Have you ever met an Axis veteran?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m sure we’ve all met Allied veterans of World War II, but I’m wondering about the other side.

Have any of you met a World War II veteran who fought for the Axis Powers (i.e. Italy, Germany, Japan, and a few others)? If so, what were they like?

I’ve actually met three Axis veterans (all from Italy), though I’ve met at least a dozen Allied veterans (mostly from Australia, but also one from England and one from Greece).

The first one I met is my neighbor Antonio, who lives two houses down from me. He’s originally from Sicily. Currently he’s 91. He participated in a number of battles in Greece. He got married in 1941 and had a son two years later. Unfortunately, his wife died during one of the bombings. Antonio, his son, and his mother came to Australia in 1950. Antonio got married again to another Sicilian immigrant (who lost her first husband during the war) in 1953, and they’re still married.

Antonio and his second wife are both very nice people. Antonio even showed me pictures of his regiment during the war. He told me a lot of the members died during the war, and that he’s probably one of like 3 or 4 in his group of 100 men who’s still alive.

The second is my friend’s great-grandfather, who fought for Italy during World War II. Initially, he fought for the Axis in one or two battles in the Mediterranean area. But eventually he ended up as a POW in Germany after the Italian armistice in 1943. Luckily he got back to Italy, where he reunited with his wife and their newborn daughter. (He’s the guy I mentioned who’s still married to his wife after 70 years.) He’s shown me some of his old pictures as well. He even has war-related items at his house.

The third was this man that I knew at a nursing home, originally from Turin. He was widower (he got married after the war though), and had lots of stories to tell about his war experience. He even participated in the Battle of Stalingrad. I think he passed away last month, unfortunately. He was 92.

All of them agreed that they suffered during the war, and none of them had anything positive to say about Mussolini or Hitler. My friend’s great-grandfather was probably the most critical since he was a POW. I actually took notes down so I could show it to my history teacher last year.

2

I lived in Germany for many years while I was in the Army so you’d very occasionally run into them. Typically I’d only know they were in the war if some local friend of mine happened to know who they were, and then it might come up in conversation.

In my time German WWII veterans were still young enough that some were local politicians and business owners, so they were known veterans as well that you might see around occasionally.

3

Yes, an old man surnamed Kellner who was a major in the Wehrmacht, stationed on the Eastern Front. He got the sucktastic duty station [he claimed] because he was not a member of the Nazi party and refused to join. His sister and brother were in Italy [ a nun and a priest] and they emigrated to the US with him. [I didn’t know that a nun and priest could have any say where they were sent?] He was a machinist in the same shop I did some training in, but retired and died shortly after I met him. Nice old man, very patient.

4

I knew a wonderful elderly gentleman who worked as a translator part time at UBS in Tokyo - Mr. Ito. He had grown up in NY because his father was a big wig in a trading company. He moved back to Japan at age 16. He was in the Emperor’s Imperial Guards and witnessed the Dolittle raid.

He served in Burma. He told stories of a battle agianst the British, and he was one of three Japanese survivors when the British fled. He still wore an Omega watch he had taken off of a (deceased British officer).

They walked out of Burma to Thailand to surrender after the war. He was the last Japanese repatriated from Thailand back to Japan because he was such a good translator.

When my father visited me in Japan, I actually set up a lunch with all of us. I thought it was a good idea until about 30 minutes before the lunch. My father was a WW2 Pacific Theater and Korean War combat vet. The night before dinner my father was bumped in a subway car, and said “I used to shoot people like that.” :o

They got along famously. Peas in a pod. Wrote a few letters back and forth. I think it was my father’s most enduring memory of Japan (even more than visitiing Hiroshima. He had a more unusual take, “that bomb saved my life as I was on the invasion force and we probably would not have made it off the beach.”)

Mr. Ito used archaic formal English and phrases such as “your goodselves.” We went to see Shakespear together (Richard III) and he came to my wedding in Tokyo. Tough old bastard and charming as all get out. Him and the others that actually survived then lived to a ripe old age.

RIP Ito-sama.

5

Plenty came over to Australia mainly from Germany and Italy after the war to work on the Snowy River Scheme. So yeah I have met quite a few and none of them even after too many vodkas will say anything positive about the Nazis. In fact a couple of them became honorary members of the local RSL Club, except the Japanese soldier, they refused him entry into the building. Poor bugger just wanted to leave the war behind but too many members at the time had memories of being POWs.

Interesting to hear the stories from both sides growing up, was weird listening to a German, Italian, Aussie, Pom, Ruski and even a Finn all chatting about how they all where just young kids off on what they thought was a grand adventure but ended up cold, hungry, seeing mates blown up, crapping themselves and generally trying not to get shot.

6

Like Martin Hyde I was stationed in Germany for several years with the Army, specifically BAOR (British Army on the Rhine). This was the mid-60s so many Axis veterans were then still comparatively young men and it was not uncommon for us to run into them in bars and sometimes engage them in conversation (somewhat perfunctory at times due to the language barrier). Sometimes we’d run into hostility, usually from older Germans, who probably saw us as an occupying force rather than as NATO allies. Most of the veterans I did meet seemed like decent guys who’d simply fought for their country, as we would have done for ours.

