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My grandparents were children during the war too, but they did meet during the Evacuation (when children from the cities were sent out to be fostered in rural places for their safety). Which leads us to the odd situation where if a time traveller went back to kill baby Hitler my family wouldn't have been born. Well, setting aside that Hitler wasn't the whole and entire reason the nazis happened, but you get what I mean.
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Mar 22, 2023 16:58
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Both my grandfathers coincidentally got drafted during the Korean War. My dad’s father from Brooklyn got trained as an MP and his unit got orders to go over to Korea, except for him and a handful of other guys who were selected to go back training films at an old movie studio on Long Island. They were given special passes exempting them from shaving so they’d look like POW’s and stuff. He went home on the weekends. My mom’s father got sent to England, where by all accounts he spent most of two years guarding some base and drinking or in the stockade.
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Mar 22, 2023 17:53
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My granddad and his brothers produced illegal whisky and soId it on the bIack market through WW2, does that count as a sort of hero? At Ieast it helped with the morale, right?
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Mar 22, 2023 17:57
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Deki posted:He was a German speaking preacher and I guess the govt wanted to make sure the 20 German farm families he ministered to weren't going to rise up and take bumfuck nowhere North Dakota for Hitler So that’s why Hitler is the capital of North Dakota.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:13
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Also my grandpa-in-law got an Order of the Red Star medal that’s hanging on our wall for killing a lot of nazis during the Balaton Defensive Operation in 1945. He was a loving hero and badass.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:15
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Deki posted:My maternal great grandfather did some domestic spying for the american govt during wwi and wwii. He was a German speaking preacher and I guess the govt wanted to make sure the 20 German farm families he ministered to weren't going to rise up and take bumfuck nowhere North Dakota for Hitler Everyone knows it's the Illinois Nazis you have to watch out for.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:50
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meatbag posted:So that’s why Hitler is the capital of North Dakota. Maybe in the alternate timeline where my Great-Grandfather didn't do his goddamn job 
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Mar 22, 2023 19:28
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My grandfather fought under the Marian faction during the civil war. Sadly lost his property in the prescription that followed. Was able to make a small comeback during the Consulship of Julius Caesar however
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Mar 22, 2023 21:29
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I love these stories. One of my few regrets is not getting to speak with either of my grandfathers about their service. I know they both served, but nothing beyond that.
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Mar 22, 2023 21:33
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My grandfather never talked about his role in the Finno–Korean Hyperwar.
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Mar 22, 2023 21:36
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Platystemon posted:My grandfather never talked about his role in the Finno–Korean Hyperwar. You think that's bad? I've* apparently most likely will've had done some heinous probable actions in the Temporal Wars I* won't soon have to be forgotten.
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Mar 22, 2023 21:53
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All I know is that Finland was in the Axis
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Mar 22, 2023 23:24
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Platystemon posted:My grandfather never talked about his role in the Finno–Korean Hyperwar. Well it was a long long time ago so that checks out
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Mar 22, 2023 23:48
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My family is Hungarian and dad said grandpa was a one armed cavalry major who died in a Russian POW camp when dad was six. But dad was also a chronic alcoholic liar so I took that with a grain of salt. I was right to, as, after his death, I found a family photo showing a teenaged dad with a very alive two armed granddad - who was rocking a Hitler moustache. Keep in mind this must have been in early 50s Hungary so I don't know what was going on with that!
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Mar 22, 2023 23:50
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One granddad was a farmer and thus never called up. The other was in the navy and went to India and Hong Kong. He never ever spoke about it, not even to my grandma. He died in 2004 and in the last few years when his mind was going he would often wake up in the night convinced he needed to check the house for bombs.
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Mar 23, 2023 01:53
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jazzyjay posted:My family is Hungarian and dad said grandpa was a one armed cavalry major who died in a Russian POW camp when dad was six. But dad was also a chronic alcoholic liar so I took that with a grain of salt. I was right to, as, after his death, I found a family photo showing a teenaged dad with a very alive two armed granddad - who was rocking a Hitler moustache. Keep in mind this must have been in early 50s Hungary so I don't know what was going on with that!
