Some of the last defenders of Berlin unearthed...

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Heimrick

Heimrick

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2776989/Recovering-fallen-German-soldiers-killed-bloody-Second-World-War-Brandenburg-battle-discovered-wearing-boots-helmets.html?ito=social-facebook


Interesting link. We can see what looks like an STG44 on one of the pictures.

Good day guys
 
Too bad, so sad. A few of the millions of lives thrown away because of the actions of one megalomaniac at the power levers.

And it keeps on giving. I know a fellow who was born in East Prussia and, like most German kids at the time, was forced into the Hitler Youth where they did a pretty good job of programming him. He was exposed to various atrocities while fleeing from the Russian advance and suffers from undiagnosed PTSD to this day because of this. He has had periodic flashbacks in later life which have caused a lot of turmoil in his personal life, but he still does carry some abiding beliefs that Hitler and the Nazis were right in many ways.
 
purple said:
....but he still does carry some abiding beliefs that Hitler and the Nazis were right in many ways.
Click to expand...

These beliefs are held by MANY Europeans....now and then. You can look at the turmoil and mistrust between peoples and cultures over there for confirmation.
 
purple said:
Too bad, so sad. A few of the millions of lives thrown away because of the actions of one megalomaniac at the power levers.

And it keeps on giving. I know a fellow who was born in East Prussia and, like most German kids at the time, was forced into the Hitler Youth where they did a pretty good job of programming him. He was exposed to various atrocities while fleeing from the Russian advance and suffers from undiagnosed PTSD to this day because of this. He has had periodic flashbacks in later life which have caused a lot of turmoil in his personal life, but he still does carry some abiding beliefs that Hitler and the Nazis were right in many ways.
Click to expand...

Yes, East Prussia took it hard from the Russian advance, very hard.
If there were as few nazis as admitted it after the war, hitler never could have gained power.
Do you guys know if the Russians collected their dead and left the Germans? I'd have thought there'd be more Russian bodies considering close range engagements with 88mm anti-aircraft guns.
 
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berger said:
These beliefs are held by MANY Europeans....now and then. You can look at the turmoil and mistrust between peoples and cultures over there for confirmation.
Click to expand...

There was a good supply of old Nazi admirers in Canada as well, but they are somewhat thinned out now.
 
In the book by John Toland "The Last 100 Days" the first German troops to ingauge and fight the Russians in Berlin were the SS Charlemagne (1st French) Division.
The troops the SS Charlemagne fought on the outskirts of Berlin were Germans soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Russians rather than go to prisoner of war camps.

And 75% of the troops manning the Normandy beach defenses were conscripts from other countries.

wwii438_zpsbf21bd4f.jpg
 
bigedp51 said:
In the book by John Toland "The Last 100 Days" the first German troops to ingauge and fight the Russians in Berlin were the SS Charlemagne (1st French) Division.
The troops the SS Charlemagne fought on the outskirts of Berlin were Germans soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Russians rather than go to prisoner of war camps.

And 75% of the troops manning the Normandy beach defenses were conscripts from other countries.

wwii438_zpsbf21bd4f.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow. World tour of hell. Kid saw pretty much all fronts.
 
berger said:
These beliefs are held by MANY Europeans....now and then. You can look at the turmoil and mistrust between peoples and cultures over there for confirmation.
Click to expand...



Sadly, their seems to be a nexus of hatred in that old-school Jew haters and "freshlly-arrived" Jew haters....hate Jews.



Biggest source of immigrants to Israel these days? French Jews, for safety reasons.
 
My mother was a young teenager in Germany during the war. A 14 year old boyfreind of hers was dragooned into the defence of Berlin. His training was breif. "Here is a Panzerfaust. Point it and shoot." When the Russians came, he pulled the trigger, missed and ran home in terror. Not a nice time for anybody.
 
purple said:
Too bad, so sad. A few of the millions of lives thrown away because of the actions of one megalomaniac at the power levers.

And it keeps on giving. I know a fellow who was born in East Prussia and, like most German kids at the time, was forced into the Hitler Youth where they did a pretty good job of programming him. He was exposed to various atrocities while fleeing from the Russian advance and suffers from undiagnosed PTSD to this day because of this. He has had periodic flashbacks in later life which have caused a lot of turmoil in his personal life, but he still does carry some abiding beliefs that Hitler and the Nazis were right in many ways.
Click to expand...

My wife's parents were both kids in Holland during the war. Her mom barely survived the starvation rations they got - the 4 kids took turns licking the wax paper from their weekly butter ration to get extra protein.

Her dad was in Eindhoven. To this day there's only one thing he despises more than Germans, a British fellow by the name of Montgomery (he got to witness the German vengence on the city first hand when the locals came out in support of the doomed allied paratroopers - he was forced to watch 1/4 of his schoolmates lined up against walls).

My wife suffers from some of the same tics her parents suffered from - she is incapable of throwing out "perfectly good food - you just need to cut off the rotten parts" and as much as she tries, she still harbours a knee-jerk distrust of anyone with a hint of a German accent. Even though the rest of us have trouble figuring out the difference between a Dutch and German accent, and my wife was raised in Canada, she can hear the difference in half a word.

The world will be paying for WWII for generations to come. Certain levels of distrust and fear, work their way into people and families very, very deeply.
 
Fall of Berlin 1945 by Anthony Beevor, first rate book on the battle. In a lot of cases, the Russians just "ironed over" the trenches with tanks, to quote from the book. Looks like that's what may have here.

Grizz
 
I'm glad this post was popular, I find it quite interesting. As for the situation in France, honestly its not good but its not that bad either. We go there every year with the kids and have friends in a few areas there. This year we visited the atlantic wall (I'v put a post about it with pitcures) it was very moving. THe economic situation isnt easy in France right now (as in a few other countries in Europe) and there is racial tensions but its not that bad for now. The need to change their leaders that's for sure. Racial tensions are always bad, just look south of the borders with the Ferguson incident a few weeks ago... that was bad enough too. We are lucky in Canada for now, I just hope that things will stay that way for a long time.
 
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