd have hoped they would do the world a favor and lynched him, other than that conscripts I mean they were forced into the army but the actions of the SS are unforgivable.

Depends on what SS we're talking about. The Waffen SS was just basically Germany's version of the Foreign Legion, and their only job was to fight battles like the rest of the German army, they didn't do any of the rounding up and executing of jews that the other factions of SS did.

I was going to go back and edit to differentiate rank and file soldiers from the rest of the SS.

But then I thought evil is evil, and when you have the SS, einzgruppen (and friends) and the death camps all on one side you may have use a weighted average

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:12:53 AM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Prolly too busy pooping on each other and listening to David Hasselhoff to care.

Now that is funny.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:39:53 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Prolly too busy pooping on each other and listening to David Hasselhoff to care.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:44:26 AM EDT

[#12]

From my brief experiences in the country there appears to be a bit of shame involved.

I didn't hear much talk of the war.

It is VERY clear the rest of the countries in the area haven't forgotten, though.

I didn't meet ONE person in the area (outside Germany) who looks kindly upon Germans.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:44:52 AM EDT

[#13]

A few years back, I saw on a TV documentary a couple of younger Germans shitting all OVER a guy that had been a guard in one of the camps.

They were BRUTAL.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:47:35 AM EDT

[#14]

I immagine a great deal of it has to do with what branch of service they were in. Luftwaffe, Kreigsmarine, SS, Wehrmact, ect ect

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:48:16 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:

A few years back, I saw on a TV documentary a couple of younger Germans shitting all OVER a guy that had been a guard in one of the camps.

They were BRUTAL.

Literally shitting?

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:48:43 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
A few years back, I saw on a TV documentary a couple of younger Germans shitting all OVER a guy that had been a guard in one of the camps.

They were BRUTAL.

Literally shitting on him? Brutal.

It's not like he doesn't deserve it and much much worse.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:49:57 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
I immagine a great deal of it has to do with what branch of service they were in. Luftwaffe, Kreigsmarine, SS, Wehrmact, ect ect

Absolutely.

Soldiers, sailors and airmen were fighting the war of their nation as all militaries have done since time began and will always do.

But the select special groups are where the evil lies

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:53:08 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I immagine a great deal of it has to do with what branch of service they were in. Luftwaffe, Kreigsmarine, SS, Wehrmact, ect ect

Absolutely.

Soldiers, sailors and airmen were fighting the war of their nation as all militaries have done since time began and will always do.

But the select special groups are where the evil lies

+1
Pretty much. I have no ill contempt for the men of most branches, but once you get into the SS, the SA, Gestapo ect, my give a shit meter goes down considerably. Even then, there were men in the SS, simply conscripted and really didnt take part in the attrocities the others did. Did they know about it, most likely. Did they try and stop it, I have no idea.

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:54:11 AM EDT

[#19]

I have two great uncles that were on the German side of that war. They were Wehrmacht, one was on the eastern front, the other was on the western.

Just because someone fought for Germany does not mean they were a Nazi. In fact, and unless I'm mistaken, soldiers were not allowed to join a political party. I just looked this up, which confirms what I've presented. link

Posted: 11/1/2009 11:55:13 AM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
I have two great uncles that were on the German side of that war. They were Wehrmacht, one was on the eastern front, the other was on the western.

Just because someone fought for Germany does not mean they were a Nazi. In fact, and unless I'm mistaken, soldiers were not allowed to join a political party. I just looked this up, which confirms what I've presented. link

Did either of them survive?

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:02:24 PM EDT

[#21]

Most towns I was in over there had a smallish monument, listing all of the war dead from that town. Most of the time, it listed WW1 dead on one side, and WW2 dead on the other.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:04:49 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I have two great uncles that were on the German side of that war. They were Wehrmacht, one was on the eastern front, the other was on the western.

Just because someone fought for Germany does not mean they were a Nazi. In fact, and unless I'm mistaken, soldiers were not allowed to join a political party. I just looked this up, which confirms what I've presented. link

Did either of them survive?

Both did. The one on the Western front was captured by Americans, who took his weapon and told him to walk home, which took him a few days. The other was captured by Russians, who kept him as a POW for some time, and then released him.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:05:19 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
I bet it is a case of they support and are proud of the soldiers but would stab the leadership in the eye with an unsharpened pencil if they could.

Correct-answer

The Honda m/c dealer I worked at had a contract with a travel agent in Germany that would fly customers over to pick up new US Gold Wing's to ride around on 'holiday'.

