My French Aunt would throw her own son out of the house when he played this record
My cousin when he was young was fascinated by marching songs, especially German ones. My cousin also had a fetish for German army paraphernalia, even knowing his mother's feelings and those of his father, who suffered a near mortal wound as a member of the French infantry during the Nazi invasion of France. The particular song below was especially hated by my French mother, my Aunt, her other sister and her brother (the latter who was shipped off to a concentration camp at the start of the war by the Gestapo for alleged "terrorist" activities). "Ein Heller Und Ein Batzen" wasn't a Nazi song and pre-dated WWII but was probably the most widely sung song by Wehrmacht troops invading the villages and towns of France in WWII. My Aunt described hearing it sung several times by German soldiers marching down the street in front of her house in Marseille, to the accompaniment of hundreds of pounding boots. My American dad didn't particularly care for my cousin's German army fetish although he liked most other things German, despite the fact he was a B-17 pilot shot down over Germany during the war and became a POW (he learned to speak quite a bit of German in the military hospital and POW camp and enjoyed the company of non-Nazi Germans after the war when he was transferred by the Air Force to Germany for about six years - where I was born, by the way).
I find this song both immensely thrilling and rousing and repulsive at the same time. I can understand why some Germans got caught up in the excitement of militarism before the war with spirited songs like this. If my French Aunt were still around to see me write this, she'd box my ears.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and only learned about the Nazi occupation through second hand accounts. My cousin doesn't like Nazis but he likes German military guns, emblems and the like from the war. I think what started it was his uncle, the one who was sent on a train heading to a concentration camp and who escaped and joined the resistance. The picture below is of my cousin's and my uncle who participated in the uprising in Marseille before the allies arrived. There are many photos that were taken of him in the fighting including the one below where he's shooting a machine gun. Supposedly he killed a German Naval Officer at the port and took his beautiful dress dagger with gold plating and silver braid and later gave it to my cousin when he was a little boy. I think that's what started his obsession with German war trophies. Also, my cousin when he was young was fascinated by the Foreign Legion and used to talk to them in Marseille where many were around. A lot of them were ex-Wehrmacht who told lively stories about fighting in Africa or on the Eastern front. My cousin probably just took it too far, as he often would upset his father who could barely walk from his war wounds suffered when he fought during the Nazi invasion of France.
But I'm always willing to speak at length on topics I know absolutely nothing about. 
I think you're from where I used to live, or used to be from where I used to be from.
You don't have it listed in your profile so I won't say.
I also used to post a series of stories called "Stories from the Road" about my adventures as a trucker. I think I may have seen you in those way back when. I used to post under a different user name. I've been here since March 2003. My current user name is 4 years old. I'm not a zombie. The name change was legit.
