Have you ever met any WWII Nazi?

Hi Carl,

this were a great succsess. And it wouldt help to see many things in a better light.

Regards

Ulrich

 

Hi Ulrich, I hear ya ;-)) Heres a short story on somehting that happened to me. I was a regular customer at Barnes and Nobles Bookstore in Corpus Christi. One early afternoon or early evening? I went there to look for ne wbooks-something I didnt have. They had an older lady who was just hired there that happened to be the person I needed help from. Well, we went to their computer where we could look up titles of possible books to order that they didnt have in stock.

I had a list of 4-6 books I was interested in-all having to do with the Waffen SS, Well, after looking up 3-4 titles, the lady turned to me and very lodly said: "Are youa Nazi?" and this was within hearing range of probably about 20-30 customers. I was being stared at be several people and it was quiet in that part of the store. I turned and looked a her and said: "I'm a card-carrying one" and i proceeded to pull out my wallet, then I feigned taking out an (non) existant nazi membership card-and several people were looking at me and was expecting to see something to do with a nazi group-but instead, I turned the tales on the lady and made her look as dumb as she really was-when I pulled out a businesscard-and I ulled it out with the backside showing-and purposely ;-)) and when I turned the light blue colored card around for those to see what t said, it was a card that was from a friend of mne who had his own plumbing business. When the lady looked at it-as well as several of those customers, they all laughed at that lady for being narrow-minded and also laughed at her for trying to embarass me because of my interest in WWII-which back-fired on her-bigtime :lol: :lol: Needless to say, a few of those peope slapped me on my back and thanked me for standing my ground.

After this "show" was over, I resumed having her look up about another 10titles-all dealing with the nazie in general and not military history-as I wanted to teach the lady a lesson to keep her opinions to herself. This happened about 10 or so years ago and never happened to me again.

 

Hi Carl,

it is good to know that you will be "strange or a Nazi" for your interest on Wehrmacht or SS-History on your side of the pond too. We have a good forum over here too, but sometimes you can read that some idiots are thinking that we are Neo-Nazis( = Dumb A$$es ). Is it too hard to understand that this is a piece of our history?
So thats why i am glad to be here on that great place!

Take care

Ulrich

 

Good on ya Carl.

KTK

 

Well said Ulrich and thank you Ken.

U/ heres a fairly quick "Holiday in Deutschland" story for you.

Susanne and I were in Bad Harzburg, checking into the hotel we were to stay in that evening. Well, the jerk at the counter obviously knew I was an "Ami" and he seemed to have a problem or two with an "Ami" travelling with a veri pretty German Woman-and you could see it "written" all over his face. I wanted to tell the jerk "tant pis" but didnt. ((Sorry Skipper about that bit of language, but I had to write it because it is part of this story-same goes for the one other word I used-both are essential parts for this story)) )

As they were conversing only in Deutsch, I didnt know exactly what all they were talking about but I know enough German to be able to know that their conversation wasnt all too friendly-especially when the subject came up to what was she doing travelling around Germany with an-----"Ami." Susanne tried to explain to the jerk that we were touring Germany and meeting several WK2 German Vets and had been a guest of honor at a Kriegsmarine Vets Reunion in Bad Camberg. Then she explained that we had also been a guest of a Knights Cross Recipient who happened to be a Waffen SS Knights Cross Recipient. The jerk then blurted out to her that she was a nazi-to which I then gave him a as mean a look as I could muster. :-D He looked at me glaring at him and must have not realized that I knew enough German to know what he was implying and apparently he thought I wanted to kick his ass all over the place (and he was right-I did want to beat him to a pulp) and he apparently was frightened-which was my full intention, and he moved away from the counter because I intimidated him-which had been my intention. Well, as I was standing several feet behind Susanne, she never knew what I did and had to be wondering why the jerk was suddenly becoming more friendlier to her and let her finish registering us and got our keys.

