Recommended reading

Jan 20, 2008

Just got this from email, I think I'll buy that one.

Hans Post – "One Man in His Time" (406pp with photographs). Otford
Press, Sydney 2002. ISBN 1 876928 35 2.

My compliments to you all. Some words on a most worthwhile book. This
is a memoir I was given some years ago by its author, Hans Post, and
I recommend it to you as an absorbing and informative read.

Hans was born in the village of Oels, near Breslau, in 1926, into a
family which had actively supported National Socialism from its
outset. "My early life was dominated by my family's beliefs, by the
Party, by the Hitler Youth, by my schooling. The little reading
material available served only to reinforce what I was told… My
parents always regarded reading as an unproductive entertainment and
at my grandparent's too there was only Das Schwarze Korps (the SS
paper) and Lokomotive an der Oder (the local newspaper)."

He describes family life, school, growing up and military service in
meticulous detail. As a dedicated member of the Jungfolk, he
continuously climbed the leadership ladder. "I quickly realised the
advantages of being outstanding, of making the most of my abilities,
of being what I call 120 percent." This dedication would take him
further, much further.

Hans went on to volunteer for the Waffen SS, to be a member of Otto
Skorzeny's Jagdverband Mitte and to survive both the war and the POW
camp at Thoree-les-Pins. "Thirty-six hundred Waffen SS men had left
Germany for the camp… only 1300 survived."

While his exploits are nothing short of remarkable, it is as much the
aftermath of this service which makes for essential reading. I'm
reminded here to some extent of Christa Wolf's "A Model Childhood" –
the attempt to make some sense of a life which had been based on a
lie, to accommodate seemingly insurmountable personal and moral
conflicts in a new world order.

And the reunion with his parents in 1946 only added to this conflict –
"[They] made no effort to help me recover from the personal trauma I
was suffering…my father never asked me how I got the Iron Cross First
Class, or what I had done to deserve it…For my parents, by this time,
the war had never happened – they had never supported the Party;
their son had never been in the SS." In the ruins of post-war
Germany, denial was a most common attribute, and they would continue
to deny to the end.

For Hans and his new wife Lydi, life in the new Germany eventually
became untenable. "We made a conscious decision to make the best of
whatever was to happen in Australia. If you think of what we had both
gone through, what worse could happen to us? [But] we were, and would
remain in the eyes of those we would meet, Germans, members of a
nation responsible for horrendous deeds."

Survivors, like Hans, are equally victims, and the ranks of their
generation are thinning rapidly. Books such as this – frank
testaments, written in English - are uncommon, and worthy of wider
consideration. In this regard, Hans has made available to me signed
copies (hardback), and you can contact me personally should you wish
further details. He celebrates his 82nd birthday this Wednesday, and
while his mind is as agile as ever, the years are beginning to take
their toll on his physical well-being.

Cheers,
Greg
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