or, the Repatriation of Germans from Abroad.

A guy showed up at work to pick up some material for a customer. Mid thirties from the Chattanooga area. While we were waiting we shot the breeze and I found out his people had come to America at the time of the revolution and fought for the British (Hessians).

Years passed, the leaves fell and the water ran under the bridge. They emigrated from the Ohio area to Tennessee and by the 1930s there were four brothers and their families.

Germany called for ethnic Germans to return home to help build the Third Reich. Volksdeutschen from Bessarabia, Rumania, South Bukovina and Lithuania as well as other countries returned and were processed, logged, identified and passed by the Security Service and relocated in Germany.

It turns out that three of the brothers returned to Germany. All four brothers fought in the war and survived. This guy's dad was in the second wave at Omaha beach.

After the war he never talked to his brothers again nor ever referred to them in family discussions.

This guy took over his dad's commercial contracting company when his dad died a few years ago. At that time there were around 38 outfits in that business, down to 14 at present. They are discussing the feasibility of combining and building apartments since the housing market is in the pits.

Talked about firearms and I gave him some ideas on getting into reloading. An interesting chat.

Interesting.

sad