A group was here on the 50th anniversery of WWII ending, and were concerned they might not be welcome by some older US veterans. We told them not to worry, too much time has passed to have any serious bad feelings towards them. When they returned after their road trip, they were very surprised how well they were treated by the vet's they met. The old guy's were more interested in what the German's fathers did during the war and swapping stories.

I did ask them what most young Germans thought about the war, and everyone of them said they were proud of their soldiers service, but that Hitler and his henchmen were a bunch of assholes.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:08:06 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I have two great uncles that were on the German side of that war. They were Wehrmacht, one was on the eastern front, the other was on the western.

Just because someone fought for Germany does not mean they were a Nazi. In fact, and unless I'm mistaken, soldiers were not allowed to join a political party. I just looked this up, which confirms what I've presented. link

Did either of them survive?

Both did. The one on the Western front was captured by Americans, who took his weapon and told him to walk home, which took him a few days. The other was captured by Russians, who kept him as a POW for some time, and then released him.

Always a nice ending, glad the one on the Eastern front made it out ok, from what I understand, the return rate for the Germans captured there was really really low

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:08:26 PM EDT

[#25]

My dad, uncle, and grandfather are German WW2 veterans.

There is a very simple answer: Germans generally don't talk about it. Remember that they lost the war, and that automatically makes it a taboo subject, much how many Americans felt after Vietnam - but much worse of course.

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Posted: 11/1/2009 12:08:48 PM EDT

[#26]

Some of you guys really need to brush up on your history.

Allegemeine SS and Einzatgruppen were only a very small minority, maybe less than 1% of all Germans who fought in WWII.

The average German soldier, sailor, or airman in WWII was very much the same as his opposite number in the US or British military. Just a scared kid trying to make it home in one piece.

You can thank the average German soldier that the WHOLE of Europe did not fall to Red Army.

My Grandfather was in the Royal Navy during WWII, and he was captured during the fall of Crete, he spent the rest of the war as a POW. One day they gathered the men and told them they were going to help build a railway or road. My grandfather and a friend of his refused to help build it as they both had brothers fighting in the war, and this would be helping the German war effort. An SS officer came over and put them both on their knees, and shot my grandfather's friend in the head, then put a pistol to my grandfather's head. At that point a German officer came over enraged and stopped him citing the Geneva Convention, and saved my grandfather's life. My grandfather never had a problem with the Germans as he told me "they were just doing their job like me." Naturally he hated the SS.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:09:27 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
I bet it is a case of they support and are proud of the soldiers but would stab the leadership in the eye with an unsharpened pencil if they could.

+1

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:10:30 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
All the old timer Germans I ever talked to in the 2 years I lived over there, claimed to have fought the Russians. None a single one would ever admit fighting Americans.

Aviator

Do you blame them... Who wants to talk about fighting against the army of the most free country in the world...

My Great Grandfather actually did fight the Soviets but it didn't work out very well for him...

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:12:27 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
Prolly too busy pooping on each other and listening to David Hasselhoff to care.

I really like thier dungeon porn, but that scat shit and thier fixation with Hasselhoff kinda creeps me out.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:17:02 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Prolly too busy pooping on each other and listening to David Hasselhoff to care.

On no you didn't say that! HAHAHAHAHA

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:25:42 PM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
Interesting question.

In the case of the SS officer I'd have hoped they would do the world a favor and lynched him, other than that conscripts I mean they were forced into the army but the actions of the SS are unforgivable.

This is how we approached prisoners after the war. Regular army guys were treated as regular army guys, and unless an individual was specifically accused of a war crime, we treated them well. Hitler Youth were seen as misguided, brainwashed, constripted, or some combination thereof and treated well; "oh, those poor kids, they didn't really know what they were doing, they thought they were just fighting to protect their homes." Ditto for civilian partisans who'd joined the Werwolf resistance groups.

SS were treated like baby-raping serial killers from day one.

The Soviets, on the other hand, basically exterminated whoever they wanted, took the surviving military members and Hitler Youth and shipped them off for slave labor in Russia (thousands never came home, and thousands more never returned until the late 50's or even early 60's), and civilians were robbed, raped, and murdered as the troops saw fit.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:28:15 PM EDT

[#32]

I hope they treat them as well as we treat ours because they deserve it !!!!!

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:40:07 PM EDT

[#33]

All of my German family immigrated before either World War, but we still have distant cousins over there. No idea what any of them did in the war.

