i am of this curious german generation where you had a 50/50 chance that your grandparents were nazi party members because they were old enough to join. and a 50/50 chance that your grandfathers were in the army because they were too young to be called into service. pic.twitter.com/3hiqHhel58
— _bydbach_ (@_bydbach_) February 19, 2021
in order to pass his army physical and join the luftwaffe, he put lead weights in his shoes and passed. this was already during the war and training had to be quick. within a year he had graduated and sent to his first two assignments: occupied paris & rural netherlands. pic.twitter.com/BfLVd15sie
— _bydbach_ (@_bydbach_) February 19, 2021
from the surviving photographs in my grandfather's album, you'd think he was on his gap year, travelling the urban highlights & rural idylls of europe. only occasionally are you reminded that he's part of an occupying army. all aspects of actual warfare are carefully omitted. pic.twitter.com/V7kWWWsHBx
— _bydbach_ (@_bydbach_) February 19, 2021
after that he was captured and sent to prison camp in italy. he was released some time after the war. i don't know when. because of his severe head injury, doctors told him that his memory would be patchy for the rest of his life. it only started affecting him truly in old age.
— _bydbach_ (@_bydbach_) February 19, 2021
in the early years of the DDR, he briefly took up flying gliders as a hobby. until it was forbiddin b/c people used gliders to escape the soviet occupied zone & head west.
— _bydbach_ (@_bydbach_) February 19, 2021
he always talked fondly of his lost hobby.
he never mentioned why he could fly planes in the first place. pic.twitter.com/9wE5145xx7
