Originally Posted by bmgermany
Originally Posted by +8Rich
[quote=sospan]

Being of Polish Jewish stock I shall never unsee the glass cabinets full of spectacles and shoes of children in Auschwitz - don't ever ask me to forgive the Krauts as the simple fact is they are easily led and to this day love a uniform.

They had destroyed my Fathers family before his eyes so he walked to France, hitched a ride across the channel on a French boat (even then they could be bought for a bottle of scotch) and fronted up at the nearest RAF Station letting them know he wanted to fly a Spitfire and kill Krauts as he was 16 and had already learnt to fly in a Jungmeister ironically in Poland so he got in a Tiger Moth and showed them how it should be flown to the absolute limit side slipping his way in to a three pointer.

His dreams were realised many times over although the pain would never heal for him I'm sure but he thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and flew up until his untimely death at 64 having instructed hundreds of pupils as a CFI of two Norfolk Flying Groups.

So good luck with the AfD a little enlightenment for the unknowing..


The Hitler regime inflicted unspeakable suffering on many nations!
Although I was born after the Second World War, I have repeatedly been confronted with it directly in my professional life.
For example, from 1990 onwards, I had an office at the ‘Schule am Bullenhusener Damm’ for several years, and during that time I tried to make young people aware of the atrocities.
Here is some background information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullenhuser_Damm

On a personal level, too, the crimes of that era have certainly had an impact on me:

In Germany, there is the term ‘Kriegsenkel’ (war grandchild).
I first heard this term a few years ago.
It took several more years before I recalled a sentence I’d heard from my mother as a young boy: ‘When we fled across the frozen lagoon back then’ (‘escape across the Frische Haff’).

This experience of a little 11-year-old girl in January/February 1945 explains a great deal.
(Flight, winter (-20°), fear of the approaching Russian soldiers...)

I have now learnt through conversations that many other people (often even younger than me) have also been shaped by their parents’ traumatic experiences.

These experiences have not necessarily allowed the childhoods of generations following the Second World War to unfold in a positive way...




Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Bernd,

Thank you for your painful honesty and history of that dreadful place in Hamburg of which I had no idea existed.

We spent many happy hours walking around the Alster and enjoying the city and it's beautiful old buildings when we worked out there in Zeven.

The same can be said for Bremen and so many of your reconstructed cities and the Harz on a good winters day takes some beating with the ski jump in action and a gluhwein in your hand watching the brave souls flinging themselves into the ether on nothing but hope,

The same quality that carries us all forward despite or because of our upbringing and exposure to good and bad alike.

I am pleased to say that Heather and I made some lifetime friends in Germany during our time working out there (3 years) and came back with No1 Daughter thanks to the Kreis Krankenhaus who enjoyed dual nationality up until 16 when she had to exercise her choice.

Later when we made our family base in our Devon village ( I continued traveling overseas but Heather was a proper full time Mum to our three as time progressed) we have seen three couples from Germany relocate and settle and are pleased to count them amongst our friends too.

Interestingly of late the same has applied to three young American couples who have relocated to have and grow their families as a direct result of the current regime and it's trajectory.


I am thankful that these new generation Germans managed to rid me of the (understandable maybe) hatred and vitriolic that my late Father tainted me with, as you say it has been a long and ultimately rewarding journey.


Kind regards

Richard


2009 4/4 Sport Henrietta
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