I had a great-great-uncle named Adolf who served in the US Navy in the Pacific. I bet he took a lot of shit from his buddies.

Japanese submarines sank three ships under him, but his fourth ship saw him through to the end of the war. He hated the Japanese and developed a phobia about lighting more than one cigarette off of a match; all three ships got sank at night, and he blamed it on people lighting multiple cigarettes off of a match (leaving a visible light burning for several seconds that a Japanese submarine could see from a distance at night.). I have no idea how accurate his irrational fear was as far as the blame for his ships getting hit, but until the day he died, if you lit a cigarette around him you used your own match, took as little time as possible, and hid the flame with your hands or he freaked out.

Meanwhile, my grandfather was dating a Japanese girl and spent his part of the war in Germany as part of the 1945 occupation force (he arrived right after the surrender) and spent most of his time there either hunting deer with his M1 Carbine (with locals as guides) or preventing some French soldiers from abusing German POW's. He said the Frenchies liked to beat them and starve them, which he thought wasn't right because 1) the Germans had treated them far better than they were treating the Germans, and 2) half the French had been fighting FOR the Germans.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:42:23 PM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:

Quoted:
A few years back, I saw on a TV documentary a couple of younger Germans shitting all OVER a guy that had been a guard in one of the camps.

They were BRUTAL.

Literally shitting on him? Brutal.

It's not like he doesn't deserve it and much much worse.

He likely signed up not knowing what to expect, I doubt he thought, "Oh boy, I get to see Jews executed.".

My greatgrandfather was a member of the Waffen-SS, he had no Idea about the gravity of the Holocaust until the end of the war, he thought the camps were nothing more than internment camps, and he thought most of the Jews left...

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:42:55 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I bet it is a case of they support and are proud of the soldiers but would stab the leadership in the eye with an unsharpened pencil if they could.

Correct-answer

The Honda m/c dealer I worked at had a contract with a travel agent in Germany that would fly customers over to pick up new US Gold Wing's to ride around on 'holiday'.

A group was here on the 50th anniversery of WWII ending, and were concerned they might not be welcome by some older US veterans. We told them not to worry, too much time has passed to have any serious bad feelings towards them. When they returned after their road trip, they were very surprised how well they were treated by the vet's they met. The old guy's were more interested in what the German's fathers did during the war and swapping stories.

I did ask them what most young Germans thought about the war, and everyone of them said they were proud of their soldiers service, but that Hitler and his henchmen were a bunch of assholes.

Most WWII veterans I know feel either indifferent toward the Germans or respect them; absolute hatred is reserved exclusively for Hitler and his cronies, like the Gestapo. I've seen a lot more outright hatred of the Japanese by WWII veterans (even ones who never fought them) than the Germans.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:45:53 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
All of my German family immigrated before either World War, but we still have distant cousins over there. No idea what any of them did in the war.

I had a great-great-uncle named Adolf who served in the US Navy in the Pacific. I bet he took a lot of shit from his buddies.

Japanese submarines sank three ships under him, but his fourth ship saw him through to the end of the war. He hated the Japanese and developed a phobia about lighting more than one cigarette off of a match; all three ships got sank at night, and he blamed it on people lighting multiple cigarettes off of a match (leaving a visible light burning for several seconds that a Japanese submarine could see from a distance at night.). I have no idea how accurate his irrational fear was as far as the blame for his ships getting hit, but until the day he died, if you lit a cigarette around him you used your own match, took as little time as possible, and hid the flame with your hands or he freaked out.

Meanwhile, my grandfather was dating a Japanese girl and spent his part of the war in Germany as part of the 1945 occupation force (he arrived right after the surrender) and spent most of his time there either hunting deer with his M1 Carbine (with locals as guides) or preventing some French soldiers from abusing German POW's. He said the Frenchies liked to beat them and starve them, which he thought wasn't right because 1) the Germans had treated them far better than they were treating the Germans, and 2) half the French had been fighting FOR the Germans.

Well whatta ya know, I had a great-grandfather named Adolph, and he was Bavarian

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:51:33 PM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I bet it is a case of they support and are proud of the soldiers but would stab the leadership in the eye with an unsharpened pencil if they could.

Correct-answer

The Honda m/c dealer I worked at had a contract with a travel agent in Germany that would fly customers over to pick up new US Gold Wing's to ride around on 'holiday'.

