I knew a guy who had been in the Hitler Youth. As the soldier says in the film The Great Escape, they banned the Boy Scouts in Germany before the war, and they had to go to Hitloer Youth instead. They were much more miltary than the Scouts, and were trained as backup troops, some actuallt seeing action in the Batle of Berlin:
The guy i knew said that he never got close to actual fighting, though.
Yes, I have. What were they like? Gosh, all different, you know?
I’ve met a U-boat commander who had moved to the US and become a citizen. Interesting guy. A couple Japanese, who seemed reluctant to speak of being on the other side as my country in the war but who seemed quite likeable. Most memorable was the one who was drafted into the army as one of those scrawny, underage kids and put to defending Berlin at the end. HE was a fucking Nazi, had a life size portrait of Adolf in his living room, racist, etc. Not the most pleasant meeting I’ve ever had. He was quite nice and polite to me, but then, I “forgot” to mention my Jewish ancestry, silly me.
Basically, they run the gamut.
It’s funny, though, how often warriors that fought on opposing sides will get along really well when some years have passed. Not always, of course, but I think in many cases having combat in common is something they share that people who have never experienced it can’t really understand the way they can.
My grandfather on my mother’s side was a German soldier during WWII. He never talked about it in my presence and I know very few details. Apparently his unit didn’t see combat until the very end of the war, when they were on the eastern front. The unit disintegrated and my grandfather made it back to his hometown in Sachsen-Anhalt. After the war, he spoke out against the East German government and the whole family had to flee for their lives to the West.
My father’s father and uncles were all in the Battle of the Ebro at different times, as part of the Carlista troops (half of the National side). But the best story I have about the Carlistas in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-9 comes from my other gramps, who was up against them…
Yes. They are just like everyone else. Regular army mostly. One of the vets I met was in the SS. Friendly, intelligent, civilized and well educated. Creepy as all get out when you sit back afterwards and think about it. I’ve also met a few convicted murderers in my time. Same thing.
I’ve posted elsewhere that we all have a beast inside, but virtually everyone has it under control. I don’t think that Hitler was an especially insane dude. He was, in my opinion, a run of the mill hateful, self centered ego manic.
Wouldn’t that make him your wife’s grandfather? 
My father served in the army during WWII (US side) at the end of the war, he was a NCO at a POW camp for German soldiers.
Back in the mid 80’s, he working for a rural water supply company and at a monthly state meeting met a young lady (30ish) from near by town. During the conversations with the people at the table, something was brought up about him serving during WWII.
At the next meeting, came up and asked him if he ever served at this POW camp in France. He said yes, he was there.
After the first meeting, she had gone home and talked to her father who lived with her. He had been in the German army and had been a prisoner in my dad’s camp. He remembered his name and him being the sargeant in charge of the area he was in. He had immigrated to the U.S. in the early '50s and ended up living about 20 miles from us.
My father went and met him and visited him several times. They seemed to get along fine with no ill feelings.
The guy who was my best man came to the U.S. with his family shortly after WW2. I met his father. He drove around south Georgia with a P.O.W. license plate. He had been a prisoner of the Russian army.
While I haven’t met them my grandmother’s brothers were drafted into the Japanese Army.
Eh no. My sister is married to a German so I suppose he’s her grandfather-in-law. Is that even a thing?
If I can say my cousin-in-law is Nora Ephron’s niece, it is. 
Yes, one of the top surviving German aces came to talk at our model airplane club. Really nice guy. Of course, he mostly killed Russians so during the 70’s he was a hero of sorts over here.
I knew a Hitler Youth member also. He was the father of a schoolmate of mine. He married shortly after the war was over, and he and his wife emigrated to Canada, where they had kids.
Ironically, the corner store near my schoolmate’s house was run by a Holocaust survivor. My friend’s Dad, with his thick German accent, never had a problem buying newspapers, candy, and cigarettes there. It was nice to see that in spite of what had happened, these two gentlemen were putting it behind them and moving forward amicably.
I worked as a technician for a company and the machinist there was a German Vet. IIRC, he was drafted late in the war, sent to the Russian front and was wounded. He lucked out be being sent home as the rest of his comrades never made it back. He was a plain old Wehrmacht soldier fighting for his country, but emigrated to America later because Germany was trashed.
I’ve lived in Japan for more than 20 years, and first came in 1981. Most of the vets didn’t particularly want to talk about the war. It was a war. They shot and killed people because that is what you do in a war.
I had uncles and a school teacher who were WWII vets, and they didn’t talk much either.
The father of one girl friend was a zero pilot based in the Phillipines, and shot down a number of US planes.
I know many more people who were civilians during the war and were in Tokyo during the air bombings. If you didn’t know which side they were on, you would never know who was who.
When I was in Vietnam, the father of our friend was a veteran of that war. Great guy. He spend something like six years fighting in the south, and could very well have fought against people I know.
I’m 50 and there is less time between when WWII ended and I was born, than between the end of Vietnam and when my children were born. In the 60s there were many people who still hated the “Japs.” It was an eye opener for me to come and meet the people of a country who killed so many people from my country, but to realize, as Sting would say, that Japanese love their children too.
Kamikazis, the penchant of the Japanese to never surrender and these Battle of Saipan - Wikipedia and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-G7_I4Tm5M argue against your point.
Not if he’s from the other side of the niece’s family.
My town had a POW camp that housed Italian POW’s and interned Italian civilians (sailors mostly). They worked in town and actually had quite a bit of freedom, and after the war a few of them liked the place so much that they actually came back and settled down. There was a great European deli/grocery store that one of them ran that was an institution.
Interesting.
I might also share Paolo’s (my friend’s great-grandfather) experience being captive in Germany. He told me that he was forced to work in agriculture in Bavaria. He had to work practically all day, and the Nazis used to harass everyone. (He also said these same Nazis had POWs from the Soviet Union.) His wife was pregnant at the time, and when the two were finally reunited, Paolo found out he had an 8-month-old daughter.
Sounds like The 25th Hour.
German POWs work in agriculture from Arkansas prison camps.
One at least was tortured for not working by shining headlights on him in the hot Summer night. Mosquitoes convinced him to work. 