pittpizza
CAGiversary!
What gave me the idea for this thread was a conversation I was having with an older man. He was a teen in Germany during WWII, and I never asked him if he was in the army or anything, though I think most men were, and most male teenagers were conscripted into Hitler Youth towards the end of the war so he probably was. He's lived in Canada since 1951.
He is the step-father of my fiance's step-mother, so there is not a close relation there. I sort of like the guy, we get along fine and he seems to really enjoy talking to me.
We were bullshiting and talking politics, and I was bitching about Iraq, and he told me how his "faderland" was unlike America in that they're super hesitant to get involved in anything, b/c of the international stigma that whenever Germany does anything, even have national pride parades, people the world over say "Oh noes!!!! Look out! Germany is at it again!"
I responded something along the lines of "Yeah, it's unfortunate but they did do some pretty bad stuff over there." Then he said, which really gets at the crux of this post: "Yeah, but we had no idea what was going on w/ the holocaust."
And THAT got me thinking: "Really?"
Okay, maybe most people didn't know they (jews, gypsies, dissidents, the list goes on and on) were being gassed, but they sure as
knew they were being rounded up and never heard from again. They sure as
knew about the massive ghettos (
He is the step-father of my fiance's step-mother, so there is not a close relation there. I sort of like the guy, we get along fine and he seems to really enjoy talking to me.
We were bullshiting and talking politics, and I was bitching about Iraq, and he told me how his "faderland" was unlike America in that they're super hesitant to get involved in anything, b/c of the international stigma that whenever Germany does anything, even have national pride parades, people the world over say "Oh noes!!!! Look out! Germany is at it again!"
I responded something along the lines of "Yeah, it's unfortunate but they did do some pretty bad stuff over there." Then he said, which really gets at the crux of this post: "Yeah, but we had no idea what was going on w/ the holocaust."
And THAT got me thinking: "Really?"
Okay, maybe most people didn't know they (jews, gypsies, dissidents, the list goes on and on) were being gassed, but they sure as

