Post-War Germany - One German's story

Spoke to a German who was a child and asked him if he was taught to forage at school; specifically identify and harvest edible plants and mushrooms. His response was no.

Turns out he was too young (born 1940) to have been taught that and (fortunately) too young to be forced into the jungvolk (pre-Hitler Jugend). Kintergarten generally starts at age six. Anyway, the wallpaper in their apartment in Hannover was Weimar marks. Million mark wall! Richness beyond imagination but couldn't buy a movie ticket. He was in Hannover which was bombed frequently but his apartment which was by the Leine river, was never hit. Bombs went into the river and then beyond the building. For his safety he was sent to live on a diary farm with his Opa and Oma. Oma was flemish but spoke German and Opa was a Swiss citizen. The dairy farm had 200 milchkuhl and numerous chickens.

Post-war there was no money back then and you bartered for everything. Cigarettes were extremely valuable and his Oma (before being kicked out by the Soviets) was very good at batering. She got what she wanted. You had to either work (labor for goods) or swap to get what you wanted. Cigarettes were a good substitute for money.

Their part of Germany was initially liberated by the Americans and a Jewish sergeant rode up in a jeep and spoke yiddish to him. He wanted 200 eggs. He told his Opa and she gathered the eggs and some hams for the soldier. The sergeant was happy and got him to hop in and took him around the farms to be a translator. Eventually, the sergeant began teaching him english. He learned to chew gun, eat D-ration chocolate and got more candy than he ever had ever before. He enjoyed the Americans' company but per the Yalta Conference the Americans left and the Soviets moved in.

True to socialist goals, wealth redistribution followed. The two hundred dairy cows were given to people who didn't know about milk cows or how to make cheese. So they ate them instead. Ditto with the egg laying hens they were given. Afterward the proletariats had no meat or eggs and began starving. Yay socialism! Left with nothing, Opa and Oma asked to leave and b/c Opa had a Swiss passport, the Soviets told them they could pack two suitcases and leave the farm. Who knows who got the bovine & fowl free farm after they departed. Thanks Stalin.

He went to his mother and they were tossed into a British internment camp where they were fed one meal of cream of wheat daily. It took two weeks before the mother could find someone to show her Swiss passport to and an officer released them to go to Switzerland. Food was scarce and he remembers eating only one slice of bread, cheese and four raisins. To this day he won't eat cheese (pizza and some baked dishes are exception).

He migrated to Canada and at age 15 worked as a station master who did everything. Sold tickets, cleaned the station, threw the switches. One time there was a delay of four-six hours and he almost missed throwing a switch. There would have been a collision if he didn't. He got there just in time before there was a Buster Keaton moment. He also worked a mail carrier there before immigrating to Estados Unidos.

When he turned 18, he wanted to enlist in the American Armed Forces because he wanted to become an American. Concurrently the Swiss government tracked him down with a draft notice. He ignored it and to this day doesn't know if he's persona non-grata there. He served in the Air Force where his command of the language made him valuable. Before that though the Air Force wanted to send him to language school which he skipped. He asked for the test which he passed with flying colors. Sent to Germany, he translated the intercepted messages for the Air Force. When it came time to reenlist, he was told he was being sent up to the Artic cicle to monitor Soviet activity for nine months. He would be with five other men at that station. There was no appeal and he didn't reenlist.

Post Air Force he applied and was accepted in the CA Highway Patrol. At the CHP Academy he was a crack driver and demonstrated greater driving skills than his instructors. They wanted him to remain at the Academy as an instructor but he wanted to be a patrol officer. Like all rookies, he was sent south (you start in the south and worked your way north), He was one of the officers who documented the Newhall Massacre (look up that tragic death that changed the instructions taught in police academies). He eventually became the JAFO in a helicopter and testified against a big drug dealer who put a hit on him.

Eventually he left the CHP because he bought his piece of heaven in Colorado. He worked for the Ford dealership and learned to hate Ford cars there. He saw too many breakdowns. Then he was sworn in as a deputy sheriff and afterward was a offered a position in Denver PD as a JAFO. Note: unlike today, back in those (pre-Miranda warnin days) he didn't have to attend a Colorado state police academy. He declined Denver PD's offer b/c he didn't want to leave his heaven. He took up ranching and was among the first in his area to breed black angus (if you haven't had a black angus steak, you're missing out).