What do you miss and not miss?

[brotkrume]

I don't miss having to behave a certain way outside of the house because the inside had to be kept a secret. I hated that I saw human beings treated worse than animals. I don't miss that uniform. I don't miss rationing, though the waistline would be grateful for it. I definitely do NOT miss the sound of hundreds of boots marching on the cobblestone/brick streets at 3 AM. No clue who they were or what they were doing.

Mutti always said to avoid the windows at night at all costs. We crawled below them everywhere all of the time when it was after dark and before sunrise.

[rednight94]

Aug 13, 2011 22:51:38 GMT -5 brotkrume said:

One of the things I miss the most:

I am unsure which holiday it would be, but everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, ordered these big huge pretzels--typically unsalted. When this holiday came around, Vatti would bake a few extra and hide them in the backs of the delivery trucks. When we made our rounds, which would take us to the ports on this trip (I really enjoyed going to Bremen and seeing the big ships), we would camp in the back of the trucks for the night.

I remember Vatti would pull out the pretzels, a jar of brown grainy mustard, and a small container of honey. He would buy or trade for butter on the journey. We (Vatti, myself, and the other two men who traveled in the second truck--extra deliveries for the holiday) would pull out our pocket knives and dug in after the pretzels were warmed on the engine block on a piece of metal.

The honey was mixed with the butter. I was too young to appreciate the mustard (maybe 5 or so as the war was still on). I remember the sweet stickiness in my mouth and butter running down my chin and getting all over my hosen. The other men would laugh at my 'butter beard'. The smell of the mustard and the honey butter on the hot pretzels would stay in the air in the trucks most of the night. Breakfast would be the same, if there was any left.

Mutti HATED the stains I came home with. What can you do with a boy who is ALL boy?

I liked reading that. It was very nice A good memory to have!

[sarque]

I posted this on another forum, but I thought it might fit this thread as well. I didn't want to start a new thread about it because it's just another one of those things I'm missing, not a big new memory or revelation or anything.

I miss my home from that life. I keep having this thought--"I want to go home". I don't know how to express it to anybody else. I AM home, in this lifetime. I'm where I'm meant to be now. But that part of me that's still clinging to all the unfinished business from my WWII life tells me over and over that I need to go home, that I need to do something there--or maybe just BE there.

I am planning on visiting Germany in a year. Maybe then I can clear some of this up. Maybe then I won't feel quite so homesick. I can see home so clearly in the few dreams I've had where it appears. I feel that if I found the right city, I could find where I used to live. Maybe then I'd have some closure.

[munchenruth]

Brotkrume isn't too keen on sirens either due to the air raids and bombings.

[Leutnantzursee]

Oh wow - this is another interesting thread and gives me a lot to think about! I don't think I really miss my PL all that much, I know from my regression that he felt like an abject failure, I think he wanted desperately to be in the Luftwaffe but didn't make the grade and I feel so sad about not being able to fly. I'd say like others have stated, that I miss the civility of those days, and I miss the respect I had from others then because of my uniform. I miss my HJ uniform, I felt so powerful in it, I felt special in a way i don't now:-( I miss Austria and the beautiful landscape of the Alps, when I was a kid I used to daydream about that sort of land and I still adore mountains and snow! I miss the camaraderie of men together and the loyalty of those friendships, I miss the straightforward ways of thinking, knowing my place and feeling safe.

What I don't miss...obviously the war, being on a ship, I still get the creeps about battleship interiors and engine rooms! I don't miss the betrayal I felt at having to sign Lisi away. I'm really glad to be alive now and to see how much we've progressed in so many ways, I'm glad that racism is generally not tolerated and that as a woman in this life, I have far more choices than I would have had back then if I'd been one.

[ignotus]

What I miss: My friends and my brother, but I think my brother is here with me but not my current sibling, I know he's one of my school friends now. Yes, my friends. I know some guys would say 'Miss them!?' but yes, I miss them. Odd. Also my SS uniform, I kinda like it. It was fashionable! (LOL) And believe it or not, my job. (I must be mental) Don't worry, I was just an adjutant. Not a Allgemeine..*shiver

What I don't miss: The war, obviously. And the trenches and the people dying and the funerals and of course, the Holocaust. But I wasn't there when they started grabbing them. I'm seriously happy that racism and sexism are absolutely not tolerated now. Seriously.

[feurfrei]

What do I miss? I miss the time period, I miss my wife, my children, friends, all the things I had. I don't miss certain things obviously, but there were good times too.

[gumby]

I do miss the time period, it was a fascinating time, forging ahead into the modern era with new exciting things like airplanes, airships, lighted cities at night. I have remembered standing up on the tower of Der Stuttgarter Hauptbahnhof with my family and marveling at the city lights, the city was well lit up at night by 1939. It was such an exhilarating experience to look down at night and see all the lights, like twinking stars near and far below. This was the high technology of the day, to have a city lit up at night with electric lights.
1935 Stuttgart at night:

[gerhardt]

I miss the feeling of excitement and change in the air-that hopeful feeling that we could finally save Germany. I miss the pomp, all of those beautiful banners and flags draped over buildings and across the streets. I miss Berlin and walks along the river. I miss the feeling (really rather erroneously) that there were not as many rules as in the US today (perhaps for us SS folk there were not so many rules). I miss the camaraderie with my fellows. I miss the beautiful music and fashions of the day, and the sense of civility, as many others have noted. I miss the sense of adventure. I miss good schnitzel and brown butter with lemon. I miss the feeling that we were all so modern. I miss the Olympic games and the exceptional artistic talent that visited the city.

I do not miss the terror I'd later know and create. I don't miss shitty ration coffee and stale cigarettes. I don't miss seeing death everywhere. I do not miss seeing the nation destroy itself. I do not miss the hatefulness (even that we Aryans showed ourselves).