Uncle Wilhelm with his big brother Heini
Perhaps this is the saddest picture I will ever put on my blog. It is a picture of Wilhelm saying goodbye to his brother before being sent to die in the war. He has just turned 19. He a few months older than my son John is right now. He disappeared in Russia in 1944.
The picture is meant for his mom and sisters Lisa and Tini. I found it in my grandmother's things. Granny said Wilhelm loved and doted on Heini. When the war started he was only 14, a sweet and sensitive boy granny always said, who wouldn't harm anything, but by 1944 Hitler was on the defensive in the Soviet Union and so Wilhelm, like many other young German boys, was sent to die on the Russian Front. There are other pictures of him, but he looks a little too despondent in them in his uniform, slightly too large for him. He is wearing a sprig of Edelweiss on his left breast pocket (obscured in this picture).
The Edelweiss he wore he must have sent to granny, because she kept it next to his picture. The crimes perpetrated in the name of fascism are deep and unforgiveable. I mourn Wilhelm and all the young German boys who died as Nazi cannon fodder, and so should you.
That is very a moving tribute, beautifully written. One should never blame the soldier for the war.
ReplyDeleteOf course I do blame the SS and the rest of them but Wilhelm was just a boy.
ReplyDeleteTake his cap and uniform off and you can see it. He looks about sixteen. Wahat a sad and strange coming of age. He is pleased because the uniform is a symbol of adulthood, but that is not what it is at all.
Granny said he was soft and kind and wouldn't hurt anyone. Knowing granny and Heini - Heini who did his best to save my mother's Jewish grandmother and aunt - I believe her. German Grandmother who was married to a Jew.
It makes me so goddam angry.
ReplyDelete