The guy stayed as far away from me as possible-which was Ok by me. We both then checked into our seperate rooms-and she went for a hike up a nearby hill? and visited some War Memorial or Statues while I rested a bit as I was still a bit tired from Jetlag.

After Susanne came back from her hike, we walked a distance to some Bistro=Bijou Cafe on the edge of some river? or body of water? and went in to eat Supper. It was there that I had the best tasting bowl of Chicken Soup I have had to date. I dnt remember what Susanne ate for dinner. After that we went back to our rooms and turned in. I stayed up awhile to document our days activities and such and I wrote out several postcards to send to friends and my sister.

Well, the next morning, I got up to prepare to leave after we had breakfast-which was the lousiest one i had my entire time in Germany. The same creep handed us two cards to write our opinions of our stay there as well as opinions on our breakfast. By then I had let Susanne know what had happened when we checked in and why the jerk hd backed away from me when I neared the counter he was at while we were checking in. Susanne knew I wanted to give the jerk a poor rating but made sure I didnt> I only gave the creep a good rating ONLY because of her. ;-)) Needless to say, this jerk was the only German I came across that I disliked my entire time in Germany. Now, I will admit I didnt like any of the Italians I came across while in Germany except for two I met while in Konstanz. Same goes for the few Frenchmen I met while in Germany-in Wilhelmshaven as a matter of fact-and was when we were checking into our Botel. Susanne didnt care for them either. ;-))

I will say that I liked all the Russians, Canadians, Swiss, Aussies, New Zealanders, Poles, Croatians and some of the Americans that we met while there.

Oh and as a bit of revenge to the jerko hotel clerk, I pinched the telefon buch, a small towel, and a tiny bottle of cologne from the room and I still have most of this stuff too :-D

 

C;
A deft handling of an ignorant fool. Too bad you didn't kick his ass though...well actually it's good you did not, as it would have caused some hitches in your travel plans.
Now actually I did meet a NAZI-at least I think I did, on an Olympic flight back from Greece in 1973. We had stopped in Thessoloniki and I was up and about and getting myself another Ouzo. Well I turn around and here is this tiny Colonel Klink type fellow of the right age staring me down and calling me a jackass ("Esel"). I glared back a bit and called him "Dummkopf," and went my way-tit for tat. Spotted the guy grinning at me later in the flight. I have got to get back to Europe!
JefffinMNUSA

 

Hi Jeff, and many thanks. Same here, I didnt want to feel the wrath of the local Polizei ;-))

Heh heh, dumbkoph eh? :lol: :lol:

While on the bus either going to Konstanz or coming back from konstanz? I forget which? I happened to be on a bus that has quite a fw schoolchildren on it and getting off at various stops. This one stop was in some tiny tiny little town that was between Konstanz and Dingelsdorff. Dingesldorff was where I was headed to or from? probably to-as I wanted to get back to the Gasthaus Zur Rose-where I was staying, and wanted to get cleaned up so Susanne and I could meet up for Dinner.

Anyway, on this one stop, several children got off the bus, and I had to do a double-take when I saw this elderly Gentleman wearing a tan trenchcoat standing at the stop waiting for his Grandkids. This guy-honest to God, this guy HAS to have been in the Gestapo during the war. He looked too much like a Gestapo Agent NOT to have seen service in that Org. Anyway, I did a doubletake and quietly laughed at what I saw. Can you just imagine a mean ol Gestapo agent-waiting for his Grandkids to exit the bus-and has a smile on his face? He REALLY did look sinester.

 

Hi Carl,

you won´t kick his ass, but i had made it if i were with you! Such an Idiot, unbelievable!!!
He he he, the mini bar would have been a good target too.

I am glad that this was the only bad experience with Germans. I can imagine that the situation with the "Gestapo-Granddad" was a bit strange. As far as he didn´t arrested the Grandkids nothing bad had happened.

