MovieChat Forums > Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Discussion > Relatives in Germany during the war

Relatives in Germany during the war

posted 13 years ago by cinematic_randomness
13 replies | jump to latest

My grandparents are from Nuremberg, they came to Australia with my mother when she was 2 years old in 1960. I've always been very apprehensive to ask them about the war as they have never once mentioned it.

Until last year, we were having a conversation about how schools today compare to schools from when they were children; I use this opportunity to ask them about their experience during the war. They told me that when it was becoming unsafe in the city that themselves and many other families were evacuated to a safer region in the country were they remained until it was safe to return; and they still attend school every day.

By then I had the courage to ask them if they knew about the camps, they had heard rumors here and there from various towns folk but that was it. They told me that they were not political people nor were their parents, but if you weren't a supporter of national socialism it was something you kept to yourself.

My grandparents were very lucky people, they made it through the war without losing any loved one, however my grandmother's house was burnt to the ground by persons unknown.

I was born in 1984, I've never been to Germany and I speak very little of the language. But when I watch films like Judgment at Nuremberg and Schindler's List and see footage of the atrocities that were committed by the Nazi Party I feel ashamed. What happened is so devastating it can be barely put into words.

Anyway, please share any stories of your own if you wish to.

"Ahh, it's great to be young and insane" - Michael Keaton
The Dream Team

[–] steven_torrey 13 years ago

Thank you for your contribution. The argument your family made is the response the servants make when being questioned by Spencer Tracy in this film. They heard rumors, but didn't know specifics. Leni Yahil in THE HOLOCAUST asserts that several of the camps were located near working farms, and that people could not have mistaken the stench of burning flesh coming from the area of the concentration camp. In the movie CASABLANCA (1942)the word 'concentration camp' occurs some eight times, so there must have been fairly common knowledge in America about the camps. In Germany there was widespread knowledge of the camps and suspicion that to go there was not to come out alive, an attitude also reflected in the American movie CASABLANCA.

[–] pythoner 13 years ago

PBS did a really good documentary about the cast and crew of Casablanca and their experiences with Nazi Germany in the 30's. I find it absurd how many people claim they didn't know. Where exactly did they believe all the people who disappeared went?

[–] Thusnelda 12 years ago

By then I had the courage to ask them if they knew about the camps, they had heard rumors here and there from various towns folk but that was it.

There were concentration camps during the war in every country, also in allied ones, for “enemy aliens”, political opponents etc.

I was born in 1984, I've never been to Germany and I speak very little of the language. But when I watch films like Judgment at Nuremberg and Schindler's List and see footage of the atrocities that were committed by the Nazi Party I feel ashamed.

There’s no reason for you to be ashamed, just because you are of German descent, born decades after 1945. Wouldn’t that be “racist”?

Yours,

Thusnelda

The Ides... are Upon us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc-yg04rVw4

[–] Mars_atax 12 years ago

"There were concentration camps during the war in every country, also in allied ones, for 'enemy aliens', political opponents etc."

Are you really trying to draw a moral equivalence between Nazi concentration camps and American internment camps for Japanese-Americans? American internment camps were not pleasant places, but compared to the concentration camps of your Deutsche Reich, they were like Club Med.

I'm sure you know the following, but still:
6 of your concentration camps in Poland were designed for the specific purpose of killing large numbers of human beings (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Belzec). And even the other camps were horrible places too - American and British camera crews recorded what Allied soldiers saw when they liberated the camps in Germany at the end of the war, namely, thousands of unburied corpses, and prisoners close to death from starvation.

[–] Thusnelda 12 years ago

"There were concentration camps during the war in every country, also in allied ones, for 'enemy aliens', political opponents etc."

Are you really trying to draw...

I stated a fact, that's all.

Yours,

Thusnelda

Wir sind die Toten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpvKO0LyPE

[–] Mars_atax 12 years ago

"I stated a fact, that's all."

And then you cowardly avoided answering the question.

I should not be surprised. Nazis are cowards at heart. You excelled at machine-gunning to death defenseless civilians, and stuffing 3-year-old children into gas chambers, but when faced with armed resistance, you retreated on all fronts.

[–] Thusnelda 12 years ago

"I stated a fact, that's all."

And then you cowardly avoided answering the question.

What question, pleae?

I should not be surprised. Nazis are cowards at heart.

Absolutely untrue. German soldiers of WWII were famous for their bravery.

Yours,

Thusnelda

Wir sind die Toten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpvKO0LyPE

[–] Mars_atax 12 years ago

"What question, please?"

Are you really trying to draw a moral equivalence between Nazi concentration camps and American internment camps for Japanese-Americans? American internment camps were not pleasant places, but compared to the concentration camps of your Deutsche Reich, they were like Club Med.

[–] Thusnelda 12 years ago

"What question, please?"

Are you really trying to draw a moral equivalence between Nazi concentration camps and American internment camps for Japanese-Americans?

"Moral eviqualence"?

I don't know what you mean by this.

Back then Germany had inside the Altreich concentration camps, for criminals, "enemy aliens" etc. I really don't understand why you're so opposed against concentration camps as such, while the USA (and other Allied countries) had concentration camps as well, e.g. for Japanese-Americans.

Yours,

Thusnelda

Wir sind die Toten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpvKO0LyPE

[–] Mars_atax 12 years ago

"Back then Germany had inside the Altreich concentration camps, for criminals, 'enemy aliens' etc. I really don't understand why you're so opposed against concentration camps as such, while the USA (and other Allied countries) had concentration camps as well, e.g. for Japanese-Americans."

First of all, the United States government apologized for interning the Japanese-Americans, and paid them reparations. You Deutsche Reich did not pay any reparations to the victims of your concentration camps. (The BRD paid reparations, but according to you that is not a real regime, and the Deutsche Reich still exists. Well if it still exists, it is time for it to pay reparations.)

Second, the vast majority of Japanese-Americans survived the internment camps. In contrast, the life expenctancy of an inmate in a typical Nazi concentration camp was 3 to 6 months. More than 10 millions people died in your camps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauthausen-Gusen_concentration_camp#The_t reatment_of_inmates_and_methodology_of_crime

Third, the Japanese-Americans did not leave the internment camps looking like living skeletons. In contrast, survivors of your concentration camps were starving, and their appearance was horrifying for the Allied troops who liberated them.

I recommend you watch this film, showing the liberation of some of the camps.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6076323184217355958#

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] butaneggbert 8 years ago

A person can be ashamed for their own actions - which wouldn't apply here - or be ashamed as a member of the human race - which is understandable here.

_______________

Nothing to see here, move along.

[–] iPadCary 12 years ago

My parents are from Nüremberg, too!

No they're not.

B .... I .... L-L-T .... E-T-L-E-YYYYYYY Bill Tetley!