h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My mother was a teenager in Germany during the war. She was born in Glaz, which is now in Poland. She married my father (an American) after the war and moved to the United States. She used to talk about the war a lot. Here are some of her stories:

My grandfather was in the anti-Hitler underground, although she didn't know about it until after the war. Among other things, my grandparents 'covered' for my grandfather's boss while he escaped into Switzerland with his family. My grandmother was always afraid someone would find out and denounce them to the authorities.

They lived with fear: fear of being betrayed by a neighbor, fear of dying in an air raid, fear of starving, fear of catching TB. My grandmother was always airing out the house to kill germs (my mother did the same thing when I was a kid).

My grandparents weren't 'allowed' to be members of the Nazi party because they refused to give up their religion (Roman Catholic). My grandfather noted that there are some groups it is an honor to be kicked out of. On the other hand, if you were 'invited' to be a member of the party, your options were to either accept the invitation or to run for your life.

Anyone who disagreed with the Nazi party tended to 'disappear'.

The Nazis were a humouress bunch. My grandfather was arrested once because he called a local SS bully an 'ass****'. My grandfather used to invite the parish priest to dinner, and they'd take a bottle of wine into the study, where nobody could hear them, to tell Hitler jokes.

On the other hand, many in the German army hated Hitler. A lot of the plots on his life originated with army officers. My mom thinks one of her uncles was part of one of these plots because he died under suspicious circumstances. Mom also met a number of the officers who were part of von Stauffenberg's failed attempt on Hitler's life. She met them at a party about a week before the attempted assassination and she couldn't understand why they seemed so happy. One of the fellows told her not to worry, that the war would be over very soon. A week later, she realized why he'd said that (and then she was scared to death that someone would come after her because she'd been seen 'in the wrong company').

Mom worked as a German army nurse. At one point her sister, who was on the run from the Gestapo, worked at the same army hospital essentially impersonating my mom. Mom would work a 12-hour shift, give her uniform to Aunt Irm, and then Aunt Irm would work a 12-hour shift. The army medics didn't care - they needed every available medical worker to handle all the wounded and dying. Unfortunately Aunt Irm had no training or medical ability. She fainted whenever she had to give a shot. God knows what happened during surgery.

My mom's family ended up in West Germany after the war because when it appeared that Germany was about to lose the war, my grandmother wanted to be in the American sector when the end came. So they started walking west...

After the war, everybody starved. Chaos, no infrastructure, refugees from the east.

My mom was able to get a position as a nurse with the American Army, and the GI's would make sure she and her family got enough food. Mom said that the American Army saved their lives.

I could go on and on (I pretty much did, I guess ).

You never meantioned what happened to your Aunt Irm? Or am I asking a bad question?

Not a bad question at all. She also married an American after the war, they moved to Illinois and are the proud parents of ten children and grandparents to an ever-increasing tribe of grandchildren.

It amazes me that my family managed to thumb their noses, so to speak, at the Nazis and lived to tell the tale. So many didn't survive...

What an incredible story, and what brave women. You must be very proud of them. When I hear a tale like that, I crave a happy ending, and this one sure has one. So many families lost family members, or the entire family was wiped out. They sure were lucky.