World War 2

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
161

[quote]Eli B wrote:

Awesome. My Grandfather was a czech jew and he ran around hungary until the soviets picked him up and put a gun in his hands. Said he mostly just chauffered a drunken soviet officer.
[/quote]

One of my personal favorite stories has to do with the enterprising Czechs. The Nazis were destroying Jewish cemeteries right and left but somehow the Czechs not merely convinced the Germans to spare the one in Prague (which is really old and famous) they even ended up talking the Germans into stationing some Waffen SS troops to guard it!

Later the Czechs really pissed of Stalin by having an uprising, for which they were punished by not having “improvements” done to Prague. Those improvements were usually bulldozing older buildings and putting up elephantine Soviet-style block houses. Prague is one of the few genuinely pretty cities in Eastern Europe.

– jj

162

[quote]jj-dude wrote:

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:
Well, here is obscure history.[/quote]

Wicked Kewl story! Thanks!

Goering was actually very well liked right after WW I and highly regarded by everyone. His affiliation with Hitler helped the Nazis a lot. Jews served with distinction in WW I for Germany and there were many military cemeteries whose headstones had with Magen Davids on them. The Nazis purposely tried to rewrite history and defaced or destroyed most of them. I remember reading about one of Goering’s Jewish friends who made a direct appeal in the 1930’s to stop the treatment of the Jews. Goering refused to see him and that was when the man decided there was no hope for any of them and he left.

I wonder if this person could have been your grandfather?

– jj

[/quote]

I really don’t know. Goring certainly agreed to meet him, but that may have been earlier. He knew (and served) with Goering from 1912ish to 1936ish. That’s a LONG time. They bunked together, flew together (in battle), ate together, planned how to screw the French and drank beer together. They were good friends, as in, he went to Goring’s “bachelor party” for his first wedding.

He tried to see Goring during the Nurenburg trials, but was refused — don’t know if it was Goring or the US Army who refused.

It was a really personal wound and candidly hurt my grandfather more than losing all his stuff or even some of his family in the Shoa.

To not be aware of such burning hatred in a man with whom he was so close was THE reason he also didn’t go back to the USA when discharged, but went to what-was-then British Palestine.

And THAT is a whole other story.

163

total hijack of the thread - watched Inglorious Bastards last night - LMAO!

I want my scalps!

164

When you get to that little piece of land you carved for yourself, I bet you’re gonna take that uniform off, aren’t ya? Yeah, I thought so.

We’re gonna give you a little something you can’t take off

/hijack

165

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:
Well, here is obscure history.

My paternal grandfather was a German Officer in WWI, and in the equivalent of the reserves in the 1930s (and trained in secret, as Germany could not have an airforce), but a pilot for the national German airline, what is now Lufthansa, I think.

He knew Hermann Goring personally, before he was a Nazi, as they served together in Jagdgeschwader 1, the air squadron of The Red Baron.

Decorated hero, iron cross, and put up for the Blue Max (the rough equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor) by his CO (it was not granted, but still).

He was also very Jewish.

Well, in 1936ish along came a decree that Jewish people couldn’t serve in the military, which was OK, as he was a busy commercial pilot.

Slightly later, in November 1938 (I may have the dates off), it was decreed that Jewish people couldn’t be pilots at all. Couldn’t do lots of things – like live normal lives.

Grandpa petitions Goring, who is nice, but says he is screwed regarding the pilot, but then get pushed through a letter saying that, because of meritorious service to Germany, Grandpa won’t have other restrictions placed on him (like having your house taken, being “relocated” etc) . . . for a while.

Knowing he was eventually screwed, Grandpa put on his military uniform, went and got all the maps of the airfields in Germany (including the secret ones), as he was a respected officer, and few knew he was Jewish.

He changed to his Airline Pilot uniform, took the equivalent of a “dead head” flight to outside of Germany, eventually making his way to South America, and then the United States . . . . where he was denied entry because he was Jewish.

So he got a 2 week tourist visa in Mexico, crossed the border illegally, stole a car, and went to a military airfield where he kind of knew an American military pilot, showed him his maps.

They then went to the CO, who got the recruting SGT, who signed up this 40 year old German Jewish guy as a member of the US Army Air Core.

And he spent his time picking and targeting airfields over Germany, and spotting airfields ---- since he knew the tricks.

Summary:

Revenge is a bitch.[/quote]

Fantastic story!Truth is always so much more interesting than any fiction could ever be…