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

My biological father died in 1944 in Russia. Mother married again, my second father, who was a wonderful person. He was young when Hitler took over Germany and took part in the brown shirted Hitler Youth which was the highlight of his young manhood. He was leader of a group of other young men and they went on a bike tour down the river Rhein and up again. They camped, took pictures and enjoyed life. He had never felt so important before.
He went into the war to fight for Hitler's cause, which, after all, could not be wrong, could it? He fought in Norway and got hurt in the knee and returned home to be treated. But the years in war permitted him to see the uselessness of all the killing, and the truth of what was behind it all nearly made him give up all hope in humanity. He had wanted to be a medical doctor and at first he tried to continue his studies but there was no money. The funds his grandfather had left in a bank for him to study were useless and he never saw them again. Instead he went out with groups of men to cut turf for heating and later was explored by sharpies so that only many years after the war he was able to earn enough money to live a little better fincancially. But by then his psychologically caused asthma was so
bad that he lived only till 50 years of age. He was a sensitive man and never recovered from the disappointment he had suffered through an evil man called Hitler.