Just skimmed trought the thread and would like to share - in short - the warstory of my grandad:
He was born into a poor family and sold on his seventh birthday to tend sheep. Because this wasn't a very good job and he got beaten alot he got himself enlisted in the Army. Later he became a solider in a elite unit subordinated directly to Göhring. He told me several times how you could get nice girls with that white uniform *lol*.
As the war extended to the east he got deployed into the Blitzkrieg and fought his way trough russia. I think he even fought in Stalingrad but I don't remember exactly. Eventually he managed to get back healthy and headed directly to Potsdam/Berlin where his fiance was living (During that trip he ate almost two weeks from 1 KG of white sugar he had stolen, nothing else was there to eat).
On his way trough Berlin he approached a group of around 20 other german soldiers that where sitting around. He asked them for the way and got no answer, he then touched the shoulder of one and that solider just fell over. He told me that there must have been a explosion nearby immediately destroying all their lungs so they just sat around like their still alive. Spooky.
So he stumbled around and was basically lost, as he saw alot of marching comrades which he joined. Little did he know that this was a POW march heading right back to siberia ;(
Of about 20.000 POWs in that camp only 4.000 surived and he was one of them. He lived because he made traps and ate sparrows and he hustled the russian soliders. This is how he did it: He had to wash their clothes and because most of them couldn't count he sold them their own underwear for bread
After he returned to germany he found out his fiance was killed in the bombings, he married another wife and she gave birth to a ******ed boy. The Wife and the boy died after about ten years later and he married my grandmother....
I was always amazed at this lifestory because its so insanely different from what we experience today and thats just a lifetime away, crazy. Plus he is one of the most positive humans I've ever known altough beeing trough all that crazy ****.
My other grandpa always refused to tell me anything about the war, I think because he was a very religious person and he must have done some very bad things.
I also had a step uncle, who would be best described as a redneck. I was totaly certain that he never left the village he lived in in his lifetime I wasn't even sure if he ever left his Farm ;-) But one day he told me that he was also POWed and transferred to California. He told me that the US treated them excellently and that it was like holidays to him. I'd never tought he even knew what California is *lol*.
Last funny note: I live in Berlin and there are
tours trough the bunkers of WWII (great btw.). The guide told us that after WWII one of those bunkers was remodelled to be a nuclear-resistant shelter. Those modifications did only cost around 1000$ b/c the only thing they did was painting the ceiling white. Felt alot more safe after this lol.