# Have you ever met an Axis veteran? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 27, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272 "2012-05-27T19:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272/62 "2012-06-03T02:38:04Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Some war crimes trials..the biggest war criminal of them all Hirohito not only wasnt tried but was allowed to keep his post, in a ceremonial role. Woulda been like capturing Hitler and allowing his to serve as German President. Also, the Japanese people werent forced to acknowledge and accept their war guilt. Why these women [Comfort women - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women) have yet to be compensated by the Japanese government. THe only think I like George Bush I for was throwing up at the Emperor’s dinner party. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272/63 "2012-06-03T13:40:51Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > I recall hearing a story in Alabama during the war where a deputy pulled over a car that was acting suspiciously. The people had German accents, were drunk, and told the deputy they’d gotten lost and needed directions back to the POW camp. Somebody back at the camp gave them car for good behavior. IIRC, I think I read it in a Time-Life book about WWII. German POWs in the US during WWII regularly worked outside of camps. My grandparents had two that worked on their farm. Lived and ate with them. (This was before my time, so I didn’t meet them.) Meanwhile their son barely survived a POW death march in Germany. One way you can tell the good guys from the bad guys is how they treat their prisoners. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272/64 "2012-06-03T15:48:03Z")
One of the most prominent and beloved citizens and businessmen in my town (he’s since gone) was a Wehrmacht veteran, who always simply answered any questions about it with “I was seventeen when they drafted me. What else could I do?”. It probably mattered even more that he was a hearty, gregarious type - an introvert might never have gained acceptance among his US veteran peers. I’m not actually sure he ever tried to join any veterans’ organizations here, though, but I doubt it. The barrier isn’t all that high for his peers, though - the Pope himself was a Wehrmacht veteran, drafted late in the war as a teen. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272/65 "2012-06-03T16:15:04Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Ah, yes. That class of Japanese who could kill any common person at any time… Congratulations, you can read! And surf the net. This thread is for people to tell about people they have met, not about history that most of us know. Can you at least share a tale of woe from your personal experience? (My own father survived being shot down by the Luftwaffe in 1943. Survived long enough to marry, father children–& then die during the Cold War. When we had different enemies.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272/66 "2012-06-03T19:35:23Z")
The father of my mother’s second husband was in the Wehrmacht. I was very young at the time, and I spent very little time with him, but in that time he struck me as very cold and distant. He was very anti-war and, I think, disliked me very much because I loved playing Army (this was in the early–mid '60s). He was married to a full-blooded Dakota (Sioux) woman, so I would assume he had been shipped to Minnesota as a POW and stayed there after the war. My first ex’s father (in Wisconsin) had been in the Hitler Youth and, I presume, was called up for military service as soon as he reached draft age. I never asked how he made it to the US, though I think it wasn’t until after the war. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272/67 "2012-06-04T01:38:26Z")
Axis: Knew a dashing Wehrmacht officer and his lovely Italian warbride. The war had been over for thirteen years and all was forgiven. Central Powers (WWI): Knew a fighter pilot but the war was over before he saw action. You could tell he hadn’t seen action because he lived past 1990, not just 1918. All was forgiven there, too. Humans can be a forgiving breed. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272/68 "2012-06-04T02:31:06Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Congratulations, you can read! And surf the net. This thread is for people to tell about people they have met, not about history that most of us know. > > Can you at least share a tale of woe from your personal experience? > > (My own father survived being shot down by the Luftwaffe in 1943. Survived long enough to marry, father children–& then die during the Cold War. When we had different enemies.) Few know the history of Japanese war crimes. You have no personal experience with any axis war veterans if we can read anything from your post. We entered into a devils bargain when we allowed the USSR to be our ally. They were just as evil and as aggressive as the Nazis. BTW..did our allies the Soviets ever return their portion of occupied Poland? That would be no. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272/69 "2012-06-04T04:18:33Z")
I knew a German WWII veteran, for about 20 years. He was a local cabinetmaker and carpenter in Hermosa Beach and I was sort of his gofer and flunkie. He told me stories about Germany at the time; he had been sent to fight in Roumania. Locas, unsympathetic to the Axis, captured him and he was a POW in Roumania and the Soviet Union; I think he spent more time as a prisoner than soldiering. He said Americans don’t know as much as they think they do about the situation in Europe at the time, but he agreed that Hitler was a monster and a murderer. He was born January 3, 1922, he told me, and he also said he had joined the German army in 1934. I thought about this for a moment and said, “You would have been twelve years old then. How did you get into the army at the age of 12?” He asked, “Didn’t you ever hear of drummer boys?” Yes, I had. I also commented that, of the countries allied with the United States in either World War, only Finland paid off its war debt. He said that the United States has recouped the other countries’ debts by economic exploitation of those countries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-an-axis-veteran/623272.md?page=3)