How would you feel if you met a German WWII vet?

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/9807-2008-amps-convention/

& on this thread.
http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/9452-how-many-british-ww2-veterans-are-still-around/#entry122580

Ron, your reply is the next post in that second thread

 

Owen

Well done that man !

I've lost track of the amount of times you have helped me out by finding links which have eluded my searching.

For the benefit of others, the links provided above tell of veteran Gerry Chester's meeting with Wolfgang Kloth and the thread, as I explained earlier, includes my own thoughts on the subject.

Ron

 

Always great to see your comments here, Mr. Goldstein, Sir. :S!

 

I, too, would like to thank Ron and Sapper for their input into this discussion. It is helpful to have the perspective of WWII veterans provided in their own words.

I believe that, as with most things involving human beings, there will be a variety of responses. I have watched and listened to many veterans interviews. Some were more inclined to see their old enemy with a certain amount of empathy. Others had responses more in line with those expressed by Ron and Sapper. Many others fell somewhere in the middle or expressed no feeling one way or the other.

In a nut shell, it's an interesting question for which the only correct response is an honest one.

 

Well, this has developed into a great thread. Thanks for posting sapper and Ron.

 

Well said.

 

It is interesting, if that's the correct word, at how this thread has portrayed so many differing opinions because of personal experience, personal knowledge or other forms of information.

 

Do you mean he was eager to surrender? Did he say that he resented being drafted?

 

Did you encounter any German POWs? Were they fanatical in their support of Hitler.

 

All (Waffen-)SS men were not alike. On average the ordinary late war conscripts or e.g. Finnish volunteers were no different than Wehrmacht soldiers.

 

Hi Ron. Keep well mate.
For me, it is all a matter of the German Army or the SS.The two were so very different...If I captured an army soldier, I lit a cigarette put it in his mouth, put his hands on his head and pointed out the way to go to the rear.

Picture that this Jerry plodding back along the track, hands on head, puffing on his cigarette. The SS?Now that is a different matter all together. Just imagine doing the same to an SS man from The Adolph Hitler. Leibstandarten Number one SS Panzer div
Bobhsmith mentioned POWs. I mentioned this in the book I wrote. I will go and find it.....

This is the extract.


Now with even greater care we moved on to a hay loft, a door that had very narrow steps leading up to the loft from the outside. Now! I can still see those steps, worn from constant use, the treads of the stairs hollowed by years of scuffing farmers boots, a nice door, Just what we wanted! We had both decided that we would get it off its hinges when we heard footsteps coming down the loft steps and a pair of German jackboots appeared. Spud pointed his empty Sten gun at him and I drew my trusty Bowie knife that the Yank had given me prepared to do this fellow some very serious harm, when a voice called out. "I want to give myself up" in a voice with an American accent, in these unusual circumstances and with great caution, we let him come on, having seen what they were prepared to do with their own officer, we took no chances. None! I have never seen anyone so keen to give himself up, he told us that he was the son of an American mother and a German father, while they were on holiday in Germany the war had broken out and he was unable to get home, subsequently he was called up to serve in the German army, sent to Normandy, he told us that his mum had told him to stay behind and give himself up to the Americans. Having listened to him for some time, I was quite convinced that he was telling the truth, we gave him a cigarette and had quite a long chat before turning him in

 

That's a very amazing story: an American getting drafted into the German army. That's what I really call having a gun point at your back as well as a gun pointing at your front.

As Brit, could you share some anecdotes of some culture clashes the Brits and the Americans had during the war?

 

No The Americans treated the Brits very well indeed. We got on well with them, WE sometimes shared rations.

 

Amazing story Sapper. Thanks for sharing.

 

I met quite a few WWII German vets when I was growing up in suburban New York. There is a big German and Austrian population in Ridgewood, Queens.

One ran a gas station called Rudi’s. He had a heavy accent and reminded me of Gert Frobe in Goldfinger. He was always laughing and throwing ‘Ya! Ya!’ into almost every sentence so we called him YaYa Rudi.

One was a plumber. He and his wife were from Berchtesgaden and kept a house there until they passed away about ten years ago. They were good friends with my uncle, who was a Normandy vet. I only heard him mention the war twice. One time he said that the first time any politician even hints at war they should be killed and the other was when he said he thought the Bismarck was a very good battleship.

One friend’s father was from Gratz, Austria. He and his brothers were in some type of artillery unit. He worked at Otis Elevator in NY for 30 years. He said he hated the TV show ‘Combat!’ because it made the German soldiers look like idiots.

I’ve been to a beer hall in Ridgewood where German is the predominate language. I was told that they celebrate Hitler’s birthday in the backroom every April. That’s disgraceful, if it is true.

We are not supposed to judge, but I’d have a big problem with any enthusiastic Nazi supporter, vet or no vet.

Another friend’s father was a Japanese Army vet. He used to wear a headband that I have since learned is called a hachimaki when he was working around the house, painting, washing the car, etc. We kids would say, ‘Jay’s father is wearing his kamikaze headband again.’

 

Great thread this turned out to be, and the comments from the real veterans gives real substance. Keep 'em coming.

 

I just checked that out on Amazon. Sounds very good and so do the other books he has written.

Here is what Eisenhower had to say about it in Crusade in Europe. I posted this over on ww2talk several years ago:


General Eisenhower gave a lot of consideration to the relationship between American personnel and the British people. He writes in ‘Crusade in Europe’ that he and his staff were well aware of the strain a ‘friendly invasion’ (his words) of 2,000,000 Americans would place on the people of Britain who had already endured the hardships and deprivations of war for two years. Food, power, fuel and housing resources were already under great pressure and the addition of all those men would make living conditions even more difficult and could lead to problems among the Allies

Here is what he wrote on page 57:

“Except during World War I, the United States public had habitually looked upon Europe’s quarrels as belonging to Europe alone. For this reason, every American soldier coming to Britain was almost certain to consider himself a privileged crusader, sent there to help Britain out of a hole. He would expect to be treated as such. On the other hand, the British public looked upon itself as one of the saviors of democracy, particularly because, for an entire year, it had stood alone as the unbreakable opponent of Nazism and the European Axis. Failure to understand this attitude would of course have unfortunate results.”

He then writes about Mr. Brendan Bracken, head of the Ministry of Information and how they developed numerous programs to inform the British people of what to expect when the Americans arrived. He said Bracken was a controversial figure in Britain but did not elaborate. He also said he was always helpful and energetic.

He wrote this on page 58:

"Whenever possible, newly arrived American personnel were taken on a short tour through Britain’s bombed areas. The American Red Cross and several relief and welfare organizations of Great Britain helped institute a system of home entertainment of American GIs by British families. I have never yet met an American soldier, who, after spending a weekend with a British family did not feel that America had a staunch and sturdy ally. We found however that a British family, inspired by a determination to show real hospitality, was likely to spend an entire week’s rations to entertain an American over Sunday. At once we encouraged visiting soldiers to carry rations with them on home visits, while a publicity campaign explained the matter to the British hosts so as to save their pride and preclude embarrassment. In every direction where we expected trouble we instituted preventive measures-generally with success. The keynote of the campaign was the avoidance of mawkish sentimentality and the basing of all of our programs on facts-with emphasis on opportunity of personal discovery of facts. Everyone who occupied a responsible position in Britain during this time will always have a feeling of gratitude and admiration for the almost universal spirit co-operation, tolerance and friendship displayed by both sides.”