Reply #17: those are stories we don't often hear [View All]

[Celebration]

In the case of the guy I talked to, he was just totally indoctrinated by all the Nazi stuff as a youth. Even though his parents were steadfastly and thoroughly anti-Nazi (and they were an extremely prominent, wealthy German family who had been quite political), this guy was completely unaware that the Nazis were controversial, bad, or anything as a youth. That is because the youth were indoctrinated to tattle on their parents, and his parents had no political discussions with the son, for fear of being turned in...........(think the messenger in Sound of Music.)

It's odd because I never got around to talking about the war with him. I was just too interested about his life when he was younger than my age at the time (16 and younger). Fortunately he spoke perfect English--he had even lived with my great aunt and uncle at one time in Waco, Texas, when he came to the USA to study farming methods. It was in the early 60s, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that dredging up his youthful experiences was pretty painful for him. But, I was just too fascinated with it to let go. I would never have been able to get away with this sort of questioning had I been a more mature person. He indulged me because of my age, I think. Also we sort of had a minor crush on each other, even though he was probably more than twice my age.

So, this discussion brings up a heap of old memories.