Dear friends,
I wish to ask your opinion and comment on an article I read in a newspaper here. I have looked on the internet (or rather Heidi has looked for me) and it seems that you may also have heard about this story as it was on BBC news just earlier this year.
It is an article about a German Luftwaffe pilot who took part in the Bath bombings on 25-27th April 1942. He is called Willi Schludecker and he went to the memorial service earlier this year. As a dying wish he wanted to apologise for his involvement in the bombings. I would like to hear your opinion on this as I think that it was a very brave thing for him to do and I have great admiration for him. However, what worries me is an interview which was held with the organiser of the memorial, Mr Robert Starling. He comments that he only allowed Willi to come over because it was his dying wish. I understand that Mr Starling lost relatives in the bombings but he has to understand that Willi was by no means to blame for his actions. He was under instructions just as the British troops were. He was fighting for his family and country. It was a war, that is the nature of wars. The fact that he has carried this burden for all of his life is enough of a punishment without younger generations who have a biased view and do not have the knowledge of hindsight.
These are only my personal opinions and I would appreciate any feedback or perhaps someone knows more about the story than I do?
Guten Tag
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Welcome to my Blog
Hello.
My name is Arne Braun and I am 87 years old. I decided to start a blog because I read an article in a German Newspaper which said that blogging was the future. So here I am. Of course I had to ask my granddaughter, Heidi, to help me. She is very good with technology even though she is only 12 years old.
I was born in a little village in Cologne in December 1921. I was the fourth child in a family of five. We grew up on a farm and it was a very happy childhood! I went to a very respectable school nearby and then onto University where I studied History of Art. It was there that I met my wife, Ilse. We quickly fell in love (like many youngsters these days) and married at 19 years of age. It seems such a long time ago now. After graduating, I took up a post as a researcher at a university. It was a very interesting time in my life but my wife was away during the war as a translator. She was an incredibly intelligent young woman. After the war, she was offered a post in England working with German soldiers who had been injured and kept in England until the end of the war. Many of them did not have homes to go to and so wanted to stay in England for a little while longer. My wife helped them communicate and breakdown any animosity which may have been felt.
That is why I have decided to create a blog in England because I am now back in Germany and miss my days in London. I hope for those who read it will find it interesting and will enjoy what I have to say.
Guten Abend
My name is Arne Braun and I am 87 years old. I decided to start a blog because I read an article in a German Newspaper which said that blogging was the future. So here I am. Of course I had to ask my granddaughter, Heidi, to help me. She is very good with technology even though she is only 12 years old.
I was born in a little village in Cologne in December 1921. I was the fourth child in a family of five. We grew up on a farm and it was a very happy childhood! I went to a very respectable school nearby and then onto University where I studied History of Art. It was there that I met my wife, Ilse. We quickly fell in love (like many youngsters these days) and married at 19 years of age. It seems such a long time ago now. After graduating, I took up a post as a researcher at a university. It was a very interesting time in my life but my wife was away during the war as a translator. She was an incredibly intelligent young woman. After the war, she was offered a post in England working with German soldiers who had been injured and kept in England until the end of the war. Many of them did not have homes to go to and so wanted to stay in England for a little while longer. My wife helped them communicate and breakdown any animosity which may have been felt.
That is why I have decided to create a blog in England because I am now back in Germany and miss my days in London. I hope for those who read it will find it interesting and will enjoy what I have to say.
Guten Abend
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