7

Like all Jewish men between the ages of 20 and 40, my wife’s grandfather (who passed away about 10 years ago) was drafted into the Bulgarian military for forced labor. I suspect that in a purely technical sense, this means he fought for the Axis - although he later received reparations from Germany.

8

I’ve met an actual Nazi U-boat crewmember - the grandfather of a friend who emigrated to Namibia after the war, and to SA when Namibia achieved independence. Apparently he never got to any active tours i.e. sunk any ships or anything, he entered pretty late in the war. He was pretty unrepentant about his membership in the party, I gathered.

9

I never ran into hostility from the veterans. I was stationed in Germany from 89-91. My aviation unit would often train in the coutryside. The army would pay a farmer for use of a field. We would bivouac there and land the helicopters in the field. I met several WWII vets who were farmers in the area. One lost an arm on the Eastern front. I met another who was a POW at Fort Reilly Kansas. All the ones I talked to were friendly and had no problem with us being there. In fact they expressed gratitude because they hated the Russians and were happy we stayed after the war. There was much more hostility towards us from younger people who did not live through the war.

10

I may well have done so, without knowing it. A number of young Norwegian men were recruited into the German army during the occupation. Some did it because they were Nazis, but others signed up because they were told they would be fighting for Finland against the Soviets (and the poor bastards believed it). Neither group exactly went around bragging about it after the war.

11

I have met several. One sticks in mind. He had been drafted in 1940/41 and served with 10 Panzer Divisi.on during Barbarossa although his unit was also on detached service as he fought at Moscow. They spent most of 1942 in France until the 10th Panzer was sent to N Africa where he was wounded quite badly and returned home (when I met him 50 years later, he had limited use of both arms). He served as staff on some rear unit or the other until he was captured by the British early in 1945 and sent to Canada as a POW. He stayed there until 1947 and would eventually return in 1950. he went to work as a civilian for the Canadian Army and he spent some time in theater the last few months of Korea. Fascinating man. His description of the fighting was always great. God rest his soul.

12

I met a Japanese veteran back in the 80’s. There was a language barrier so I don’t know what his rank and branch were. When he found out that I was in the aerospace industry he said he’d flown on a B24. When I asked if he’d enjoyed the ride he kind of hung his head and said “I was prisoner”.

13

One of the guys who used to come to the same pool as we did in my father’s home town (sorry about the mouthful) was a veteran of the División Azul. As far as I was concerned, he was just someone’s grandpa…

14

I had one (and his wife) as a next-door neighbor when I was in Gainesville pursuing my bachelor’s-he didn’t like to talk about it, at all, however.

15

My Opa.

And several of my mother’s school friends.

17

Yes, I know a Wehrmacht veteran who fought on the Russian front and spent years in Russian captivity after the war. He’s my niece’s great grandad.

18

Decades ago we had a landlord who had been in the Luftwaffe in WWII. We didn’t stay with them long. It was a house divided into two dwellings and for some reason our half was always cold. We also found out that some of the electricity usage from their half of the building was going through our electric meter.

19

Mine too. My father’s father was a major (can’t remember the German title) in the German army, and was stationed in Greece for 4 years. I don’t know many details except that he left home with a full head of dark hair and came home white-haired and depressed. He didn’t talk about the war much, but forbade his children to join any clubs or organizations at all (during the war his oldest son, my uncle, had to join the Hitler Youth); his experience of the army led him to despise groupthink. Although he barely knew me – different continents, different languages – he was still upset when my parents let me join my high-school marching band, because of the uniforms.

20

We had a German fellow who was a regular customer in the hobby shop I worked at for a period of time. He was in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. I remember him talking about those “Russian bastards” for shooting down planes flying the wounded out that where clearly marked as medical aircraft. But what I remember the most about him is that he use to come into the store with his dog, a pomeranian named Sammy. One time he was in with Sammy and a little girl happen to be nearby playing with some science toys on the floor. Sammy promptly came over and started dry humping the little girls back.

All he did was yell over and over again in a heavy german accent. "Sammy !!! get off the little girl, Sammy !!! SAMMY !!!

21

My parents’ neighbor’s gardener. The funny (or ironic) scene that would repeat is that he was a German Wehrmacht vet, my father was a Holocaust survivor - and the 2 of them would schmooze for a while when in the backyards. As far as anyone knew, the guy wasn’t remotely racist or anti-Semitic: he said that he was drafted at 16 in 1945, not a Nazi, he was scared the whole time, & the helmet was so big it covered his eyes. The story has the ring of truth. The Germans were drafting kids toward the end, including the small & underweight who would’ve been rejected even at the right draft age. Last time I saw him was ~ 2000, when he would’ve been 70 or so - still looked pretty healthy but evidence of aging in his face. Seemed like a nice enough guy. I even remember his name, written on his gardener’s truck - *Dietmar *Stitz. Couldn’t be more *Choiman *if he tried.:slight_smile: