Vets, How many sets of 5 brothers in WWII ? Google fails me.

[XDM45]

Good Post Minnhawk. We need a thanks button on this forum. Some have them. A great post will get a dozen or more 'thanks'

My dad was a German interpreter and interrogated actual Nazis. SS guys and almost did a shiver when talking about them as if he had been in the presence of Non-Human Satanic Ghouls without souls.
As if he were in danger of disease by being in the same room as these Cold Blooded agents of the Devil.

I think his body gesture was a fake shiver and a head shake. He encountered un-repentent (but captured) Nazis who embodied the complete Nazi worldview. He mentioned their fanatical arrogance and conviction of their superiority. He could see these guys and imagine a world dominated by the Nazi culture.

I watch as many old movies as I can made from 1939 through 1969 (I lived the 70's I can skip those, and they sucked anyway) and there was a 'Pearl Harbor Phase' when everybody's 'Hair was on Fire' Hollywood jammed references to winning the war in otherwise unrelated movies just because that's what people wanted to hear. My observation is in the early years of the war you will hear the liberal use of the word JAP and it's spit out of the mouth like an obscenity.

Anyone involved the history of the war uses 'Japanese' to avoid any racist accusations.

Good post.

As for My dad was a German interpreter and interrogated actual Nazis. SS guys and almost did a shiver when talking about them as if he had been in the presence of Non-Human Satanic Ghouls without souls.
As if he were in danger of disease by being in the same room as these Cold Blooded agents of the Devil. did he ever interview Kurt Franz? That guy was the embodiment of evil.

[gunsmith]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-Totenkopfverbände
It looks like Kurt Franz was a member of a 'special' SS wing called the TotenKopfVerbande The Deaths Head Group. They has specific control of the Extermination camps.

My dad interrogated prisoners (officers would be a priority) who were recently captured and brought to the rear lines. You could imagine their disappointment as the Third Reich began the toilet swirl.

There was a big difference between SS and regular Wehrmacht. The SS had it's own supply chain, and an elitist Nazi Culture. If I'm not mistaken Karl Dönitz head of the Navy and Rommel were NOT frothing-at-the-mouth members of the Nazi Party like other prominent Generals. I'm guessing the ones that gave my dad the Willies were the SS Officers.

The America my dad and his brothers returned to in 1946 is nothing like what is happening today.

[XDM45]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-Totenkopfverbände
It looks like Kurt Franz was a member of a 'special' SS wing called the TotenKopfVerbande The Deaths Head Group. They has specific control of the Extermination camps.

My dad interrogated prisoners (officers would be a priority) who were recently captured and brought to the rear lines. You could imagine their disappointment as the Third Reich began the toilet swirl.

There was a big difference between SS and regular Wehrmacht. The SS had it's own supply chain, and an elitist Nazi Culture. If I'm not mistaken Karl Dönitz head of the Navy and Rommel were NOT frothing-at-the-mouth members of the Nazi Party like other prominent Generals. I'm guessing the ones that gave my dad the Willies were the SS Officers.

The America my dad and his brothers returned to in 1946 is nothing like what is happening today.

True that.

The SS were a unique kind of evil incarnate.

[minnhawk]

Well, the way I remember it, there were SS, and then there were Waffen SS. The SS ran the death camps, were bodyguards to the Fuhrer, and specialized (it seems) in war crimes, particularly in Poland and Eastern Europe. The Waffen SS was the military branch of the SS and were not involved in civilian atrocities nearly so much so as the regular SS. Waffen SS units were better equipped, better trained, and better fighters than their regular army counterparts. They were kind of the US Army Rangers on a larger scale, i.e. divisions instead of battalion. While atrocities were committed by Waffen SS units, it appears it was the exception rather than the norm. I remember reading the Waffen SS were treated differently after the war by the Allies than were the SS einsatzgruppen death squads.

I met and spent time with a Panzer commander of the Waffen 12th SS Hitlerjugend tank Division while I was stationed in Germany. In fact, his family "sponsored" me on Christmas Eve by inviting me to their home for dinner and to Midnight services at the Lutheran Church. He was on friendly terms with our Battalion Commander. It was an interesting discussion. Of course I was in Class A's and was on my best Lutheran Sunday dinner manners.

