I met a quiet gentle old man
He was leading the Bible study. He had been a psychiatric nurse up until his retirement. He had dealt with some very very disturbed individuals whose memory still haunted him. His English wasn't quite Canadian so one night after the study ended I asked him where he was born. He told me that he was born in Germany shortly before Hitler came to power.
Over the next few weeks he told me about what it was like growing up in the Hitler youth and the youth camps he attended. He also told about his parents, staunch Mennonite Christians. The war was not going well for Germany when he was called to serve in the Wehrmacht at the age of 16. He was marched into a room where a number of officers sat. They had done the tests on him and he was a very smart young man so they informed him that he would be joining the SS. He refused the order repeatedly even as the officers aimed their side arms at his head.
He fought as a child soldier rising to the rank of sergeant before was taken captive by the Canadian Army. The Canadians kept him safe and fed and warm and at the end of the war he immigrated to Canada and never went back.
I asked him how he. a Mennonite, could fight for what we now know was so evil. He whispered one word. Propaganda. Not the bold and brash we so often imagine. He said it was the subtle kind that Germany had a legitimate war. Germany was being attacked. Germany was an innocent victim as the allies bombed and strafed and invaded. Germany was just establishing its rightful place in the world. The food shortages were a test of your national pride. Every dead enemy was a point of pride.
Of course it was all lies. There was no great conspiracy. There was no great enemy that needed to be defeated. Germany's rightful place was within the boundaries of Germany. Millions of Germans were killed as they fought to protect the Nazi ideals.
I remember his quiet voice and gentle manner and I wonder what he would think of the propaganda being fed to today's Americans. Enemies all around and America's rightful role in the world leading to war after war after war. Those who oppose America are less than human. Terrorists and Ragheads and worse. War for the sake of war.
I am so glad that Jake isn't here to witness the latest iteration of the same ideas that brought the world to its knees in the 1940s.
Over the next few weeks he told me about what it was like growing up in the Hitler youth and the youth camps he attended. He also told about his parents, staunch Mennonite Christians. The war was not going well for Germany when he was called to serve in the Wehrmacht at the age of 16. He was marched into a room where a number of officers sat. They had done the tests on him and he was a very smart young man so they informed him that he would be joining the SS. He refused the order repeatedly even as the officers aimed their side arms at his head.
He fought as a child soldier rising to the rank of sergeant before was taken captive by the Canadian Army. The Canadians kept him safe and fed and warm and at the end of the war he immigrated to Canada and never went back.
I asked him how he. a Mennonite, could fight for what we now know was so evil. He whispered one word. Propaganda. Not the bold and brash we so often imagine. He said it was the subtle kind that Germany had a legitimate war. Germany was being attacked. Germany was an innocent victim as the allies bombed and strafed and invaded. Germany was just establishing its rightful place in the world. The food shortages were a test of your national pride. Every dead enemy was a point of pride.
Of course it was all lies. There was no great conspiracy. There was no great enemy that needed to be defeated. Germany's rightful place was within the boundaries of Germany. Millions of Germans were killed as they fought to protect the Nazi ideals.
I remember his quiet voice and gentle manner and I wonder what he would think of the propaganda being fed to today's Americans. Enemies all around and America's rightful role in the world leading to war after war after war. Those who oppose America are less than human. Terrorists and Ragheads and worse. War for the sake of war.
I am so glad that Jake isn't here to witness the latest iteration of the same ideas that brought the world to its knees in the 1940s.
70-79, M
