Sunday, April 27, 2014

The Nazis are still with us.........

I just saw the movie " Walk with the Enemy" and I'd advise every one to go see it. It struck home with me for a half dozen reasons. Born in 1940, I was awakened at 4 years old when a neighbor's mother was notified her 19 year old son was shot down and killed in a B-17 during " Big Week" push over Germany in the last week in February 1944. It was a mess that night. I could hear her screaming through the walls.
     My father drove us behind the Philadelphia Airport through the German Prison Camp there where the Luftwaffe POW were so we would go to the end of the runway and watcch the commercial flights fly in over our heads. I still remember the blond German officers still in uniform marching in straight lines past our car.
     In the film we saw about Hungarian Occupation by Germans, they brutally murdered their citizens, killing everyone that got in their way. Germans made films of themselves during the war and we show them on local channels for us to study the deterioration of societies during those periods. In it, I watched the German crowds cheering, mesmerized by their Fuhrer, swooning at his presence as he passes by. They danced and sang, and crowded him in the street.
    I served as a Docent in a B-17 Museum in Tucson for two years here in Tucson. In it, I happily escorted many visitors from around the US, Mexico, Canada and the European region around the Museum, familiarizing them with the airplane, the world war and it's impact on America, our folks, and on all the people involved.
    Some of the Germans who came provided the most interesting reactions: one woman from Frankfurt said to me, " we had guns in our backs. They made us come out in the street and wave to Hitler. We had to, we had no choice."
    A man from Munich (a city I had visited twice), said, " Nazis? I knew no Nazis. Of course, I heard about it, but I don't think I ever actually knew of any." Dachau prison camp one of the most infamous concentration camps was right outside of Munich. I reached the camp under 15 minutes by car.
    One day while I was on duty by the front door, four tall, mid 30's German men arrived and asked me questions by the European Map on the wall. " .....tell me, Roger, what were your losses?"  I answered them that they were the highest of any US Military outfit on the planet - about 10%.
    When I told him that, he came unglued. " Zat vas ALL??" He all but screamed?
     I replied, yes, but we thought that was high. " To what do you attribute a loss of ONLY 10%?" he snidely asked of me.  I thought for a minute and then replied.
     " You guys were bad shots."
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