As a first generation Canadian of German descent I naturally have a different family history to consider on Remembrance Day. I am proud to say though that I come from a line of independant thinkers who in their own small way gave the finger to the Nazis, dangerous as that was. From my Onkel Guenther who spent a few years in his own countrys prison camp for thumbing his nose at army protocol and my Onkel Bernd who had part of his ear shot off but luckily not his brain and my Onkel Bruno for spending 6 months in an American POW camp. But mostly I think about my Opa Stermann and his small but brave gestures at defying the Nazis- from helping hide American parachutists to threatening (with his gun, no less) a local farmer who was abusing his Polish prisoner farm help. When the end was near and the German army came and surrounded their town with land mines in hopes of thwarting the oncoming Allies from Holland he committed to memory the location of each and every one so that the Allies could disarm them when they arrived and amazingly had the nerve to try to convince a German lieutenant to defy strict orders at that time to destroy all bridges in that northwest part of Germany. He was successful. The bridge in Halverde may have been one of the few bridges remaining intact in that part of Germany. At the end the Allies took him away to the local prison anyway because he was the town elder and Nazi-appointed leader and assumed that he was a Nazi sympathizer. The towns people marched 30 km to the next town and demanded he be released as he was NOT a Nazi and they were able to convince the Allies and my Opa walked home the next day. I think its a pretty neat story. Anybody else have some to share?
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 17:05:31 +0000
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