Mazur
20 Nov 2013
History / Polish conscripts to German army [132]
Wow.
Just been reading this thread and will chase up some of the links. Thanks for all the info.
We discovered - a couple of years AFTER my dad passed away - that he and one of his brothers had been "drafted" into the German army. My aunt in Warsaw mentioned it when we were visiting and had no idea we didn't know. I was gob-smacked. My dad was only 14 when the war started, lived not from from Gdansk. Got taken to work for German farmers to begin with. After that the trail is lost. All I know is my dad went awol on the western front and joined the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade and dropped at Market Garden. He served under a false name - I was told so as to protect his family in Poland (he was one of 8) if he got caught. My uncle was on the eastern front, went awol a first time, got caught and avoided being court-marshalled and shot by pretending to be looney, and went awol (successfully) when up in Norway.
Neither of them ever spoke about it. My uncle "self-medicated" with booze and eventually died an alcoholic. Post-traumatic stress syndrome no doubt.
Wow.
Just been reading this thread and will chase up some of the links. Thanks for all the info.
We discovered - a couple of years AFTER my dad passed away - that he and one of his brothers had been "drafted" into the German army. My aunt in Warsaw mentioned it when we were visiting and had no idea we didn't know. I was gob-smacked. My dad was only 14 when the war started, lived not from from Gdansk. Got taken to work for German farmers to begin with. After that the trail is lost. All I know is my dad went awol on the western front and joined the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade and dropped at Market Garden. He served under a false name - I was told so as to protect his family in Poland (he was one of 8) if he got caught. My uncle was on the eastern front, went awol a first time, got caught and avoided being court-marshalled and shot by pretending to be looney, and went awol (successfully) when up in Norway.
Neither of them ever spoke about it. My uncle "self-medicated" with booze and eventually died an alcoholic. Post-traumatic stress syndrome no doubt.