Related to Nazis?

Question

If someone came to you and told you that they were closely related to several Nazis (S.S. officers) that fled to S. America to avoid prosecution... would you look negatively at that or knowing that they had no personal involvement, find it interesting? I'm related to several, but it has been kept a HUGE secret in my family until I uncovered it in a really old, hidden photo album a year ago. Turns out my aunt was aware, but no one else was...or admitted to being aware. My mom told me to keep my mouth shut, which of course I do... but would you be interested or would you look down at this about me and my family?

Answer 1

I wouldn't hold it against you.You are not responsible for your ancestors fault's.

Answer 2

I personally would find it fascinating lol.

At the end of the day - we all come from somewhere. And no one is a saint. Everyone in the world will be related to someone somewhere in history that has been under tremendous debate and had negative press - it's just that we are not all aware of it.

Just think whether good or bad these relatives have moulded your family into what it is today. Equally your family has in turn influenced you. We are not one dimensional and I'm sure these relatives have done some positive things in their lives also. Be proud of who you are.

Answer 3

I would never worry about what your family did, only what you do. I have had two friends who were the children of Nazis--I'm a baby boomer--and they both left everything behind them and emigrated, hoping to get away from their families' histories, and they were already one generation removed from Hitler's Germany. Of course, no one can escape history, but no one should have to feel that they carry the blame for what their families did, either.

There were Nazis who killed their children when they saw that the war was ending, because they thought the world would be just too hard for them to live in. At the time your relatives decided to keep the story hidden, there were still some people for whom the wounds were fresh, and who would have just naturally considered any members of a Nazi family guilty by association. Happily, it is a different world now, and perhaps it is best to hope that your relatives were thinking of their children when they hid their secret.

If that generation of WWII Nazis were not already passing from living memory, if it were still the case that there were war criminals to be aprehended and punished, I would look negatively at a family member who claimed innocence, but helped to hide someone who had committed atrocities. But it is too late for any of that.

Perhaps the best thing that you can do now is look at these people as people, men and women who were our grandmothers and grandfathers, who lived and loved and did ordinary things, and try to understand them as people. Then we should ask ourselves how these people who had gone to school, raised families and kept homes and children, who fixed Christmas dinners, and went to movies and walked the dog, could possibly have become part of such a horror.

By looking at them as sympathetic people who did something terrible we have the best chance of knowing what went wrong. That is the way we can avoid ever having to live through something like the Nazis again.

Answer 4

I would find it interesting. It should not reflect on your current family. although there are plenty of small minded people who don't know the difference in a persons ancestors and the person they are dealing with today.

I actually have a friend who is Polish and he liked to tell me of the grandfather he had that was in the SS.

we can not be blamed for the sins of our fathers, granted if your relatives were wanted and still alive It may be best to keep quite for the sake of the family (morally it is a gray area however, that even I would have trouble dealing with) but it would be a very fascinating part of your family history. You may even want to consider finding more info and maybe even chronicling their lives. And find out why they did what they did, why they acted as they did and why they ended up as they did.

no family is clean from the evils of the past, we should not be so ready to white wash the things that make us or others uncomfortable.

Me I come from both Spanish and Mayan blood so my ancestors slaughtered my ancestors. But I don't try to paint over the deeds of my families past, I simply accept them and if others don't too bad.

Best of luck to you.

Answer 5

Before and during WW I, many German/American families changed their names to American sounding names and spellings to avoid possible troubles because of being German ancestry. Mine was among them. I have relations still named Brandenberg and Erhlenwein (?spelling). It's nothing to be worried about now, though. I would like to know the family history but the old relatives are all dead now and few are near or left to ask. Nazi relations might still be maligned but the 'old guard' is about all gone, too. History should not be forgotten lest we make the same mistakes again. The Nazis were evil but not all Nazis were voluntary, just being so to not be bothered by Hitler's gangs. Don't sweat it.

Answer 6

okay lets break this down..first off not everyone serving in the german army in WWII had an option..nor was everyone in the german army a killer/monster etc.

Look at someone like Hilter's personal secretary..she was a memeber of the nazi party..loyal to the core...

But if she was in your families' history..I doubt anyone would be ashamed of it..

everyone assumes that if you were a nazi then you were evil..hell even the current Pope of the catholic church was a nazi youth..did that make him evil?..does that disqualify him from leading the catholic church?

the main problem may be that your ancestors..more importantly you uncles or grandfathers were S.S. basically the shock troops..the worst of the worst...
seeing how they were basically a generation or two away from you..I can see why your mother told you to hold your secret

I don't look down on you..both my parents are german..my dad served in wwII..if his father hadnt' migrated to america
.my own father could have been a nazi

at times I'm still sorta shocked that all that brutality occured in 1945,,

Answer 7

That would be pretty interesting. I'd try to find out their names and what they did exactly. It is a part of history that will always be an obsession with many people for many different reasons. People still have a knee jerk reaction to the term Nazi and it probably wouldn't be good to go around crowing about it. Know where you come from.

Answer 8

Actually I have a friend in exactly your situation ... except this person's relative was quite famous as well. This person's childhood was impacted. However, it would be crazy for me to have issues with it (other than I find the historical aspect interesting).

(Personally, I'd like to know more ... not all my relatives were exactly upstanding citizens either but they are certainly the more interesting of the bunch.)

Don't worry, political beliefs aren't hereditary! However, I would also certainly respect your mom's wishes not to have it spread around either.

Answer 9

What I look at negatively is that you and your family are "keeping your mouths shut." Why "of course"? If you have knowledge of people involved in genocide, they should be reported. They've gotten to live their lives in relative peace while 12 million died horrible deaths over 50 years ago.

Answer 10

Here's just one example:
Being related to a Nazi doesn't necessarily make you a bad person too.

Albert Goering, the good brother.

Albert Göring (1900 - 1966) was a German businessman, notable for helping Jews and dissidents survive in Germany during World War II.
His older brother Hermann Göring held the rank of Reich Marshal of Nazi Germany and was a convicted war criminal.

Albert Göring despised Nazism and the brutality that it involved.

Albert Göring also used his influence to get his former Jewish boss Oskar Pilzer freed after the Nazis arrested him. Göring then helped Pilzer and his family escape from Germany. He is reported to have done the same for many other dissidents.

Göring intensified his anti-Nazi activity when he was made export director at the Skoda Works in Czechoslovakia. Here, he encouraged minor acts of sabotage and had contact with the Czech resistance. On many occasions Göring forged his brother's signature on transit documents to enable dissidents to escape. When he was caught he used his brother's influence to get himself released. Göring would also send trucks to Nazi concentration camps with requests for labour. These trucks would then stop in an isolated area and their passengers would be allowed to escape.

After the war Albert Göring was questioned during the Nuremberg Tribunal. However many of the people whom he had helped testified on his behalf and he was released. Soon afterwards Göring was arrested by the Czechs but was once again freed when the full extent of his activities became known.
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Later life
Göring then returned to Germany but found himself shunned because of his family name. He found occasional work as a writer and translator, living in a modest flat far from the baronial splendour of his childhood. He died in 1966 without having his wartime activities publicly acknowledged and is not honoured on the Yad Vashem memorial.

Answer 11

Did you know that these men regardless if they are family or not, swore an oath to Hitler during WW2 that they would die for him? That they did things then that everyone today would consider the personification of evil? If nothing else confront them. You deserve answers unless you are ok with what they did.