Memorial to my Father

[Helmut]

Servus,
My father was a German veteran of the Waffen SS. He served briefly in the Division Reich, Totenkopf, and ended up in the Handschar. He spent three years in England after the war, first as a POW and then as a farm worker. He and my mother came to the USA when I was an infant. He and I spent many hours talking about his experiences in the war. He became as US citizen and labored to make a good life for himself and his family in his adopted country. He never denied or hid his past.

He never glorified war and he didn't sugarcoat it. When I was young, I didn't understand much of it. When I was a little older, I doubted much of it. Then I started studying WWII and I found that much of what I doubted was true after all. I began to ask questions, but not nearly enough questions. Every time I went to visit him I querried him about some little detail that I was curious about from my readings.

Last July when we wntr home to visit dad, I wanted to show him a picture in a book that I had found, he had told me about an officer under whom he had served in Russia andI wanted to show him the picture to see if it was the same individual. I forgot to take the book home. I told him about the picture and told him I would bring it next time I came home.
My father passed away unexpectedly last week. There will be no more conversations. All I have now are my memories. The Oberscharfuehrer's campaign has come to an end.

And the point of this story? Yes it is a eulogy , to an extent, for my father but it is also an urgent plea. Each day more and more veterans are leaving us. Talk to them while you may, not just because of the information that is being lost every time one of these men passes but also for your own peace of mind since, believe me, when they are gone, you will regret every moment you didn't spend with them, every question you didn't ask, every picture you didn't have identified.

Please talk to them since they will not be with us much longer.

Regards,

Helmut

[Doktor Krollspell]

Hello Helmut!

I'm sorry to hear about your Father's death. It's good though, to hear that he lived a very long life and was able, together with his family, to re-start after the war in a new country. And yes, for each year that passes, that particular war slides deeper and deeper into history as the war generation are getting fewer and fewer.


With condolences,

Krollspell

[phylo_roadking]

...and if you can, get them to recount it at your nearest Living History archive. Most countries have an oral history propject running - here in the UK the biggest for WWII is under the purview of the BBC, you can literally walk into any BBC studio and recount your WWII experiences - whether as a veteran, on the Home Front or your memories of it as a child.

This started many years ago as a way of recording rural life and country ways, and was so successful in various parts of Britain that the same process was applied to WWII.

Not only does it record for posterity, it gets those memories "out there".

[Hans]

Helmut,

My sincere condolences.

- Hans

[Helmut]

Thank You all. I didn't mean to double post but after I posted my other message on this subject, I didn't see it on the forum and thought that it had been lost somewhere in the ether.

Thank you all for your kind words.

regards,

Helmut

[AJAB]

I'm sorry for the loss of your father. My father never talked about his war experiences fighting the Japanese. What little I learned was pried information by myself. My father-in-law is a wealth of information. He has written his memoirs from basic training to the end of the war in the ETO. With the upcoming Ken Burns special "WAR" on PBS, the local PBS station invited WWll veterans to come to the studio to share their personal war stories. Luckily, he was one of eleven selected to be interviewed and taped for a local one hour special. Those veterans and their families were invited to view the show before it is aired on television. My goodness, what a special event. The stories ranged from a combat medic at Normandy, a marine at Tarawa, a bomber pilot and combat engineers, etc. We will always have his story in print and now on video. I couldn't agree more with your statement regarding the number of veterans dying and their stories leaving mankind forever. I suppose it is an unfortunate result of war, any war. Korean and Vietnam veterans seldom speak of war either, maybe because those were both unpopular within America at the time and they feel no one really cares.

[Uli]

Servus,
My father was a German veteran of the Waffen SS. He served briefly in the Division Reich, Totenkopf, and ended up in the Handschar. He spent three years in England after the war, first as a POW and then as a farm worker. He and my mother came to the USA when I was an infant. He and I spent many hours talking about his experiences in the war. He became as US citizen and labored to make a good life for himself and his family in his adopted country. He never denied or hid his past.

