A Very Long Shadow

[douglas9401]

Trouble can come from the most well-meaning of gestures.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66919862

[youngmafbog]

Dont these people eimploy an army of checkers?  

Surely all speakers are checked, if only for counter terrorism?

 

[jno]

nobody checks back 80 years unless they're looking for a history of shoplifting sweets, life's too ... shortish

[youngmafbog]

Why not, surely one would check someone of that age for such links.  Not the first time similar has happened.

[Peter Pedant]

nobody checks back 80 years unless they're looking for a history of shoplifting sweets, life's too ... shortish

I wd expect if he were made famous, for people to check my daddy was actually a POW when he said he was.

and Heeeeere he issss ! (a)

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/8999

Ukrainian - a lot of Ukrainians were employed as concentration camp guards by the Nazis and erm rather enjoyed it

 

 

[Peter Pedant]

YMF can you think of other occurrences?

Pierre Laval ( on Time cover 1937) was the only head of state shot for treason ( 1946) - too enthusiastic during the German occupation

I met Lucacsz Martin who recognised my surname so I knew he would have been one of my father's patients. But he only had three fingers on his right hand. Fighting for the Soviet Army. Then what? he deserted and fought for the German Army. How  come you are still alive? he had walked from Trieste ( Trst in those days readers) to west cornwall. I can well believe it - he was a survivor.

[Peter Pedant]

Another one? I  met another one, and discussed the role of the Poles in the War - as my daddy had treated Poles AND Russians ( terribly badly treated, 50% mortality of the untermenschen) - the refugee said he was one of the children who waved at the  trains going past, and shouted " Goodbye Jews!" - 1980, forty years before

and lastly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Moszkiewiez

incredz lady - tv film. SHE went around tipping off Brussels Jews they were about to be arrested. SHE was stopped by the great Jew Hunter of Berlin who was in Brussels for  more work: " mademoiselle, I know what you are doing!" - eek! Zwartboek + a woman at war

worth  a watch if you can get it

[retrocop]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pope-benedict-xvi-hitler-youth/

If this Ukranian had anything to do with death camps or Nazi attrocities the Mossad would of whisked him back to Tel Aviv faster than you could say Eichmann. He was a member of the SS Panzer Grenadiers. There were English Legions,Muslim Legions,Russian Legions etc all fighting along side German troops.

Pope Benedict was in the  Hitler Youth and later became an Auxillary Flak Gunner. No big deal after nearly eighty years.

[Peter Pedant]

There were English Legions.... no there werent and they didnt fight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Free_Corps

There is even a dispute about whether it was the British Free Corps or britische frei korps.

how do |I know?

My father POW - mentioned earlier today as the miner on a thread- was advised that  certain POWs were showing strain and would be sent to a different camp with a lighter regime. It was known as a holiday camp

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Free_Corps

he never identified it as a recruitment camp

"The first recruits to the Corps came from a group of prisoners of war (POWs) at a 'holiday camp' set up by the Germans in Genshagen, a suburb of Berlin, in August 1943."

wiki says 58 - there were never more than 6 at one time,  and they never served....

How you can go thro a recruitment camp and not notice it, I have no idea. They were given cultural tours, guided by  the Dolmetscher Institute, and in one German Museum, an Australian POW asked loudly, why dont these Huns speak English. There were angry murmurs from the museum goers as bombing had started, and the guides tried to calm the crowd over 'our English Friends'

How personal memory varies with the official accounts