Weaklefthand4ever Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 8 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said: Only #### thing I remember from that class. Weird part was hs German teacher had parents who were Hitler Youth (“you did that so you could eat”). And one college German prof was Holicast survivor and we watched the late 70s mini series on that in her home There's a lot of that kind of background unfortunately. My grandfather was a Jewish scientist from Austria. It was only in the last few years of my fathers life that I was finally told that he was working in Oakridge from 1942 to 1947 and that our last name had been changed in order to get out of Germany. Though the atrocities of war are terrible, the history they sometimes speak to give us a robust personal journey. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skevinp Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 2 hours ago, Weaklefthand4ever said: I'm from Hamm which is northwest close to Munster I suddenly want a cheeseburger. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skevinp Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 1 hour ago, MikeD said: We are going to the Black Forest area in southern Germany this spring Now I want cake. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 2 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said: High school and college teaches high German. Found out in community college when a young lady who was bilingual (English/German) skipped German I to go in my German II class. After a week or so she was lost and her and instructor realized she was fluent in low German but not High. Only #### thing I remember from that class. Weird part was hs German teacher had parents who were Hitler Youth (“you did that so you could eat”). And one college German prof was Holocaust survivor and we watched the late 70s mini series on that in her home. Did a lot of training in northern VA. Any downtown DC travel was done by Metro subway. Park way out and ride in... Did that multiple times. Orange Line from Landover in. Drove round-trip lots of times, depending on my schedule. An adventure. LOL. The last year or so, I started catching the MARC train at the BWI stop, into Union Station, then two different Metro lines to Rosslyn where I worked. Often would catch the 5:40 AM train from BWI. Next stop down...Odenton... the train would fill up to standing-room capacity. At not even 6 AM. Absolutely nuts. Between that commute, and the several years afterward when I had a driving gig taking clients to and from the DC area (airports, meetings, wherever).... I probably know 10-12 ways, at least, to get to and from. None of them a picnic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 2 hours ago, Weaklefthand4ever said: There's a lot of that kind of background unfortunately. My grandfather was a Jewish scientist from Austria. It was only in the last few years of my fathers life that I was finally told that he was working in Oakridge from 1942 to 1947 and that our last name had been changed in order to get out of Germany. Though the atrocities of war are terrible, the history they sometimes speak to give us a robust personal journey. Gotta be honest, I've been reluctant to do a genealogy search for my German relatives... not sure I want to know if there were any "Party" members who were distant cousins or whoever. On the other hand, maybe it would provide some insight if I did find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weaklefthand4ever Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 15 minutes ago, Fran Haring said: Gotta be honest, I've been reluctant to do a genealogy search for my German relatives... not sure I want to know if there were any "Party" members who were distant cousins or whoever. On the other hand, maybe it would provide some insight if I did find out. I had some of the same feelings at points in my life. I think talking to my father in his later years helped to ease some of the apprehension. The reality of many Germans was that there was no choice in the matter. Especially those who were engineers and scientists. If the German party would have found out that my grandfather was Jewish, I wouldn't be here to type this. But if you wanted to survive, hard choices had to be made in every direction you turned. I have asked myself many, many times what choice I would make and to this day, I have never been able to give myself an answer. In my fathers last years, my older brother and I went to Oakridge and were able to find out a LOT about the circumstances surrounding how scientists were brought into the US and their desire to help end the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 5 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said: We got PA German here which is different from German German 😉. But then you have the high and low German which never was explained to me very well. Supposedly PA German hasn’t changed as much over the centuries but not sure. Took German in HS and college thinking that was my heritage. Took DNA test last year and found out I’m over 3/4 UK.... oops Pennsylvania Dutch is 16th century German from the Palatinate/Pfalz region of Germany where the Amish came from. They can understand "Hochdeutsch"/modern German just fine. The trick is the goofy dialectal stuff, which to me sounds a lot like Bayerisch/Bavarian dialect which sounds like you have "stuff" in your mouth.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 4 hours ago, MikeD said: We are going to the Black Forest area in southern Germany this spring, flying in to Stuttgart, while visiting our daughter in London. Our daughter's partner is a Greek gal, but her family moved to Germany when she was small, so she was brought up there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Fran Haring said: Gotta be honest, I've been reluctant to do a genealogy search for my German relatives... not sure I want to know if there were any "Party" members who were distant cousins or whoever. On the other hand, maybe it would provide some insight if I did find out. 53 minutes ago, Weaklefthand4ever said: I had some of the same feelings at points in my life. I think talking to my father in his later years helped to ease some of the apprehension. The reality of many Germans was that there was no choice in the matter. Especially those who were engineers and scientists. If the German party would have found out that my grandfather was Jewish, I wouldn't be here to type this. But if you wanted to survive, hard choices had to be made in every direction you turned. I have asked myself many, many times what choice I would make and to this day, I have never been able to give myself an answer. In my fathers last years, my older brother and I went to Oakridge and were able to find out a LOT about the circumstances surrounding how scientists were brought into the US and their desire to help end the war. My wife has a great uncle who was in the German Army during WW2. He refused an order to shoot and slaughter innocent women and children in the occupied town. He then stood trial and was executed for disobeying a direct order during wartime. He did not have kids but was engaged to be married. He and all others 'did' have a choice. Would it have been better for him to obey in the name of self survival so that his kids could be born and prosper, or was it more important for him to stand and sacrafice his own life for others? Edited February 10, 2019 by Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weaklefthand4ever Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 (edited) 27 minutes ago, Stu said: My wife has a great uncle who was in the German Army during WW2. He refused an order to shoot and slaughter innocent women and children in the Jewish sector of an occupied town. He then stood trial and was executed for disobeying a direct order during wartime. He did not have kids but was engaged to be married. Would it have been better for him to obey in order to survive so that his kids could be born and prosper, or was it more important for him to stand as a Christian and sacrafice his own life for others? Different situation but always the moral question right? My grandfather was an electrical engineer in Austria. When the Germans came and rounded up scientists in the late 1930's, they didn't ask if you were German. That was part of the vetting process that the SS was supposed to perform. By 1942, that vetting process was so bogged down that it allowed time for many scientists to escape and make their way west to the U.S. My grandfather had no children, no wife or fiance and no desire to help the Nazi's. He did, though, wish to survive and help to end the war. So as I stated, completely different situations. If the situation would have been similar, I cannot say what would have been decided. Scientists were rounded up en masse, drafted like any other and forced to do whatever they were told to do. As soon as he had an avenue to escape, he did so. Oh....and in the family tradition, my brother is a Nuclear Theorist and thankfully, a complete pacifist. Edited February 10, 2019 by Weaklefthand4ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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