Take Care

Ulrich

 

Hi Ulrich and thanks. Yep, he was the only bad apple I met while in Germany-excluding the Japanese tourists in Rothenberg OdT and in Heidelberg ;-))

Heh heh, it would have been somthing if my impression was true about that Gentleman ;-)) I wouldnt have minded though as he certainly would hav ebeen interesting to interview ;-))

 

As of March 16, 1935, this became mandatory in Germany.

Conscription - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And later in the war, this.

Volkssturm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The German army (Heer and Navy) before the Nazi's was at what, 10,000 men? By the end of the war this number neared 20 million, you can't honestly expect all of these men joined because they wanted to?

Many in Germany post WW1 lived under occupations, particularly that of the French who themselves had lived under German occupation for a few months in the wars preceding them. Children who saw themselves and their parents abused by French soldiers (not all of course) would grow up and be of legal service age around the time of the war, could you blame either sides for wanting to go to war for revenge? Not saying anyone is justified persay, it's just another perspective to look at beyond Nazism.

I don't remember the exact name of the program but the Nazi's also had a system in place where anyone with German blood at a certain age was conscripted into the labor service to serve Germany.

For those without German blood, there was this.

Forced labor in Germany during World War II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arbeitseinsatz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What do you think would happen in a dictatorship if you said "no"? You would most likely be shot or sent to a concentration camp, in the instance that none of that happened, good luck finding a job that the Nazi's didn't have control over. On top of this, many regular industries were "retuned" by the Nazi's but those that worked in them were still getting paid, the German economy only started to recover after the Nazi's took control and the people needed money to live and return to normal life.

I see where you are coming from and why you would believe in such a thing but I'm personally not a fan of this train of thought. Perhaps we are all too far removed, after World War 2 conscription and forced labor went on the decline in most of the world so many of us grew up without such influences. Today, if the government does something "wrong" we have the ability to freely protest it in most of the world, you didn't have this ability back then, there were little options available.

 

Well, not me personally but my grandfathers fought them, and my mother met one of old Adolfs pals; Franco Francisco.

 

Something like this Carl?

 

Het Totenkopf,

Well that Gestapo agent must of went to the sloppy school of gestapo dressing. Undone button and only one exposed cuff. Looks more like a herring choker going to church,eh.

KTK

 

Kinda-but he also resembled one of those Spy-vs-Spy-spies-pointed nose & rimmed glasses and all ;-))

 

Hi Dustin,

this couldn´t be a Gestapo man! This look is to friendly, you have to look like you slept for a week in Sauerkraut than you´ll have the right look.

Regards

Ulrich

 

If thats the case? No "traditional" interrorgation methods would be necessary to weedle info out of a prisoner because the "SOUR" smell would be more than enough to get the info they want-even making the prisoner confess to something even though they had nothing to do with that something ;-D

 

When living in southern Spain I had the opportunity to sit down with a former Nazi member who served in North Africa and Italy and talked to him; a very interesting character.

He seemed to not so much regret his desicion to join the Nazi party rather he was remorseful of "what they became". He smiled and was happy but seemed to carry himself soberly. I enjoyed some paella on the beach with him before departing.

 

Some of them are really interesting people. So if you can talk to an old Nazi do it and if you have done it compare that what you heard from every single Nazi vet and you´ll get an good thought of what happened at this time and what were the reasons for their decisions. I often had the feeling that the high ranked nazi´s were mostly out of simple families and without any higher education.

BTW,Onthefield i like your avatar, i used it at an other board! Nice movie.

Regards

Ulrich

 

Carl,

maybe that the old sour smell would be enough for the most
They were masters in using the "Traditonal" methods and found some new ones too. Years ago i was in Norway in the Fort of Akershus. It is a very good made museum and they showed the methods of the Gestapo too! After seeing this my choice would be the sour smell!!!

Take care

Ulrich

 

Hi Ulrich, heh heh, id take the odor over the other methods too. I bruise too easily ;-))