Article: Why I Cannot Answer Questions about My Grandfather
Article Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,druck-784373,00.html
The article was written by a famous best-selling German crime author, Ferdinand von Schirach. Schirach was two years old when his grandfather, the leader of the Hitler Youth under the Third Reich, was released from prison. The essay describes what little he knew or understood about his grandfather throughout his life. He began by recounting the few memories he had of his grandfather as a child -- seeing people address him in the street, watching him walk with his knobbly walking stick, playing the board game Nine Men's Morris with him every day. It was interesting how his grandfather seemed so remote and distanced from him. Schirach even recounted that, after he had discovered how his grandfather won the board game using the same trick every time, his grandfather didn't want to play with him anymore and eventually moved away to live alone. When his grandfather died, he left the strange words: "I was one of you" written on his gravestone.
When Schirach was little, he hadn't understood why his grandfather had been locked away. He read a book about the pirate Sir Francis Drake who had been imprisoned, and figured that it must have been exciting and adventurous. He thought that maybe it was a fairy tale curse. Yet, at a relatively young age, Schirach felt "surrounded by something he couldn't explain".
While at a Jesuit boarding school, Schirach learned what his grandfather had been. He saw in his name written in the school textbooks, and several other of his classmates' names: Stauffenberg, Speer, Ribbentrop, Witzleben, and Lüninck. While his own grandfather was the leader of the HJ, his friend Stauffenberg was the grandson of the leader of the failed 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. It was really amazing how each generation was different and how both friends were unaware of their grandparents' roles in history. As the author put it, "Descendents of both the perpetrators and the resistance, all in the same classroom."
As a writer of crime novels, Schirach couldn't come up with a satisfactory explanation for his grandfather's decisions. He interestingly commented that "[historical analysis doesn't seem to make much sense when it's about your own grandfather]". After growing older and looking deeper into his grandfather's past and the Nuremberg Trials, Schirach concluded that his grandfather had no excuse: he had had a happy childhood and his family was of the educated, bourgeois middle class. Most shocking was the fact that his mother was an American, and, until he was five years old, he spoke only English! Schirach couldn't understand why his grandfather, who was learned and cultured, could turn to the brutish National Socialist party, especially when he undoubtedly knew that the Jews were being killed. He even called their removal as "his contribution to European culture."
Schirach realized that he only knew his grandfather as "an old man with an eye patch." He could not comprehend his actions and realized that he didn't know the man very much himself. The article was intriguing, especially through the angle of a grandson of a Nazi leader. He has had to live his life battling that reputation, being badgered by interviews, and ultimately making his own mark in society as a well-known, published author.
Article Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,druck-784373,00.html
The article was written by a famous best-selling German crime author, Ferdinand von Schirach. Schirach was two years old when his grandfather, the leader of the Hitler Youth under the Third Reich, was released from prison. The essay describes what little he knew or understood about his grandfather throughout his life. He began by recounting the few memories he had of his grandfather as a child -- seeing people address him in the street, watching him walk with his knobbly walking stick, playing the board game Nine Men's Morris with him every day. It was interesting how his grandfather seemed so remote and distanced from him. Schirach even recounted that, after he had discovered how his grandfather won the board game using the same trick every time, his grandfather didn't want to play with him anymore and eventually moved away to live alone. When his grandfather died, he left the strange words: "I was one of you" written on his gravestone.
When Schirach was little, he hadn't understood why his grandfather had been locked away. He read a book about the pirate Sir Francis Drake who had been imprisoned, and figured that it must have been exciting and adventurous. He thought that maybe it was a fairy tale curse. Yet, at a relatively young age, Schirach felt "surrounded by something he couldn't explain".
While at a Jesuit boarding school, Schirach learned what his grandfather had been. He saw in his name written in the school textbooks, and several other of his classmates' names: Stauffenberg, Speer, Ribbentrop, Witzleben, and Lüninck. While his own grandfather was the leader of the HJ, his friend Stauffenberg was the grandson of the leader of the failed 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. It was really amazing how each generation was different and how both friends were unaware of their grandparents' roles in history. As the author put it, "Descendents of both the perpetrators and the resistance, all in the same classroom."
As a writer of crime novels, Schirach couldn't come up with a satisfactory explanation for his grandfather's decisions. He interestingly commented that "[historical analysis doesn't seem to make much sense when it's about your own grandfather]". After growing older and looking deeper into his grandfather's past and the Nuremberg Trials, Schirach concluded that his grandfather had no excuse: he had had a happy childhood and his family was of the educated, bourgeois middle class. Most shocking was the fact that his mother was an American, and, until he was five years old, he spoke only English! Schirach couldn't understand why his grandfather, who was learned and cultured, could turn to the brutish National Socialist party, especially when he undoubtedly knew that the Jews were being killed. He even called their removal as "his contribution to European culture."
Schirach realized that he only knew his grandfather as "an old man with an eye patch." He could not comprehend his actions and realized that he didn't know the man very much himself. The article was intriguing, especially through the angle of a grandson of a Nazi leader. He has had to live his life battling that reputation, being badgered by interviews, and ultimately making his own mark in society as a well-known, published author.
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