Gregory's Server@bastianallgeier I can relate so much. My grandfather’s brother was in the Waffen-SS and died in WW II. My grandpa made it back home from the Russian front after losing his toes, but he died when I was two. I still don’t think he was a Nazi himself and my grandmother always told the story that when my grandfather once returned home for a short visit from the military, he said: “War is an injustice.”
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 I know it's not the same, but I also feel like we're all in this together. My great uncle was a gunner in the RAF Bomber Command in WW2. Lovely man. I don't know exactly what missions he undertook. But reading up on the firestorms rained down on Hamburg really puts me in knots. Whatever political bent those people had, so many died. @matthiasott @bastianallgeier My great-grandfather kept a journal from 1944-1946 . It was written in "Kurrentschrift" so it was hard to decipher. A couple of years ago we sat down with my grandma and recorded her reading it - I later transcribed it. He wrote about life in the last days of the war and the years after. Feels a lot more personal than the history books as it's set in my hometown. Tanks rolling down the streets I grew up in. In one entry, he crossed out the name of the holiday:  @mxbck @bastianallgeier Amazing. And fantastic you took the time to record it with your grandmother and transcribe it! 👏 @matthiasott @bastianallgeier yeah it was a very special experience. I made a printed version and donated it to our local library. The PDF is here if you're interested: |
@bastianallgeier Still, realizing that members of your family you love and look up to were either complicit or indifferent was eye-opening for me as a teenager. I also realized that the stuff from the history books that seemed so distant (and in b&w photos) actually happened just yesterday. And once you see the butcher’s hooks in Buchenwald yourself, all of this hits you hard. This is what people do to other people if nobody speaks up.
Just like you, I’m an anti-fascist for the rest of my life.