He never glorified war and he didn't sugarcoat it. When I was young, I didn't understand much of it. When I was a little older, I doubted much of it. Then I started studying WWII and I found that much of what I doubted was true after all. I began to ask questions, but not nearly enough questions. Every time I went to visit him I querried him about some little detail that I was curious about from my readings.

Last July when we wntr home to visit dad, I wanted to show him a picture in a book that I had found, he had told me about an officer under whom he had served in Russia andI wanted to show him the picture to see if it was the same individual. I forgot to take the book home. I told him about the picture and told him I would bring it next time I came home.
My father passed away unexpectedly last week. There will be no more conversations. All I have now are my memories. The Oberscharfuehrer's campaign has come to an end.

And the point of this story? Yes it is a eulogy , to an extent, for my father but it is also an urgent plea. Each day more and more veterans are leaving us. Talk to them while you may, not just because of the information that is being lost every time one of these men passes but also for your own peace of mind since, believe me, when they are gone, you will regret every moment you didn't spend with them, every question you didn't ask, every picture you didn't have identified.

Please talk to them since they will not be with us much longer.

Regards,

Helmut

Outstanding story. Deeply moving.

My dad died in 1994 and never does a day pass in which I don't think of him and the countless lessons he taught me. Within the past 10 years I've received numerous phone calls and old photos from his service friends, and most of the photos are ones I had never seen before. One such photo was taken during the battle for Okinawa Island, and upon seeing my dad's youthful wartime image, my wife remarked, "My God, that's you! You're the spitting-image of your dad!"

My dad was likely no different than your own, nor any of the aging veterans who occasionally haunt this website--Rudi, Gerhard, Haen. Just a different uniform. Same human characteristics, however: quiet, unobtrusive, humble; famously reluctant to make glory of war. Author and former Marine William Manchester once explained to me that he felt his generation's humility was a result in large part of the difficulties it was universally forced to confront and surmount in the 1920s and 1930s--to say nothing of the war years.

If my dad taught me anything foremost, it was that he had more in common with the veterans of his war than he did with general society. Looking back on this man's undying respect for his former enemies, I often wonder why there was a war to begin with.

Here's to your grievous loss. In my youth such men were themselves quite young and innumerable worldwide. How the decades have flown, and how their numbers have precipitously declined. I was a product of their war, and I today can't imagine living in a world without these veterans, their stories, their influence, their advice. Seems that, with their passing, the world grows a little darker, a little more dangerous by the day. Younger generations increasingly live for computer-generated wargames and simulated combat while the cautionary tales of white-haired, combat-scarred WWII vets increasingly go unheeded. The folly of youth.

[Annelie]

My condolences on the loss of your Father.

As Uli wrote

can't imagine living in a world without these veterans, their stories, their influence, their advice. Seems that, with their passing, the world grows a little darker, a little more dangerous by the day

Yes, the world does seem to grow darker.

[Helmut]

Thank you all for your condolences. i did not write this mesage for condolences, i jsut want everyone to appreciate their ancestors, be they veterans or not, while they are still here. When they are gone it will obviously be too late to hear their stoies or more importantly, to tell them how much you love them.

regards,

Helmut

[PBR Streetgang]

Servus,
My father was a German veteran of the Waffen SS. He served briefly in the Division Reich, Totenkopf, and ended up in the Handschar. He spent three years in England after the war, first as a POW and then as a farm worker. He and my mother came to the USA when I was an infant. He and I spent many hours talking about his experiences in the war. He became as US citizen and labored to make a good life for himself and his family in his adopted country. He never denied or hid his past.

He never glorified war and he didn't sugarcoat it. When I was young, I didn't understand much of it. When I was a little older, I doubted much of it. Then I started studying WWII and I found that much of what I doubted was true after all. I began to ask questions, but not nearly enough questions. Every time I went to visit him I querried him about some little detail that I was curious about from my readings.

