Freddie Oversteegen, Dutch Resistance Fighter Who Killed Nazis Through Seduction, Dies At 92

[DFW]

11. I think no one knows what they are capable of

You only find out when you are faced with the situation. I doubt my friend at age 14 had entertained any notion of firing machine guns at anyone before France was occupied. He also never told me if any of his family had been arrested or killed for any resistance activities. However, if he refused to ever set foot in Germany for the rest of his life, I doubt it was solely because he didn't like Sauerbraten.

Like you said, I hope we never had to find out.

My father-in-law was a farm boy who was drafted into the Germany army at age 17. He was sent to Stalingrad as cannon fodder in 1942. He returned to his farm at age 18 minus a leg. The only reason he survived at all is because he was used to working outside in the cold. The rest of his unit that didn't get shot or blown up, all city boys, froze to death. Normally a conservative (CDU) voter, he fully supported his son (my wife's brother) when he doped himself up for his physical (Germany still had compulsory military service in the 1970s), and was declared unfit for military service. It was also his wish that all his grandchildren be girls, so that they would never have to serve in the military (he got his wish). No 18 year old should have to come home with a leg blown off and live with the memories of the carnage he must have lived through. Nor should anyone else, for that matter.