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Mar 23, 2023 02:09
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Could someone please suggest a new title for this thread and I will change it. 
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Mar 23, 2023 02:50
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PYF Historical Fun Fact: Sorry About The Nazi Grandpa
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Mar 23, 2023 03:11
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Comrade Koba posted:PYF Historical Fun Fact: nazi grandpa lamentation station
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Mar 23, 2023 03:49
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Marcade posted:PYF Historical Fun Fact: Sorry About The Nazi Grandpa Nazi grandpas, plural
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Mar 23, 2023 04:07
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Milo and POTUS posted:Nazi grandpas, plural *nazis grandpa
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Mar 23, 2023 08:20
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What is the cutoff for history? I do have some non-depressing stories from other family. Does a dad working on a Mississippi riverboat and all the weird poo poo that went down there count? I'm a boring guy but I do have access to interesting people.
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Mar 23, 2023 09:07
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sleepy.eyes posted:What is the cutoff for history? I do have some non-depressing stories from other family. Does a dad working on a Mississippi riverboat and all the weird poo poo that went down there count? I'm a boring guy but I do have access to interesting people. i would like to hear the riverboat stories
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Mar 23, 2023 09:51
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sleepy.eyes posted:What is the cutoff for history? I do have some non-depressing stories from other family. Does a dad working on a Mississippi riverboat and all the weird poo poo that went down there count? I'm a boring guy but I do have access to interesting people. History is history. Regale us!
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Mar 23, 2023 10:04
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It's not history until somebody writes it down. So go ahead and write it down, and that will make it eligible.
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Mar 23, 2023 10:05
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Are communist great-grandpas ok? If so, mine lost his job at the sawmill shortly before the war for organising food aid for striking quarry workers. Later he was mobilised into the Polish Army and his unit was just stranded in the middle of a field as communnication failed and train tracks were bombed out. He got taken prisoner by the Soviets, ran away, returned home, got immediately arrested by the Nazis and sent to a pov camp (it was early in the war so the camp he got to was actually humane). One day he was a part of a work detail and, as they walked alongside a pier, some kid fell into the water. G-grandpa jumped after the kid, almost got shot by the guards who first thought it was an escape attempt, but finally rescued the boy who, as it turned out was the son of a German officer. He was rewarded with a loaf of bread, a bottle of vodka and a pass and train tickets to visit his family (in a town 500km away) on the condition he promises to come back to prison. He did. After all, he gave his word. Also his wife and three sons would probably be murderd if he hadn't. Affter the war, as he was released and tried to get home, his group was stopped by a patrol of drunk Red Army soldiers who decided the entire bunch were German spies. They almost finished digging their own graves as another patrol, this time of sober Red Army soldiers, who after carefully reviewing the case, decided my g-grandfather and his commpanions were in fact NOT German and let them go. Drunk soldiers were ordered to fill in the graves (with their own bodies) and a share of the goods they stole in a neighboring town was given to my grandpa's dad and his friends as compensation. The share, which included a horse-drawn wagon AND the horse, was consequently
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Mar 23, 2023 11:07
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So according to https://www.ancestry.com my great great great great grandfather is Pierre Charles Jean Baptiste Silvestre de Villeneuve. You might better know him as the Admiral who Napoleon fired and then decided to take his fleet off before the messenger could arrive for one last chance to beat his nemesis...at Cape Trafalgar. quote:On 22 April 1806, he was found dead at the Hôtel de la Patrie in Rennes with six stab wounds in the left lung and one in the heart.[4] He had left a farewell letter to his wife.[5] A verdict of suicide was recorded.[1 I presume Napoleon was on hand to deliver a "You have failed me for the last time, Admiral ". Now his daughter is recorded as being born in Haiti in 1801..and married an Englishmen. They had a daughter who emigrated who had a daughter who had a daughter who had a daughter who had a daughter who got to me. Now my mother claims there is a family story that another side of the family came from Villeneuve's nemesis's mistress, but ancestry.com hasn't stated that. I really should do one of those DNA tests to see if this is all accurate. I have yet to find any other famous person anywhere on it (I don't count a random Governor of Ceylon, though he does have a wikipage), though my mother swears her father was a philandering multimillionaire whose stores have his name on it throughout the country. Comstar has a new favorite as of 12:13 on Mar 23, 2023 |
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Mar 23, 2023 11:13
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btw for those interested in their (war-)criminal ancestors, theres a genealogy thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3777244
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Mar 23, 2023 14:04
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Okay here's my Nazi grandpa story. I'm pretty sure he wasn't a Nazi-Nazi because he kind of hated every political party, he was very much a proto anarchist kind of guy who wanted to live in the woods and shoot moose and build engines. His favorite movie was actually Indiana Jones. One of my cousins was an edgelord who scrawled swastikas into a fence post and grandpa called him a useless moron and said he'd be the kind of idiot to volunteer for something and catch a bullet in the head on Day 1 of a war. He was kind of anti-government in general and advised all of us not to end up fighting in a war for some politician's sake and always complained about wasting his youth digging holes in the mud when he could have been chasing girls instead. He was not a huge fan of German WW2 equipment. He said he was pretty pissed off that the very first time they blew up Russian tank they had to shoot it like 3 dozen times with this lovely anti-tank gun. I asked him what kind of tank it was because I'm a dork and he gave me a look like I'm a moron and said something like "A goddamn steel box with a big gun that made a horrible racket. What else?" He ended up near Stalingrad but managed to survive it because he got kicked by a horse which broke a bunch of his ribs and he got evacuated to the rear. His unit was using horses to pull the guns. Gramps says he hated that loving horse and he hopes somebody ate it later on. Later on his unit got reconstituted with a bunch of new guys + the survivors who were wounded or on leave when Stalingrad got pocketed. They spent a winter guarding some river crossing and they got attacked by the Soviets all the time, but managed to hold them off. No one could go retrieve the bodies so over the winter there were bodies building up everywhere and getting buried in snowdrifts, then when it all thawed out he said it was nightmarish. All the water bloated the bodies and he said there were literally thousands of rats crawling out there everywhere, it looked like the corpses were moving, the men couldn't sleep because rats would come crawl all over them and bite at exposed flesh. He says he got really reckless and went kind of insane and probably would have died if his commander didn't pity him and send him to some rest camp for crazies. Grandpa hated rats with an extreme passion for his whole life and it wasn't until years and years later that he told me the Rat-Story, I just thought he was crazy. He did a stint in Italy at some point and said it was nicer than Russia and he thought the Americans were cool characters. He got briefly captured by an American unit and hung out with them smoking cigarettes and eating chocolate on some lonely mountain, but then there was a counterattack and the Americans got defeated and he was back in the muck digging holes 'for that drat gun'. He was pretty impressed with American gear. He claimed their tanks were easier to knock out than Russians, but they had better artillery and lots of planes and more importantly tons of food. When they captured the American position he was held prisoner at he said he was astounded by how much poo poo they had, coffee, candy, the works. After this he was pretty determined to surrender to the Americans or Canadians. Later on in the war he got his wish. They were back on the Eastern Front but at this point the Eastern Front was Germany itself. He says at one point the unit all just voted about their future and decided to surrender so they packed all their gear and went West. Even though the guns and gear made them a slower and more attractive target he said it was easier to disguise the idea they wanted to surrender if they passed their own checkpoints loaded up with weapons 'for the front'. They got to an area that had Canadian soldiers and they started singing English songs (poorly) on the way to the enemy lines so they wouldn't get shot and it worked. They surrendered to some Canadian rear-echelon guys who never saw any action so they acted like a bunch of bros and fired off all the anti-tank gun ammo at a bunch of busted up trucks. True international bonding in war over blowing some poo poo up. Gramps got passed on to the Americans eventually and then ended up as a POW in the US where he worked on a farm, but he said it was pretty easy and they didn't even have guards a lot of the time. Where was he gonna go anyway? From there he met Grandma and so it goes.