Last July when we wntr home to visit dad, I wanted to show him a picture in a book that I had found, he had told me about an officer under whom he had served in Russia andI wanted to show him the picture to see if it was the same individual. I forgot to take the book home. I told him about the picture and told him I would bring it next time I came home.
My father passed away unexpectedly last week. There will be no more conversations. All I have now are my memories. The Oberscharfuehrer's campaign has come to an end.

And the point of this story? Yes it is a eulogy , to an extent, for my father but it is also an urgent plea. Each day more and more veterans are leaving us. Talk to them while you may, not just because of the information that is being lost every time one of these men passes but also for your own peace of mind since, believe me, when they are gone, you will regret every moment you didn't spend with them, every question you didn't ask, every picture you didn't have identified.

Please talk to them since they will not be with us much longer.

Regards,

Helmut

Outstanding story. Deeply moving.

My dad died in 1994 and never does a day pass in which I don't think of him and the countless lessons he taught me. Within the past 10 years I've received numerous phone calls and old photos from his service friends, and most of the photos are ones I had never seen before. One such photo was taken during the battle for Okinawa Island, and upon seeing my dad's youthful wartime image, my wife remarked, "My God, that's you! You're the spitting-image of your dad!"

My dad was likely no different than your own, nor any of the aging veterans who occasionally haunt this website--Rudi, Gerhard, Haen. Just a different uniform. Same human characteristics, however: quiet, unobtrusive, humble; famously reluctant to make glory of war. Author and former Marine William Manchester once explained to me that he felt his generation's humility was a result in large part of the difficulties it was universally forced to confront and surmount in the 1920s and 1930s--to say nothing of the war years.

If my dad taught me anything foremost, it was that he had more in common with the veterans of his war than he did with general society. Looking back on this man's undying respect for his former enemies, I often wonder why there was a war to begin with.

Here's to your grievous loss. In my youth such men were themselves quite young and innumerable worldwide. How the decades have flown, and how their numbers have precipitously declined. I was a product of their war, and I today can't imagine living in a world without these veterans, their stories, their influence, their advice. Seems that, with their passing, the world grows a little darker, a little more dangerous by the day. Younger generations increasingly live for computer-generated wargames and simulated combat while the cautionary tales of white-haired, combat-scarred WWII vets increasingly go unheeded. The folly of youth.

well said, Uli.

Helmut, my sympathies to you and your family. Your dad is back where he belongs, in ranks with his comrades

[Helmut]

Thank you PBR Streetgang,
I have always suspected that , except for his family, the highlight of my father's life was the time he spent in the military, even with all the hardships he endured and the agany he saw. The comment you made about his now being back in the ranks where he belongs with his comrades was vey moving to me mainly because I suspect that you are exactly right. he told me many stories of his experiences and in his old age repeated many of the stories repeatedly as if I had never heard hem before.
I have been reading Vopersal's history of the Totenkopf Division and when I read the diary accounts and look at the many pictures, I now find myself wondering, how many of these men my father may have known. probably none but possibly some.

[Keystone Two Eight]

Sorry for your loss Helmut, I know how you feel, and I admire you for taking the time to find out what part your father played in the war.
.
My Uncle was 17 when he joined up with the 28th infantry, and he never once talked about it. his children had no idea what unit he had been with, nothing more than that he carried around a large chunk of Shrapnel in his right knee, a memento from the Hurtgen forest.

I am currently working on finding out info on him, and have contact wioth other vets in my area, in an attempt to recall what they went thru, to preserve it for future generations. I actually found an entire town a half hour from here that had no idea their surrounding countryside had been used as a firing range for M3 Lee crews on their way to Africa.

[Das Rikki]

A very nice story Helmut. Thanks for posting this. My dad was born in 1922, here in the USA. He did not serve in WWII because of a severe heart murmur, which eventually cost him his life at age 50.

So true, we need to talk to as many of the vets as possible and hear their stories on a first-hand basis.

[bernhard37049]

That was a moving story. It brings back memories of me and my Opa. I also didnt ask questions now it is to late. Bernhard37049

[Rudi Welz]

Helmut,
my sincere condolences!Warm Regards

Rudi