Vot iss?

Interesting 'fun fact' for your family. I believe one of my dad's grandfather's brothers was at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, and a distant relative was one of the Windtalkers in the Pacific.

That said, people can't immediately assume you to be a member of today's NSDAP, or your father. We must remember that Hitler was a charasmatic leader and helped Germany rebuild after war reparations. Also, all were required to join the Hitlerjugend/Wehrmact when of age or as the Russians closed in.

While I think Hitler had some good ideas, his way of carrying them out were...extreme. We have to look at it from an oppresed, post-WWI, German point of view, not as the victors only. 'History is written by the victor.' ring a bell?

One interesting genealogical fact about my family is that I've had ancestors on polar opposite sides of the Communist revolution and the Tsarist/Soviet regimes. On the one hand, I'm a direct descendant of the Russian Oldenburgs (who were effectively the same family as the Romanovs) and among my lineage are surnames like Kestner (courtiers for Alexander II and, prior to that, wealthy German nobility) and Smelovski (an old Russian/Polish noble house). On the other hand, one of my great-great-grandfathers was a deputy of Dzerzhinski (founder of the Cheka, the Soviet secret police), and another had held two trade ministry posts before being denounced and repressed in the 30s (though by miracle, he survived and was later partially rehabilitated). A few years ago I found out that one of my grandfathers was also a KGB informant on Soviet merchant ships in his youth.

That said, I don't particularly feel personal guilt for any of it - it's part of my history and, perhaps ironically but more so appropriately, the different sides of my family all suffered from the other side's actions. And I certainly have not directly benefitted from any of their less savoury actions. Ironically, some were lucky to have died when they did - I know that if at least 3 different ancestors of mine had lived past the 1920s, I probably would never have been born (because their families would have been purged with them). For me, nothing says more than the fact that I'm virtually equal parts Russian, German and Finnish in my heritage - if we look at old bitterness and injustices and take it out on the descendants of the perpetrators, what am I supposed to do? Hate myself? :O:

I'd also caution against falling for the "oppressed" point of view, because that's been shown many times to have been a political myth - which was not even invented by the Nazis at all, but merely co-opted from the likes of Hindenburg. The idea of a terrible victors' peace and burdens of defeat is a psychological construct, not a socioeconomic fact, and most of Germany's real socioeconomic problems of the 20s were of their own making, exacerbated by a world war they could not have afforded but tried anyway. But it was easier to shift the blame. Hitler rode into power not on the genius of his ideas, but on co-opting a fallacious propaganda maneuver of nationalist conservatives covering their own faults in WWI, and on the coat-tails of an already-recovering German economy that his regime deserves no real credit for. So I really don't see any need for apologetics there.

Shooting himself in 1945.

And providing employment for Germans and business for German companies by preparing for war. It was a good idea until september 1939.

Given the choice of learning knots and sewing on buttons for a badge or manning a AAA site shooting down (attempting to, at least) enemy aircraft at the age of 11 I know which I would choose. Every time, add highlighting the family for trouble, and the naivety from politics, brutality, and every other negative ideal and that just reaffirms it.

That said, I don't know what other jobs the youths did. They may sway me away. But on the surface, I would have joined. That doesn't make me, my family, and especially my children Nazis. Unless Gudrun Himmler was my daughter, was was just a Nazi through and through.

Providing money to get Mercedes and Auto Union involved in Grand Prix racing in 1934.

I'm joining the competition.
Bear in mind, Tribesman holds SEVERAL diplomas (some might be even genuine) so I'm pretty sure he will choose the most accurate answer.

Highways in Poland - we've been using them ever since.

They went to the moon:

http://thegaminggang.com/wp-content/...7/ironsky2.jpg

There were lots of different branches. My grandfather for example started in the motorcycle HJ where they could ride actual small cc motorcycles (who could afford that for their children back then?). But he disliked some of the people there so he went to the "flying HJ" and flew SG38 gliders. Again who could afford flying in the 30ies? So in addition to the pressure by the authorities the kids were also definitely motivated to join as they could do things there which were usually way out of their parent's income.

I didn't say they did. You asked for one good idea he had. Providing money to those two manufacturers was a good idea. Even if it didn't originate with him, he followed through, making it a good idea he had.

Your serve.

Ahh!! Tennis, the only game where LOVE means nothing.

AFAIK there was an old man living in the Karoo (semi arid desert over here), who was a member of the SS.
I heard that he still had his uniform in prestine condition. I haven't followed up on this though, but it would an interesting story if he told it.
This was years ago.. so don't now if he's still alive. :)

If it helps the country and the people, yes. In that time and place it did.

Grand prix's never a bad idea.
Gives the masses something to unwind. And the manufacturers to invent something new.