@bastianallgeier people don't learn from history. In Italy we have the same problem and I am very scared of this. Thanks for your story.

@bastianallgeier Thank you for sharing your story, & most importantly, for being a decent person. I had a small glimmer of this while stationed in Germany in the U.S. Army during the 1970s. The father-in-law of an Army friend was ex-SS & obviously proud of his service during WWII. During his reciting to me why the Nazis should have won, he snapped to attention with the "Seig Heil" salute, & I realized that the underlying sentiment was still very close to the surface 30 years after the war ended.

@bastianallgeier Thank you for writing this.

You also stated exactly why it is no use to try and convert the hardcore Nazis. Only the group that falls for simple and easy reasons why their life is difficult where there is a pointed villain who is their problem which should be removed is who should be focused on.

@bastianallgeier Important words. Thank you for sharing this.

@bastianallgeier I appreciate you sharing this.

I think the world needs stories like this now more than ever.

@bastianallgeier thank you bastian :*

@bastianallgeier The original Robert Brandt was murdered at Terezin, I don't hate your people for what you did, as what MLK Jr said "I have decided on the path of love, as hate is too great a burden to bear." I won't forget ever though. Germany made the world an uglier place, no longer could we remain simple peasants dancing in our villages before the panzers rolled over us. We had to change. It began a long time before 1933.

@bastianallgeier wow - amazing article

@bastianallgeier
Vielen Dank, dass du das aufgeschrieben und veröffentlicht hast.

Mit solidarischen Grüßen.

@bastianallgeier @lisamelton great writing, and great cms.

@bastianallgeier
Thanks for writing this, it's an important story to tell. I think you're absolutely right, and you have seen this from a direct personal view point. People need to understand. The right are gaining traction across the world, it's getting scary.

@bastianallgeier That is a strong piece! Wow. Thanks for sharing this story.

@bastianallgeier that must have taken a lot of courage to write. Thank you for sharing this.

@bastianallgeier I can't imagine any person of real integrity asking you to take down something so thoughtful.

@andrewducker
https://mastodon.scot thank you for https://mastodon.scot/@andrewducker/111787455463176904 tuning me in.

@nick thank you for https://norden.social/@nick/111784046892111722 it's so good to know that there is such strength of feeling. Equal thanks to @kim_harding for finding a report in a different language, https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding/111784228719642509

@bastianallgeier so he never felt any regret about what he and his comrades have done? Everything was alright for him?

@bastianallgeier Thank you for writng this - it feels extremely necessary right now.

@bastianallgeier Thank you for writing this. As a (white) South African who grew up during the Apartheid era there were many resonances for me. Please don't take it down.

@bastianallgeier Thank you.

@bastianallgeier Wow, that is personal. Thanks for sharing!

@bastianallgeier Thank you.
My father was born in 1931. Moved to the US after the war. I recognize some of the things in him. He talked about his time in the Hitler Youth with pride. In the end he was a monster. I remember at three him trying to teach me how to be a 'proud' German. Thankfully it didn't stick.

Don't take this down. It was a hard, but good read.

@bastianallgeier thank you for sharing your story and speaking out!

@bastianallgeier Thank you for writing this. Thank you for sharing how your Grandfather was seduced by the power - and for sharing how your relationship with him changed. Outside of Germany we don't hear enough of these histories.

@bastianallgeier I could have written a very, very similar piece (experience-wise), and I'm deeply grateful that you did it on behalf of supposedly many of us. Don't take it down. As I said to @rodneyrehm and @asciidisco yesterday: I'm ashamed of not finding enough energy & capacity for standing up myself like this although there should be nothing more important at the moment. Again, thank you! 🙏

@bastianallgeier Thank you very much, Bastian, for your article. It certainly wasn’t easy to write (and publish) it, nor was easy to deal with your gradpa’s history personally. I myself come from the ‘opposite’ side — my grandpa, born in 1923, was part of the Czech minority here in Liberec (Reichenberg) and experienced the rise of hatred towards the local Czechs (and the hatred had to be mutual even then, of course). But the sad thing is that, just like in Germany, the popularity… (1/2)

@bastianallgeier …of right-wing populists is also growing here. I don’t condemn so much those who vote for them — but I do condemn those who are knowingly poisoning them with hateful propaganda. They should be stopped while there is still time. At least hopefully there still is.

By the way, after your article, I’m all the more glad we are using Kirby for our site. It just shows that new generations can always overcome the disputes of the previous ones. It gives hope. (2/2)

@bastianallgeier
Thanks for writing and sharing!
I keep telling my friends in the UK that as a German it's very likely that my grandparents were either active supporters of the Nazis or at least bystanders and looking away. It's a hard truth.
I've never met my maternal grandparents and my paternal grandfather died when I was nine. Opportunities for even asking questions were rare.
You've done a brave thing!

@bastianallgeier thanks for sharing your experience, #NeverAgainIsNow I only understood much later that my grandfathers brother was a Nazi until his death, very scary times 😦 and the reporting #News far too much influenced by the right, either influenced or ownership in many countries

@bastianallgeier Thanks for writing this! I try to speak up whenever I can, but admit that for some in my wider family I have given up. I realise I mustn’t and will confront them again – these ideas must not linger around and grow into the terrible actions against we saw and see …

@bastianallgeier

If ostensible people like Mr. Hocke started magically disappearing and showing up in ditche, unable to spread Neo-Nazism any more, and money was pumped into the ex-GDR regions, I don't think the problems would continue.

@bastianallgeier I’m glad you shared it, thanks.

@bastianallgeier very powerful. Thank you

@bastianallgeier Thank you.

@bastianallgeier Thank you 😊

@bastianallgeier incredibly good. Thank you

@bastianallgeier going against fascism feels always as to look in both directions, past and future and looking also into other places, into other beings, look at how you neighbour lives or struggles, look at nature.

Yet, sadly, these are dark times

@bastianallgeier Thank you for this.

@bastianallgeier Thank you for sharing your story! I'm currently reading The Nazi Doctors (trying to better understand Medicine's utter failure in the face of the pandemic). It's very disheartening to see how much a lack of courage to speak up facilitated ever escalating atrocities and pretty soon (it seems to me) many felt trapped by their own complicity and continued to do nothing to resist.

@bastianallgeier we don’t pick our family

@bastianallgeier thank you for sharing this <3

@bastianallgeier Thanks for sharing!

@bastianallgeier Here in the USA there are plenty of people who say they would never have voted for Hitler, but who are eager to vote -- again -- for Trump, even knowing full well what they'll get. And I believe that, ultimately, history will note that while one liked crisp brown shirts and the other prefers ill-fitting three-piece suits, both were cut from the same piece of cloth.

@bastianallgeier thank you for your story! I want my kids to grow up hearing the truths that hurt our world and would try to again.

@bastianallgeier Thank you for writing this. Tragically, bad history repeats itself because many of us never learn from it.

@bastianallgeier This was a powerful story. Thank you for sharing it.

@bastianallgeier I found your writing thought provoking. Thank you for sharing.

@bastianallgeier that's very powerful. Thanks for sharing. I've been very inspired by the protests across Germany today.

@bastianallgeier The idea that strength power money and influence over other people were desirable goals is certainly despicable but it isn't definitive of Nazis. If that was your grandfather's only crime then he might as well have been a banker. But that's all we learn of his deeds. It's what your detachment was about. And where your anti-fascist feelings stem from — muddling them with a common personal conflict. You grew up and he wanted you to stay a kid. And that's why Nazis are bad?

@bastianallgeier thank you for writing that. We must never forget and never normalize.