Here's a neat story I found:
Story time. I was asked to relate some stories, as an American member of the military, stationed in Germany, dumber than dog shit about history.
Ok, I was stationed in Germany for several years. Because I got married, had kids, I was able to rent a flat “on the economy”, rather than stay on base. So I managed to get a flat way out in the country, small village called Rothselburg (Zwichen Wolfsburg und Kaiserslautern) about 30 miles away from American installations.
So there I was. Hell and gone from any other American, did not speak a word of German, family months away, got an apartment, and it’s getting cold. I mean, COLD. Need to figure out how to get these weird-ass heaters working. Which means, learn basic German.
My landlord, Herr Sherrer, was about 80 years old. Nicest man you ever met. Because I made an effort to sound like an idiot in 2 languages, he took mercy on me, showed me how to heat the house, and we started talking. I got invited to the family house, and as I continued to learn German, I began to learn stories.
Herr Sherrer also had a military background. But it wasn’t his idea. He was a kid, a PfadFinder (Boy Scout), when one day, he was told all Pfadfinders were now HitlerJungen. Youth for Hitler. It was just a couple years after that, he had to put on another uniform, that of the Wehrmarcht.
Here’s the kicker. I had the stupidity, the ignorance, the temerity, to actually ask him, “why?” Why did the Deutsch people so willingly follow Hitler? How did it happen? Yeah, I was a kid, pretty ignorant of history and world events, so I had the stupid balls to ask such things.
I remember clearly…sitting in his foyer, I asked my stupid questions, he just kinda hung his head, and told me a story, and I will paraphrase from memory:
“We had no money. We had no pride. We had no strength. We were living under the Weimar treaty, all our cows, our farm produce, had to go on the trains to France. We worked so hard, and all we worked for, went to France. We received money, yes, but as soon as we got paid, we took a wheelbarrow of ReichsMarks to the stores, to buy milk and bread, whatever was there, because tomorrow the prices would go up again, every day. Our money was useless, worthless. We had no pride. We had no strength, and it was not our fault. We did not do this, we did not deserve this. We had less and less every day.”
“Then, comes a man, who told us we were Strong. We could have pride, and strength, and we did not need to fear anyone, we were the German people, and we could and should live in peace, with strength, with pride! - And we listened. Because, he delivered. We became strong. We became proud. We had food again. We had jobs again. We could look at each other, and be proud to be a German, and to be a Man.”
Then he looked at me, directly in my eye, and said a thing I will never ever forget. He said “And if your Herr Kennedy had the same situation, and gave you suddenly pride and strength and your manhood - you would follow him down the same path, and you would have been happy.”
I actually gasped, because I knew he was right. And I have seen things in American history, since then, which makes me worry. We worry so much about our ‘Merican pride, and we look for victims, those people who are “taking our jobs away”, those people who “are morally corrupt”.
We could SO easily be blinded and led down a damned path which only History can judge. All we have to do is be blinded, and follow.
One more thing. Herr Sherrer was missing most of his nose. He spent several years after the war, in Russia, where he was captured, outside Leningrad. He told me he spent a lot of time building dams, finding food, trying to stay warm, trying to stay alive. It was so cold in Siberia, his nose literally fell off. Yet, he survived, and after years, came home, started over, went back to work, and was one awesome person.
We need to listen to history, we need to learn, because I guarantee, America is not immune. If we are stupid, we could easily give up our valued Freedom in the name of being politically correct, or being secure, or being safe.
