Post by pieter on Sept 3, 2017 14:52:09 GMT -7
Dear Karl,
You don't have to apologise. The war is a long time ago now. Today we live in another era with other challenges. That song "Heili Heilo" was quite an innocent song, but not innocent for my father and mother. Not a really Nazi song but a soldiers song, sung by Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS soldiers. It is important to remember that 18,200,000 Germans served in the Wehrmacht, and that many of them were not fond of Adolf Hitler, and not fond of the NSDAP, Third Reich, SA and SS. Some of them served with German Patriotic, traditional, conservative motives. Some followed a Prussian family heritage. Some Wehrmacht soldiers were former Social Democrats (SPD), Leftwing socialists (USPD), former KPD (Rotfront) members, former Zentrum (Roman-Catholic German political party) members, Former Democrats, liberals or Paul von Hindenburg, Kurt von Schleicher and German conservatives.
German men and boys had to serve in the Wehrmacht. If you refused service you could get the death penality or would end up in a Nazi concentrationcamp. German Jehova witnesses who refused to serve in the Wehrmacht, because their faith prohibits that ended up in German prisons and concentrationcamps. Despite my aversion towards the Civilian Nazi occupation authorities (NSDAP functionaries), Wehrmacht, Waffen SS, Armed SA units, German police batallions, Luftwaffe and kriegsmarine and the Ordnungspolizei I realize that there were also good chaps in the Wehrmacht who just were forced to serve. These men and boys didn't approve the war crimes commited by the Nazi's and many of them weren't involved in them. They were only involved in wars between armies (The German and the Polish one, the German and the Dutch one, the German and the Sovjet one and the German army vs the British, American, Canadian, Polish, French and other armies in the West). Like you father German men and boys served in the various units of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern-front and the Western-Front, in North-Africa and Southern-Europe and in Norway and Finland.
Cheers,
Pieter
You don't have to apologise. The war is a long time ago now. Today we live in another era with other challenges. That song "Heili Heilo" was quite an innocent song, but not innocent for my father and mother. Not a really Nazi song but a soldiers song, sung by Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS soldiers. It is important to remember that 18,200,000 Germans served in the Wehrmacht, and that many of them were not fond of Adolf Hitler, and not fond of the NSDAP, Third Reich, SA and SS. Some of them served with German Patriotic, traditional, conservative motives. Some followed a Prussian family heritage. Some Wehrmacht soldiers were former Social Democrats (SPD), Leftwing socialists (USPD), former KPD (Rotfront) members, former Zentrum (Roman-Catholic German political party) members, Former Democrats, liberals or Paul von Hindenburg, Kurt von Schleicher and German conservatives.
German men and boys had to serve in the Wehrmacht. If you refused service you could get the death penality or would end up in a Nazi concentrationcamp. German Jehova witnesses who refused to serve in the Wehrmacht, because their faith prohibits that ended up in German prisons and concentrationcamps. Despite my aversion towards the Civilian Nazi occupation authorities (NSDAP functionaries), Wehrmacht, Waffen SS, Armed SA units, German police batallions, Luftwaffe and kriegsmarine and the Ordnungspolizei I realize that there were also good chaps in the Wehrmacht who just were forced to serve. These men and boys didn't approve the war crimes commited by the Nazi's and many of them weren't involved in them. They were only involved in wars between armies (The German and the Polish one, the German and the Dutch one, the German and the Sovjet one and the German army vs the British, American, Canadian, Polish, French and other armies in the West). Like you father German men and boys served in the various units of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern-front and the Western-Front, in North-Africa and Southern-Europe and in Norway and Finland.
Cheers,
Pieter