But, one of the reasons I've not done any research into those sides of the family is that I know we still have distant German relatives and I really don't want to find out I've got relatives who were Nazis.
Heh. It was an open family secret that we had people on both sides of the firing lines. I met a couple of my distant cousins while I lived in Germany. They had both fought in the war (infantrymen), and had both held NSDAP membership, and they had both explained that you were either a member, or you were dead. They were pretty matter-of-fact about their experiences. Things were Just That Way, they said.
It was very hard to confront this part of my family history, very upsetting, but I don't regret it. I needed to know. And now I do.
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Date: 2010-10-13 09:20 pm (UTC)Heh. It was an open family secret that we had people on both sides of the firing lines. I met a couple of my distant cousins while I lived in Germany. They had both fought in the war (infantrymen), and had both held NSDAP membership, and they had both explained that you were either a member, or you were dead. They were pretty matter-of-fact about their experiences. Things were Just That Way, they said.
It was very hard to confront this part of my family history, very upsetting, but I don't regret it. I needed to know. And now I do.