As I have been researching my latest novel- A wartime novel, set on the German front- I have learned that all Germans were not evil, and were not necessarily Nazis. Many people were discontent with what they had been taught, with what they were following.
Colonel Stauffenberg was one. He was part of a group-one of the last-that tried to assassinate Hitler. Watch the movie Valkyrie to see a semi-fictionalized account of the events that led Stauffenberg to help the group with the assassination, and what happened after.
Another is the Hubener group. This was a trio of high school aged boys; Helmuth Hubener, Rudolf Wobbe and Karl-Heinz Schnibbe. They distributed anti-nazi leaflets; they were the youngest resistors of WWII. Some good accounts about these valiant young men are: When Truth was Treason, The boy who Dared (Susan Campbell Bartoletti), Truth and conviction, and Resistance Movement.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Ignorance and misunderstandings
Many people are ignorant when it comes to World War II.
It was not just the Jewish people who were targeted. It was also the Slavs, Gypsies, Homosexuals, disabled, political prisoners and sometimes even Aryan Germans were imprisoned in the camps.
"When you go to Auschwitz, you feel empty inside. Dead, almost. You can't feel the presence of God in the camps..."-- Mike Swendeman
You can't just go off of the stereotypes. That is not fair to the memory of the dead, of the people who gave their lives. We forget about the people who stood up for themselves, for what Germany used to be. Straffenberg, The Hubener group, The Eidelwiess Pirates, The White Rose resistance group, and so many others. People who knew. We need to remember them.
It was not just the Jewish people who were targeted. It was also the Slavs, Gypsies, Homosexuals, disabled, political prisoners and sometimes even Aryan Germans were imprisoned in the camps.
"When you go to Auschwitz, you feel empty inside. Dead, almost. You can't feel the presence of God in the camps..."-- Mike Swendeman
You can't just go off of the stereotypes. That is not fair to the memory of the dead, of the people who gave their lives. We forget about the people who stood up for themselves, for what Germany used to be. Straffenberg, The Hubener group, The Eidelwiess Pirates, The White Rose resistance group, and so many others. People who knew. We need to remember them.
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