From an early age – my German heritage was imprinted upon me. My Mother reminds me that we spoke German exclusively at home until I started Kindergarden and requested that she talk to me in English – so I didn’t stick out like a Swastika in the neighborhood. But my attempt at American assimilation failed because a neighbor kid loved to taunt me about being a Nazi. But this is a story I’ve told before and will most likely revisit in-the-not-so-distant-future: this essay is about my Mom and the additional clarification I received the other Night when she may have had a wee bit too much to drink. But there was a young German girl over – the buxom, blue-eyed blonde type – and I guess Mom got to feeling her youth…again…
Brother Paul, 9 years younger than myself – always says that he gets our Mother much drunker than I do – and that she has a lot more fun with him than she does with me. Well that may be – as my German has fallen by the wayside – and Brother Paul’s German is pretty damn good! In fact, we thought that he might become a German-speaking comedian (making fun of the ol’ Jerries) at one point in his life. Unfortunately – I have been declared the fat member of the family – the over-indulger – and, as such, Mother does not let down the High German veneer around me very often (even though she’s not a ‘high’ German). So it is rare to hear her speak about her past with a belly-full-of-wine…
First off – it would be tough to call my Mother a Nazi – though stalwart readers know that she is a Bushie all-the-way! Born in 1934 – she just made 11 in 1945. Sure they had the Hitler Youth programs – but I think they mostly wanted boys – and she was certainly too young for any breeding programs around at the time.
So I had heard the stories about the bombings and the trips to the shelter. I had also heard about the scarcity of food and how the Germans viewed corn as pig food – so that when our military dropped those food supplies – the Germans felt that the Americans were treating them like pigs.
But what Mom had never talked about before were some of the circumstances and happenstances of the American occupation: reportedly – Germany was a hell-hole for three years – through 1948. Plenty of the German citizenry got their come-uppance for being Nazi supporters: women and girls raped by their liberators; people shot to death for no very good reason; and, plenty of Germans starving to death. Not a pretty picture for a beaten people at the mercy of their liberators.
Ja. Ja. I know that all is fair in love and war – and that our very own Dubya has gone on record saying that he is a War President – which I can only assume directly connects him to all the horrors that war brings. Right?! Right!? Someone who enjoys war gets off on that kinda stuff? Right?! Which made me think of a quote from a South Vietnamese woman regarding the American occupation of South Viet Nam: “You have killed our men, made whores of our women and orphans of our children.” Ja. I guess all is fair in love and war…
So Mom – this is a little note of respect regarding what you experienced and lived through. I know that millions have gone through similar stuff and worse since you did. I also know that millions are going through it now. And for some strange reason, people watch a bullshit show called “Survivor” – when the true survivors are all around us: in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, ol’Burma etc. Roger Waters was “spot on” when he suggested that we are amusing ourselves to death. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that I should brush up on my German…again…