I sadly announce that Herr Barkmann passed away on June 27. Ernst Barkmann (Aug 23, 1919 - Jun 27, 2009) Ernst Barkmann - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sala de Guerra: Nota de Falecimento: Ernst Barkmann RIP Sir!
Sad to hear about Julio. I wrote to him a few times and got two pics and a short letter. A friend of mine is related to him.
Found this cool video made by a user as a tribute, YouTube - Tribute To Ernst Barkmann Took him well over a year, unfortunately he finished it almost 2 months to the day Mr. Barkmann passed away. If you guys have the time you should check out the users other uploads, they're all dioramas he made about WW2 battles, not sure how "realistic" they are in the portrayal but still pretty cool to see the dedication some people have. As a follow up, Barkmann later joined the Kisdorf fire department where he held the title of "chief". After that he joined the Christian Democratic Union and at one point was mayor of Kisdorf. My German isn't very good and the sites (for Kisdorf, CDU, and the fire department) aren't translating very well on Bing, Google, etc. A few other "tributes" are also on Youtube largely made by neo nazi scum who see him as a "hero" for all the wrong reasons. Which seems a bit unlikely given how he was able to hold political positions after the war? A certain governor in the states was only able to come to power after an investigation was done by the Simon Westhal center on his father's war time past which turned up nothing. I assume similar things would have been done to Barkmann if not at the end of the war, when he joined the political ring? As an aside, it's pretty insane to hear an elderly German World War veteran would keep a open door policy like that! Plenty of people in this world who are willing to use that opportunity for all the wrong reasons.