A group was here on the 50th anniversery of WWII ending, and were concerned they might not be welcome by some older US veterans. We told them not to worry, too much time has passed to have any serious bad feelings towards them. When they returned after their road trip, they were very surprised how well they were treated by the vet's they met. The old guy's were more interested in what the German's fathers did during the war and swapping stories.

I did ask them what most young Germans thought about the war, and everyone of them said they were proud of their soldiers service, but that Hitler and his henchmen were a bunch of assholes.

Most WWII veterans I know feel either indifferent toward the Germans or respect them; absolute hatred is reserved exclusively for Hitler and his cronies, like the Gestapo. I've seen a lot more outright hatred of the Japanese by WWII veterans (even ones who never fought them) than the Germans.

This. My Grandfather had alot of hate for the Japanese, he was on Boganville and in the Phillippines as an Infantrymen.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:54:14 PM EDT

[#38]

I used to do WWII re-enactments. One event was at the dedication of a POW museum in Aliceville Alabama. There were about a dozen former POW's (Afrika Korps) that came to the dedication. During the war they were accepted by the community. Cut grass, cleaned gutters etc. The residents would bring the lemonade.

They were very interesting to talk to. They were proud of their service under Rommel but ashamed of the government.

Posted: 11/1/2009 12:55:51 PM EDT

[#39]

I'm comfortable with those SS guys feeling they were in the right.
I'm also comfortable with the Israelis hunting their piece-of-shit asses down and killing them.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:03:34 PM EDT

[#40]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Interesting question.

In the case of the SS officer I'd have hoped they would do the world a favor and lynched him, other than that conscripts I mean they were forced into the army but the actions of the SS are unforgivable.

Lame. Do yourself a favor and actually learn some history.

+1

All to easy to fall for the smooth talking, charismatic LEADER to come in during a time of crisis, promising equality, hope and change.

Think about it. If you give it serious thought you should be afraid.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:03:42 PM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:
I'm comfortable with those SS guys feeling they were in the right.
I'm also comfortable with the Israelis hunting their piece-of-shit asses down and killing them.

Yeah, Inglorious Basterds was pretty cool.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:06:40 PM EDT

[#42]

Quoted:

Quoted:
All of my German family immigrated before either World War, but we still have distant cousins over there. No idea what any of them did in the war.

I had a great-great-uncle named Adolf who served in the US Navy in the Pacific. I bet he took a lot of shit from his buddies.

Japanese submarines sank three ships under him, but his fourth ship saw him through to the end of the war. He hated the Japanese and developed a phobia about lighting more than one cigarette off of a match; all three ships got sank at night, and he blamed it on people lighting multiple cigarettes off of a match (leaving a visible light burning for several seconds that a Japanese submarine could see from a distance at night.). I have no idea how accurate his irrational fear was as far as the blame for his ships getting hit, but until the day he died, if you lit a cigarette around him you used your own match, took as little time as possible, and hid the flame with your hands or he freaked out.

Meanwhile, my grandfather was dating a Japanese girl and spent his part of the war in Germany as part of the 1945 occupation force (he arrived right after the surrender) and spent most of his time there either hunting deer with his M1 Carbine (with locals as guides) or preventing some French soldiers from abusing German POW's. He said the Frenchies liked to beat them and starve them, which he thought wasn't right because 1) the Germans had treated them far better than they were treating the Germans, and 2) half the French had been fighting FOR the Germans.

Well whatta ya know, I had a great-grandfather named Adolph, and he was Bavarian

The infamous Adolf was Austrian.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:09:25 PM EDT

[#43]

I know the German people are very proud of the type portrayed in the movie Valkerie, the ones who tried to stop Hitler. A lot of Germans, especially younger ones seem to have a real self loathing.

Funny how the German soldiers are looked down on while the Soviets and Japanese get a free pass. The atrocities performed by those two countries are nearly equal to the Nazi's. Especially how the Japanese treated us compared to the Germans. The Japanese cannibalised some of our downed airmen, performed medical experiments on our troops and the Chinese, raped women and children in China and the Philipines, fed drug laced candy to children, the Bataan Death March, burned our pow's alive, and have never been made to live up to this like the German people.

The Red Army raped 10's of thousands to as many as 2 million German women and children with some being as young as 8 years old, They then murdered over 270,000 German civilians that had surrendered. Over 320,000 Polish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army in 1939 were murdered. Many thousands of women were raped in occupied countries by the Soviets including Hungary and Poland. And the Soviets are seen as heroes.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:11:25 PM EDT

[#44]

Quoted:
Some of you guys really need to brush up on your history.

