A New Day, A New Life

Well, the holiday season has been good. I had an interesting Christmas, filled with presents, food, and joy. On Christmas Eve I had a unique chance to learn a bit of family history...(the story begins):

My Grandfather is a very sick man who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. This disease is created by a surplus of plaques created in the brain that deplete your memory. Recently, his wife moved into a nursing home and he has been having problems adjusting to living alone, with this disease. A major symptom of Alzheimer’s is that you could have a loss of your short-term memory. For instance, if I called my grandfather right now, spoke to him for 5 minutes, hung up, and called him in 5 minutes, he would not know that I had called him. As you could imagine this is a mutually scary experience.

Well, we decided that we would invite him over for lunch. We ate a nice lunch of cold cut sandwiches and then we proceeded to a church service at 3 o’clock. He stayed for dinner and we had a very good meal. All during this time he had been telling stories of how things were in the past (he can remember perfectly). But all of his tidings were filled with questions as to what day or time it was, or even where he was. But then, we started talking about his World War II experiences. Of course, all of his recollections were crystal clear.

He was raised a farm boy that could speak fluent German. His dad was friends with many of the members of the draft board and was able to keep him working on the farm for some time before he was drafted. After approximately 2 years of war, he was drafted and was shipped to a base in San Antonio. At this base he was outfitted and shipped to another base in Texas. At this base, he took basic training and specializing in firing heavy machine guns. After receiving this training, he was sent over seas to Belgium. Unfortunately, I never asked him all of the battles he fought in (totaling 5), but, the main focus of conversation was the infamous Battle of the Bulge. He fired a very large machine gun (caliber undetermined) and remembers the specifications for it. At many times he would be firing the gun for so long that the barrel would turn as red as the ketchup on our table and the bullets would only fall out the end of the barrel. After this battle, he was transported to a different camp. While being transported by tank, the army drove along a road scattered with dead American and German bodies. The tank driver decided it would be fit to roll over the body of a dead German, crushing his skull. This image is forever in his mind, describing the true, brutal nature of war. When he got to his destination several days later, his fellow troops were lined up and inspected by the ever-famous Patton. He claims that he was within 100 feet of the General and simply by looking at him, he knew that he was a powerful leader.

At this point my Grandfather began to tell us stories about many of the establishments that he stayed in during the war. At one point, he was forced to tell a German farming family (he used his German-speaking capabilities) that they were taking over their farm and that they could stay in their own barn. The soldiers spent many nights draining the family’s huge surplus of alcohol, nights he would never forget. At another point, he was staying in a similar farmhouse but his unit was supposed to guard captive German soldiers that stayed in a barn, a barn filled with fermenting wine. At another point in the war, his outfit raided the house of a very rich French businessman. The man had many fine wines and drinks. My grandfather claims he drank a whole bottle of whiskey within a day, and did not feel any effects of the alcohol.

Since he was a translator, he took part in many interrogations of German soldiers, giving information to American officers. At one point, he had learned a lot of French and could understand what French soldiers were saying as well. My grandfather also made a large sum of money, totaling around $2,200 (not including military wages). He gained this money by selling his cigarette rations to German citizens and fellow Americans. He would take his cigarette ration card, fill the punched hole with a white substance so that he could continuously attain more and more cigarettes, making even more money. Towards the end of the war, he was in charge of guarding a former concentration camp. This camp had been transformed into a POW camp for German soldiers. He still remembers all of the treacherous barbed wire. He claims he saw mounds in the ground where Jews had been lined up, shot, killed, and buried. He still remembers the horrible stench of death around him and will never forget it. On his last few days in Europe, he stayed in the city of Paris. There was a large line of soldiers that were waiting to get on a ship home. The officers allowed their troops to check out and roam the streets of Paris. He claims he met many French girls. He was unmarried. He spent many crazy nights out on the town in Paris until it was his turn to leave. He came home to the waiting arms of his loving family.

I guess you could say he had quite the experience.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

posted by Adam @ 10:18 PM Comments: 0