Hi DJ, you mention East Prussia, well there's sadness there again, the cycle continues - news.bbc.co.uk
A fellow i know was born a livonian, not too far north of Königsberg, on land that was in his family for centuries ... when he was five or six, the army came - the german army - and said, at such and such an hour trucks will come, you will get in the trucks with no more than twenty kilos baggage each person, if you do not get in the trucks, you will be shot by the russians .... there was no discussion about it, they got in the trucks, and eventually my friend ended up in BC, the only survivor of his family
The man who became his father in law here spent seven years in Siberia after being captured on the eastern front ... then, it took him over a year to make his way home, almost starved on the way, finally he came to his family farm in Sachsen, in the headwaters of the Elbe, and found it occupied by others, he was afraid to identify himself ... said he wandered through a patch of timber that his father and grandfather etc had tended, and that was all he wanted to remember .... of his large family, all that was left was a sister, whom he managed to get to the west somehow, along with others picked up along the way ... eventually became an albertan, and quite successful, never did trust governments or banks though
The US has never taken a real punch ... Pearl Harbour, the WTC, things like that are pinpricks ... enraging pinpricks, yes, but they give no down-home awareness of what war can be |