I asked him how he had come to speak English with a Scottish accent. A small smile flickered across his face and he said he was a guest of The 51st Scottish Highlanders after the war. I asked if he minded talking about that, and he related his brief experience as a tank commander in a Panzer IV tank at Caen at the age of 19. In late June, his tank took a direct hit from a British Sherman which blew him out of the turret, crushing both his knees while incinerating his crew. There was an argument when the Scots found him lying mangled on the ground in his black uniform whether to execute him on the spot or to get him back to the aid station. Kindness won out.

He was well treated, recovered from his injuries in a British hospital by the summer of 1945, and then went to the Highlander Officer's Mess as a POW until 1948. The Highlanders wouldn't let him go back to Germany because he was a pretty good mess boy, and they said nothing was left of his home town (true) and in Scotland at least he had a roof over his head and three squares a day. Mainly though, they didn't have to let him go until they wanted to let him go. He was finally repatriated, found what was left of his family and went to work for Volkswagen. He actually owned the VW dealership in the city where I was stationed.

He was the only German Veteran I met in three years in Germany who admitted to fighting on the Western Front, and I met many of them during my time there. Imagine being a panzer commander at Caen in Normandy at the tender age of 19! He was actually pulled out of high school after Christmas and sent to Grafenwoehr to be a tanker, only to be assigned to the 12th SS.

[redaudi]

At Fort Snelling's memorial day event a few years back, during the usual reenactment/showcasing different era stuff, they had a guy reenacting a German WWII soldier. This guy was a little different, as he looked to be pretty old. Turns out, he wasn't 'reenacting', he was a German soldier on the Eastern front during WWII. He had written a book about his experiences during and after the war, and his migration from Germany to Minnesota where he now lives.

It was absolutely fascinating to hear his story, though it got rather awkward when a few people were asking questions, it turned out that those people were from Russia...and their family came from a region he had fought in.

[XDM45]

Well, the way I remember it, there were SS, and then there were Waffen SS. The SS ran the death camps, were bodyguards to the Fuhrer, and specialized (it seems) in war crimes, particularly in Poland and Eastern Europe. The Waffen SS was the military branch of the SS and were not involved in civilian atrocities nearly so much so as the regular SS. Waffen SS units were better equipped, better trained, and better fighters than their regular army counterparts. They were kind of the US Army Rangers on a larger scale, i.e. divisions instead of battalion. While atrocities were committed by Waffen SS units, it appears it was the exception rather than the norm. I remember reading the Waffen SS were treated differently after the war by the Allies than were the SS einsatzgruppen death squads.

I met and spent time with a Panzer commander of the Waffen 12th SS Hitlerjugend tank Division while I was stationed in Germany. In fact, his family "sponsored" me on Christmas Eve by inviting me to their home for dinner and to Midnight services at the Lutheran Church. He was on friendly terms with our Battalion Commander. It was an interesting discussion. Of course I was in Class A's and was on my best Lutheran Sunday dinner manners.

I asked him how he had come to speak English with a Scottish accent. A small smile flickered across his face and he said he was a guest of The 51st Scottish Highlanders after the war. I asked if he minded talking about that, and he related his brief experience as a tank commander in a Panzer IV tank at Caen at the age of 19. In late June, his tank took a direct hit from a British Sherman which blew him out of the turret, crushing both his knees while incinerating his crew. There was an argument when the Scots found him lying mangled on the ground in his black uniform whether to execute him on the spot or to get him back to the aid station. Kindness won out.

He was well treated, recovered from his injuries in a British hospital by the summer of 1945, and then went to the Highlander Officer's Mess as a POW until 1948. The Highlanders wouldn't let him go back to Germany because he was a pretty good mess boy, and they said nothing was left of his home town (true) and in Scotland at least he had a roof over his head and three squares a day. Mainly though, they didn't have to let him go until they wanted to let him go. He was finally repatriated, found what was left of his family and went to work for Volkswagen. He actually owned the VW dealership in the city where I was stationed.

He was the only German Veteran I met in three years in Germany who admitted to fighting on the Western Front, and I met many of them during my time there. Imagine being a panzer commander at Caen in Normandy at the tender age of 19! He was actually pulled out of high school after Christmas and sent to Grafenwoehr to be a tanker, only to be assigned to the 12th SS.

Excellent story! Thanks for sharing.