MovieChat Forums > Band of Brothers (2001) Discussion > German Americans who went to Germany to ...

German Americans who went to Germany to fight for Nazi

posted 8 years ago by Snownoise
8 replies | jump to latest

Just started watching this show again and finished the first disc. I was surprised by the fact that there were German soldiers who were born and raised in the states which I missed out when I was watching the show long time ago. The guy said some old German name-sorry I forgot-called them to come back to Germany and that's why he was there. Can this situation be applied to German Canadians too? I wonder how many of them went to Germany to fight for nazi and then later came back home in the states and Canada. It would be nice to see a movie based on people like that

[–] nickm2 8 years ago

I ain't read it yet but check out this guy:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=136586

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

[–] mikeyg24 8 years ago

My family answered the call. All true Aryans should return to the Fatherland. Joined up in 41.

To be fair in this instance I think the guy was supposed to be no more than a kid. Hitler became President in 34 and the episode is set in 44 so even if the German guy was 22 in the episode he was 12 when Hitler began calling all true Aryans back to the Fatherland. It's unlikely he had much of a choice in returning and got caught up in the rhetoric about freeing Germany at a very influential age.

We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow.

[–] ae36 8 years ago

What resonates with me is how some of those guys must have felt--

It really wasn't their culture or belief system for most of them.

Whether they went due to family pressure or some sense of obligation or perhaps where just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time- (visiting relatives, traveling, etc.).

But imagine having to fight for your life in a cause you didn't believe in with people you couldn't really identify with. You'd be telling yourself everyday you're on the wrong side and that must have a nightmare.

I think I remember one story of a boy who was born and raised in the states but had family in Germany. He was visiting relatives and got caught in Germany at the start of the war. Eventually he was conscripted in to the German Army and wound up in France on D Day.

He surrendered but never made it back to the states. He was repatriated at the end of the war to what became West Germany and went to work for the airlines. I believe this story is told in "The Longest Day" book by Cornelius Ryan.

[–] nickm2 8 years ago

I remember a French Movie a bazillion years ago by Pierre Schoenedorf(The Tambor Crab I think it was?); one of the guys on the French patrolboat in Indochina was from a 'traditionally German' part of France's border regions & 'conscripted' by the Germans & sent to fight in Russia. He said the hated The Nazis & could hardly wait to see 'those bastards get defeated'; but for he still just loved his 'Kammerades' & would have gladly died for any one of them-and they for him. I found it ironic but moving.

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

[–] cowgoesmoo 8 years ago

visiting relatives and got caught in Germany at the start of the war. Eventually he was conscripted in to the German Army and wound up in France on D Day.

I remember reading about a guy like that in the first Gulf War. He was an Iraqi captured by the US Army and they were surprised that he spoke perfect English. He explained that he was the son of Iraqi immigrants, was a US citizen, and was born in Chicago. He was visiting his grandmother when the war broke out and he was forced into the Iraqi army. He was just waiting for the US Army to show up - and was just hoping he didn't accidentally get killed in the meantime!

[–] degree7 (821) 5 years ago

There is a similar anecdote in Stephen Ambrose’s D-Day book.

When the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, a lot of the Wehrmacht soldiers they fought were conscripts from across the Nazi empire. In one of the bunkers they found surrendering Axis soldiers who were actually from Korea.

It had turned out they were born in Korea and recruited into the Imperial Japanese Army, where they were then sent to fight the Russians during the border conflicts in the 1930s. Eventually they were captured by the Soviets and drafted into the Red Army, where they were transported all the way to Eastern Europe to fight against the Germans. Eventually they were captured again by the Nazis and drafted into the Wehrmacht, where they were sent to the Western front to guard Hitler’s Atlantic fortress, where they were finally captured by the Americans.

[–] b-rad 8 years ago

the guy said some old German name-sorry I forgot-called them to come back to Germany and that's why he was there.

The term is Volksdeutsche, "ethnic Germans". It refers to people of German blood living outside of Germany. It's not an idea that originated with the Nazis, but one that informed much of their ideology. Its roots are in the rise of German nationalism in the wake of the Napoleonic wars. The idea is that any Germans who emigrate are still part of the German national body, especially if they retain their culture, especially language.

For the Nazis, this was the excuse for the "Heim ins Reich" policy, to expand Germany's borders to take in populations of Germans found in other countries, such as the Germans in the Sudeten mountains, in West Prussia, in southern Denmark, Alsace-Lorraine, and elsewhere. It extended to communities in the Balkans and in Russia, where Germans had settled in the late Middle Ages, and in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, and, to communities in America, where Germans emigrated in the 19th century.

The idea is part of the plot in "48th Parallel", too, as the fugitive German U-boat crew comes upon the religious community and tries to exploit them, as "fellow Germans". And it's a part of the plot in "Stalag 17", too. "But when the war broke out, you returned to the Fatherland, like a good little Bundist."

So, that kid from Eugene had parents who saw themselves as Germans first, then Americans, and so, they returned to Germany when the war broke out. As an aside, this is an excellent reason to make sure immigrants assimilate and adopt the values of their new home, rather than to encourage them to retain the identity of their old country.

The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.

[–] DariusStrain 8 years ago

Yep. It's interesting the ways in which the Third Reich was screwing it's own population and even foreign Germans by inviting them over and then using them as cannon fodder. I don't excuse average Nazis, just saying that German folks had a harsh deal in the end.

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