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Mar 23, 2023 14:29
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One of my grandfathers fought for Mussolini. The other fought for New Zealand. Both in Italy, though the NZ grandfather was also in North Africa for a period. Had a great time together the few times they met later in life. Wee has a new favorite as of 14:38 on Mar 23, 2023 |
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Mar 23, 2023 14:35
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Im Dutch, white as can be, and I have a bunch of family in Argentina. Also apparently that part of the family (mothers side) were sympathetic to the Nazis during the war, but that's not something my family talks about. As I understand they weren't outright Nazis/NSB, and my grampa didn't take his family there until like two decades after the war, but still, it's all pretty clearly connected even though I never learned any details. There was a lot of other hosed up poo poo going on so we're not really in touch with that part of the family, luckily. It was a real "wait... oooooooh...." moment when I put two and two together in my teens lmao.
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Mar 23, 2023 15:05
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My mother's father served in the air corps, and my mother's mother had a really awesome very polite note from the Royal Canadian Air Force declining her offer to volunteer. She worked in a steel mill instead.
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Mar 23, 2023 15:26
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Taeke posted:Im Dutch, white as can be, and I have a bunch of family in Argentina. Also apparently that part of the family (mothers side) were sympathetic to the Nazis during the war, but that's not something my family talks about. As I understand they weren't outright Nazis/NSB, and my grampa didn't take his family there until like two decades after the war, but still, it's all pretty clearly connected even though I never learned any details. There was a lot of other hosed up poo poo going on so we're not really in touch with that part of the family, luckily.
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Mar 23, 2023 16:04
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Carthag Tuek posted:btw for those interested in their (war-)criminal ancestors, theres a genealogy thread: Genealogy is so easy when you're the final, disappointing form of thirteen centuries of Balkan dirt farmers.
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Mar 23, 2023 16:14
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ondboIwZSdQ Denmark: can’t talk, can kick rear end when it counts
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Mar 23, 2023 16:19
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Alhazred posted:As a general rule, anyone that moves to South America from Europe are shady as gently caress. I got distant relatives in Chile that no one really talk about. But from what I have gathered they were a little too friendly towards the Pinochet regime. Lol yeah. By all accounts the next generation are lovely people though, and the two cousins I met once when they were travelling Europe were cool. Another cousin (I never met) looks exactly like me except latino, which was kinda freaky to see lol.
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Mar 23, 2023 16:38
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My one grandpa was enlisted for WWII, but was in Hawaii and never saw action. My great uncle, on the other hand, was involved in lots of fighting in Europe, including an incident where someone in his platoon stepped on a mine, and he was the only survivor. Guess which one never wanted to talk about it, and which one insisted on having “Lt Col” in front of his name for the rest of his life. God, my grandfather was such a dick, and yet I now have a retirement fund thanks to his gifting his grandkids some stocks. Don’t quite know how to feel towards such a generous rear end in a top hat.
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Mar 23, 2023 18:24
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Alhazred posted:As a general rule, anyone that moves to South America from Europe are shady as gently caress. How many red flags can you find in this short description of the Queen of Sweden's pedigree? She was born in Germany in 1943, but her wealthy, politically connected industrialist father relocated the family to Brazil in 1947.
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Mar 23, 2023 19:23
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Offler posted:How many red flags can you find in this short description of the Queen of Sweden's pedigree? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43R1k8vHCh0
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Mar 23, 2023 19:35
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Offler posted:How many red flags can you find in this short description of the Queen of Sweden's pedigree?
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Mar 23, 2023 19:42
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