Who do you think you are?

[wal_lace]

Stephen Fry was on TV last night, tracing his family.

To which all I can say is holy fuck.

Like the man commented, through tears, there's something about the word Auschwitz which just sets off a reaction in you. Even though he already knew that these people were dead - even though he'd only just found out their names - simply learning about it

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[wolfychan]

My father's father was one of seven siblings. He was a tailor in a ittle town in Poland near the Russian border. The town had a few German soldiers occupying it, but they didn't really bother the Jews there; in fact (since Yiddish and German are mutually comprehensible and Polish isn't), they were friendly, and my grandfather played soccer with the soldiers.

In the dead of night, one of my grandfather's soccer buddies came to his house and told him, "They're coming tomorrow to take the Jews. Take what you can carry and get out now."

My grandfather packed up a few things and ran. Literally. That night, he walked over the border into Russia. The next day, the Gestapo came to his town and took all the Jews away to concentration camps. Thanks to the kindness and courage of his soccer buddy, my grandfather was safe; he joined the Russian army, but fortunately didn't get put on the front lines, and he survived the war.

All six of his brothers and sisters died in concentration camps.

[wal_lace]

To which all I can really say is, fuck. And history really is horrible.

If my recent reading is any indication, he was doubly lucky - the rate of attrition in Red Army front line units was completely absurd. My favourite statistic was that during the war the Soviets trained a little over 400,000 men and women as tank crew. 310,000 of these died. That's not counting wounded, captured or missing.

[wolfychan]

Wow. That's scary. It's hard to imagine in modern times that there could have been a war that destructive.

Yeah, because he was a good tailor, my grandpa made a couple important friends by making them free suits, and ended up with a (relatively) cushy job making uniforms. I'm kind of surprised they let an able-bodied man get away with that, but I'm also really really glad they did.