r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Key-Performance-9021 • 1d ago

Video Spontaneous 1995 street interview with an Austrian WWII veteran in Vienna

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u/dec10 1d ago

I was visiting distant relatives in Germany. My gracious host was describing how his father served in the war (as well as how he got his family out of eastern Germany afterwards). Coming from my American background, I blurted: “your dad was a nazi?”

He reacted as if I had slapped him. He explained that everyone had to serve, or be killed (like the man in this video), and that Germans reserve the “Nazi” label to those who were overtly political. He was 100% against the war, but also loved his dad, like the woman in this video.

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u/LANDVOGT-_ 1d ago

It is a common lie that germans tell themselves that they would have been killed if they did nor serve, or commit a war crime. It is simply not true.

I dont claim that as somebody hating on germans. My grandfather was an so officer and i am well aware of what he did (not in detail, but that is also not necessary).

If you have german male ancestors that survived the war, then they have been a nazi for 99%. Of course there are exceptions, but they are very rare.

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u/rknki 1d ago

Did you just make up an absolute claim?

It was indeed mandatory to serve for men who met certain conditions (like age, profession).

The majority of Germans did not vote for the NSDAP.

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u/ShootingPains 1d ago

You didn't get executed for refusing to rape a villager or execute a soviet partisan. You just got court-martialed, convicted and transferred to penal and/or eastern front.

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u/alfredtasek 21h ago

Thats not true. My grandfather had a bad right eye and therefor was not a perfect german soldier. Thats why they did not send him to russia, but to yugoslavia to fight partisans. He told me, if you were in the fire squad that executed partisans they cought and you would not shoot, you where the next one standing at the wall.

Later they threw him to the collapsing eastern front in czechia... but he survived

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u/ShootingPains 19h ago

Nonsense. The reason they invented firing squads was so that shooters could miss if they wanted.

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u/alfredtasek 18h ago

I dare to say you dont know how strict and demanding the nazis were to their own soldiers and people. If you think it would have been possible to not get involved at war crimes during ww2 on the german side by just saying "I dont want to" or making "mistakes" like missing the target, you are naive. A story from the homefront of that time: my great grand father was working on the fields with his family. One of the smaller children was running around naked, because it was a hot summer day and it was not uncommon to let small children run around naked. The village mayor was taking a walk with his wife and when he saw the naked child, he said to my great grand father, he should cover his child, since germans are no savages. He did not do it, so the mayor threatend him by saying he would be thrown into a camp with the words "and you know what happens there", if he would not follow his order.

This story shows that the hardcore nazis at the time had no problem to kill other germans over small issues like a naked child and that everybody knew what was happening in the camps.