Hello All,
As the second world war seems to be a source of great interest around here, I thought I might pass on some things told to me by an old geography teacher of mine who served in the waffen ss.
I'm not sure how interesting this is for you all, also, I have no way of verifying what he said- but anyway here goes. His name was Kurt.
. As a child Kurt remembered men comming to his house and taking away books- his father was given a stern warning.
. He remembered his father talking about the election that saw the Nazis come to power- the voting slips were very thin and the pencils were very hard, consequently it was often not possible to hide how one had voted. The Nazis had thugs at each polling booth to encourage people to think carefully about who they voted for.
. His parents were not keen on the Nazis but Kurt did not understand why. Kurt was in the Hitler youth- he said that virtually every youngster was- and it was great fun. He once saw Hitler close up during an inspection of the Hitler youth. He had been very excited by the prospect, but was disapointed by the reality of a small very ordinary looking man.
. Kurt's dream was to be a teacher and he wanted to attend the best school he could. The government ran a competion in which students resaerched their family tree, the prize being a scholarship to a good school for the student in each district who went back the furthest. Kurt's parents forbid him to take part but, without thier knowledge, he did the research and sent the info to the government. In this way the government learned that Kurt had some jewish ancestory (a great great grandmother I think). Because of this, when Kurt was old enough to enlist, he had to join the Waffen ss- I allways found this strange- but he said it was required to prove his loyalty and also, he thought, so they could keep an eye on him.
. He ended up driving A Panther on the western front- he was very grateful he never had to go east he assured us that if he had he wouldn't have survived.
. He said that, in retrospect, he was glad that Germany lost the war, but at the time he and his comrades wanted to win. This was partly becasue that would increase their chances of survival, but it also had to do with personal pride.
. He had little respect for the fighting ability of the allies (the americans in his case). At the time he and his fellows were frustrated by the fact that they rarely encountered the enemy on the ground due to allied air superioity. He said that when they did engage allied ground forces without air support, they buckled quite easily. On two occaisons his tank was destroyed by fighter bombers.
. In the closing stages on the war his 65 yo father was sent east (not far east by that time) to fight the Soviets and was never seen again.
. His main point in telling us all that was to show that you never know what will happen in life. He lived though the war and achived his dream- being a teacher and living by the sea.
As the second world war seems to be a source of great interest around here, I thought I might pass on some things told to me by an old geography teacher of mine who served in the waffen ss.
I'm not sure how interesting this is for you all, also, I have no way of verifying what he said- but anyway here goes. His name was Kurt.
. As a child Kurt remembered men comming to his house and taking away books- his father was given a stern warning.
. He remembered his father talking about the election that saw the Nazis come to power- the voting slips were very thin and the pencils were very hard, consequently it was often not possible to hide how one had voted. The Nazis had thugs at each polling booth to encourage people to think carefully about who they voted for.
. His parents were not keen on the Nazis but Kurt did not understand why. Kurt was in the Hitler youth- he said that virtually every youngster was- and it was great fun. He once saw Hitler close up during an inspection of the Hitler youth. He had been very excited by the prospect, but was disapointed by the reality of a small very ordinary looking man.
. Kurt's dream was to be a teacher and he wanted to attend the best school he could. The government ran a competion in which students resaerched their family tree, the prize being a scholarship to a good school for the student in each district who went back the furthest. Kurt's parents forbid him to take part but, without thier knowledge, he did the research and sent the info to the government. In this way the government learned that Kurt had some jewish ancestory (a great great grandmother I think). Because of this, when Kurt was old enough to enlist, he had to join the Waffen ss- I allways found this strange- but he said it was required to prove his loyalty and also, he thought, so they could keep an eye on him.
. He ended up driving A Panther on the western front- he was very grateful he never had to go east he assured us that if he had he wouldn't have survived.
. He said that, in retrospect, he was glad that Germany lost the war, but at the time he and his comrades wanted to win. This was partly becasue that would increase their chances of survival, but it also had to do with personal pride.
. He had little respect for the fighting ability of the allies (the americans in his case). At the time he and his fellows were frustrated by the fact that they rarely encountered the enemy on the ground due to allied air superioity. He said that when they did engage allied ground forces without air support, they buckled quite easily. On two occaisons his tank was destroyed by fighter bombers.
. In the closing stages on the war his 65 yo father was sent east (not far east by that time) to fight the Soviets and was never seen again.
. His main point in telling us all that was to show that you never know what will happen in life. He lived though the war and achived his dream- being a teacher and living by the sea.
