Can I tell you a story? [View all]

[Pototan]

It was 1973 or 1974. It was at a little party at the home of a close friend of mine outside of Boston. Maybe 6 or 8 people. His girlfriend's mother was there. I was 21 years old at the time. The woman was about 50 years old or so. She was German with a pretty noticeable accent. At the time, I was in college and one of my studies was History and we were into WWII Germany. I remember I was reading the "Rise and Fall of the Third Riech" (which was about 1,500 pages).

Anyway, I started up a conversation with my friend's future mother-in-law and we started talking about her days as a youth in Nazi Germany. the conversation lasted about 3 or 4 hours. I was mesmerized. As a 12-year-old, she actually heard Hitler speak in person. He had visited her rural area by plane on one of his campaign stops back in 1932. "How was it that the Germans could elect such a man?" Her answer was quite astounding. The Germans had just lost WWI and were humiliated by the surrender agreement at Versailles. There were many WWI veterans in Germany, including her father and uncles. The depression was crippling. There was barely enough to eat. and here was this man, telling all of them exactly what they wanted to hear. "It's not your fault". "You were stabbed in the back by international jews."

The woman, whose last name was Schmidt, said that everyone in her family was a Nazi. That SS troopers were the equivalent of sports stars of that day's American sport. She and her family would listen to Hitler on the radio during the 30's and marveled at the improvement in the economy. Then the war and the aftermath. She claimed not to be aware of the concentration camps and Holocaust until after the war. I didn't really believe her about that part. She married an American soldier during the American occupation of Germany after the war. Her daughter, who later became my friend's wife, told me her mother hardly ever talked about those years. I think she opened up to me because of the drinking and I showed such an interest in what she had to say.

In the end, I thought, that was an amazing conversation. I know that couldn't happen in America.

I am remembering that conversation today, because for the first time in over 50 years, I'm afraid it can happen in America.