RE: Schumi joined the Third Reich?
Munnst.
I think you are right, the German forces in the war were, in the main, no different to Allied soldiers who were just doing what they believed to be right. They obeyed the ‘rules of war’ and often carried out acts of great compassion. It was the leadership and the fanatics who brought disgrace to the German nation.
It’s like Shifty Powers said in a recent documentary piece about Band of Brothers. When asked what he thought about the German soldiers, part of his reply was as follows: “He might have liked to fish, I might have liked to hunt. In different circumstances we might have been good friends.” Those are the words of a man who saw his friends die as a result of enemy action. Sixty years on there is no animosity. It makes you think, doesn’t it?
Seahawk.
The war is still very much alive for many people. For my father, who although too young to fight, helped drag bodies from a bombed factory at fifteen, who helped the wounded in the aftermath of raids on Birmingham and Coventry, who had friends go away to war never to return, or whose neighbour returned from a Japanese prisoner of war camp so emaciated and ravaged by disease that he never recovered. For some of that generation it is still too early to think about forgiveness. He holds no malice towards the Germans of today, but he lived throught that time, he saw a little of the horror of war, not like us on tv, but in a burning building not two hundred yards from the house I live in now. I have to respect his views because he has earned that right. My Uncle spent some months of his military service repatriating German POW’s from North Africa. He said you couldn’t have met a nicer bunch of people.
Sorry for the rant.
Regards,
kev35
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