Allegemeine SS and Einzatgruppen were only a very small minority, maybe less than 1% of all Germans who fought in WWII.

The average German soldier, sailor, or airman in WWII was very much the same as his opposite number in the US or British military. Just a scared kid trying to make it home in one piece.

You can thank the average German soldier that the WHOLE of Europe did not fall to Red Army.

My Grandfather was in the Royal Navy during WWII, and he was captured during the fall of Crete, he spent the rest of the war as a POW. One day they gathered the men and told them they were going to help build a railway or road. My grandfather and a friend of his refused to help build it as they both had brothers fighting in the war, and this would be helping the German war effort. An SS officer came over and put them both on their knees, and shot my grandfather's friend in the head, then put a pistol to my grandfather's head. At that point a German officer came over enraged and stopped him citing the Geneva Convention, and saved my grandfather's life. My grandfather never had a problem with the Germans as he told me "they were just doing their job like me." Naturally he hated the SS.

I agree with you. I hate the Nazi's but most were simple soldiers.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:13:24 PM EDT

[#45]

Allegemeine SS and Einzatgruppen, no love for them..............evil to the core, but Waffen SS werent the same.......because they carry the SS moniker, they get lumped into the same group.

Waffen SS like SS-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittman were a different kind of soldier, and not the killers that manned concentration camps

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:13:29 PM EDT

[#46]

Quoted:
All the old timer Germans I ever talked to in the 2 years I lived over there, claimed to have fought the Russians. None a single one would ever admit fighting Americans.

Aviator

I was in a convoy in Germany and we pulled off into a rest area for a bit. A German guy comes up to us talking about his role in WWII and says "I kill many Americans in the war" - with a huge smile on his face, as if we were going to congratulate him. My guys wanted to kick his ass. I took his arm and walked him away from the convoy and told him that he needed to go away or he was going to get hurt.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:13:51 PM EDT

[#47]

Quoted:
All the old timer Germans I ever talked to in the 2 years I lived over there, claimed to have fought the Russians. None a single one would ever admit fighting Americans.

Aviator

Well, the bulk of the fighting for them was on the Eastern front.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:15:34 PM EDT

[#48]

Quoted:
Allegemeine SS and Einzatgruppen, no love for them..............evil to the core, but Waffen SS werent the same.......because they carry the SS moniker, they get lumped into the same group.

Waffen SS like SS-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittman were a different kind of soldier, and not the killers that manned concentration camps

Talk about a man who grasped armored warfare, superb tank commander by any standards.

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:16:47 PM EDT

[#49]

Quoted:

Quoted:
All of my German family immigrated before either World War, but we still have distant cousins over there. No idea what any of them did in the war.

I had a great-great-uncle named Adolf who served in the US Navy in the Pacific. I bet he took a lot of shit from his buddies.

Japanese submarines sank three ships under him, but his fourth ship saw him through to the end of the war. He hated the Japanese and developed a phobia about lighting more than one cigarette off of a match; all three ships got sank at night, and he blamed it on people lighting multiple cigarettes off of a match (leaving a visible light burning for several seconds that a Japanese submarine could see from a distance at night.). I have no idea how accurate his irrational fear was as far as the blame for his ships getting hit, but until the day he died, if you lit a cigarette around him you used your own match, took as little time as possible, and hid the flame with your hands or he freaked out.

Meanwhile, my grandfather was dating a Japanese girl and spent his part of the war in Germany as part of the 1945 occupation force (he arrived right after the surrender) and spent most of his time there either hunting deer with his M1 Carbine (with locals as guides) or preventing some French soldiers from abusing German POW's. He said the Frenchies liked to beat them and starve them, which he thought wasn't right because 1) the Germans had treated them far better than they were treating the Germans, and 2) half the French had been fighting FOR the Germans.

Well whatta ya know, I had a great-grandfather named Adolph, and he was Bavarian

The infamous Adolf was Austrian.

Yah, but not a good name or a good place to be from for an American fighting during WWII

Posted: 11/1/2009 1:17:13 PM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:
All the old timer Germans I ever talked to in the 2 years I lived over there, claimed to have fought the Russians. None a single one would ever admit fighting Americans.

Aviator

I'm sure a lot more did fight the Russians. A hell of a lot more died from the russian hand.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - How do German citizens treat their WW2 veterans? (Page 1 of 4)

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