Were Grandma and Grandpa Nazis?

Many were just useful idiots who never thought out their decision. Things don't change much.

Oh. The big bad Nazis again.. a blip in the last hundred years.. How about who was.. and still might be COMMUNISTS

My MIL grew up in the Sudetenland now the Czech Republic in the 30-40's. She was a member of the Hitler Youth, as all children were at that time. Her sister, who stayed in W. Germany after the Russians kicked them out, still had all the memorabilia from that time. I only wish I spoke enough German to understand her stories. My MIL preferred not to speak about the war, except for humorous stories. Their father must have been a party member as he was the town's fire chief. Non party members couldn't hold that position. Their brother was a navigator on Junker planes. I don't know if he was a party member, but he had a fairly positive view of Hitler. He did admit that that what happened to the Jews was "really bad'. We found that mixed view common in that generation. I don't think they ever really faced what Hitler did and how many people he killed.

Mine werent. HOWEVER, if they had been, that would not reflect on me.

Many people were simply unthinking sheeple. Having no adult awareness of what they were doing. The way people are Democrats in this country. Where the Nazi/ Non-Nazi divide lies is subjective - like navel gazing. What difference does it make now? To quote a certain failed politician.

Not mine. Only one of my grandparents, my dad's mother, had German ancestry, but her ancestors arrived here during Colonial times, long before National Socialism was even a thing.

Re #2 - it never ends this obsession with Hitler, the NazIs, etc ad nauseum. How about how many current Chinese students, professors, etc living in the USA today had.have family members who belonged to the CCP, etc. Or how many Russians, Ukrainians, etc fought on the side of Stalin?

I don't see a way to actually do a search for these records. The National Archives website is a confusing mess.

To be fair. Its not like the Nazis were advertising their "final solution". The US media wasnt covering the holocaust in real time. And its fairly common and normal for people to cheerlead for the countries of their ancestry. Its the true believers that one needs to watch.

#3 - My Aunt Anna also grew up in the Sudetenland in a small village. She was the oldest of nine children. Her father was conscripted by the Nazis and sent to work in a munitions plant in Germany. She was also sent to "nursing school" in Germany. Her mother had become pregnant with her ninth child before her father was sent away. Anna was released from her "schooling" and allowed to return home. On the train they came under a bombing raid. She ran with the other passengers into an old barn. However, she was next to an older man up against the back wall. He tried to rape her, and she fled into the darkness with the bombs falling. She took refuge behind gravestones in an old cemetery. The bombing stopped and she reboarded the train in a different car. Once at home she helped her mother deliver her last child. The Nazis began conscripting the young men of her village when they turned seventeen. She and several of her friends skied out one moonless night. They each had a small rucksack on their backs and skied through the forest with only one pole, the trees were so close together. They began walking towards their goal of reaching western Europe. Along the way her companions dropped off one-by-one. She kept going, walking and hitchhiking her way across Italy and eventually into France. She made her way to Paris where she secured a maid's position in an upper-middle class family. The lady of the house gave her some used clothing and a room in their attic. She met an English gentleman who befriended her. He paid her passage on the boat-train to London. She left Paris a week before Hitler marched in, spending the rest of the war in London sleeping in the Underground tubes with hundreds of others seeking safety. Often the next day she found her boarding house or place of employment bombed out and would have to start again. I asked questions, but she never went into any detail of her experiences. My uncle Bill was an occupation soldier after the war. He had also served in the Navy for four years in the South Pacific, enlisting the day after Pearl Harbor. Three months after the war he finally landed in San Francisco and proceeded to enjoy a week-long bender. At the end of that week, he passed an Army recruiting station advertising the U.S. Calvary. Having always want to learn how to ride a horse...he enlisted. He was sent to Germany for the occupation. His unit would help escort groups of civilians wanting to leave the Russian controlled sector and enter the U.S. sector. They were often followed by Soviet troops, and my uncle's mounted patrol would come in between them and the refugees. The Russians never fired on the Americans because, "Nobody wanted to start up hell again." He met Anna one weekend in London. They were married on Christmas Eve..."with all the church bells ringing." Aunt Anna was the only registered Republican in my solid Dem family. She absolutely hated the Democrats, blaming them for enabling Hitler. My father dismissed her opinions, but I paid attention. I've seen her predictions come true. The Democrats are the party of evil.

I lived in the old West Germany for a number of years during the 1960’s. While there I dated a number of nice German girls who were born late in the Second World War or after the war. I always wondered what sort of Nazis that those girl’s parents and other family members were during the war? That always kept me from getting too wound up with any of those German girls even though those girls were innocent of any Nazi crimes, and did not know much about what the Germans called the National Socialist era, as when they were growing up in either the American or British Occupation Zone, that portion of German history was taboo, but they did learn the English language while in school.