German Announcers for Edelman TD Must Hear!

[Tony2046]

I think I've seen a few too many ww2 movies. Any time I hear german I start looking for panzer tanks. Now disappointed there wasnt one on the field.

Extreme OT here. I apologize but want to share. And this is in no way a swipe at Nitro because I have had the wrong picture many times myself.

Yeah definitely too many ww2 movies. I lived in Germany for 8 years and it is nothing like what is depicted in those movies. Btw: a majority of the German citizens back then feared the same Nazi war machine that everyone else did. Hitler's rise to power was so quick that the average German citizen, who were living in an economically depressed country at the time because of ww1 war fines, had no chance to stop him. They later stood in breadlines and feared speaking out against the Nazi's.

I had the privilege to meet and chat with elderly Germans from that time period who told me some incredible although often sad stories about those days. I lived off-base in a small German community and frequented the local pub which is not a place simply for drinking rather a place where the whole town gets together to chat. I really enjoyed that environment. Btw: There is a misnomer that Germans are not friendly but if you sit in a pub and attempt to speak their language and know a little history, you'll find yourself in numerous friendly conversations although occasionally contentious.

One lady told me that she had for years stood in lines daily for her food rations. She feared saying the wrong thing and feared seeing the Nazis. One day she saw an "Army" (US soldier) and he came up to her and offered her and others some food but she was too afraid to take it. "What if this was a trick?". "What if it wasn't really true?" She told me that seeing a US soldier for the first time was just exhilarating yet tough to comprehend. "If they are here is this over?" "What does it mean?" Later the news that the war had ended spread across the country and she finally accepted the bread and eggs from the US soldiers but was still too afraid to say anything other than "thank you".

Another guy served in the German army and fought in Stalingrad. Not many German soldiers survived that battle but he was an artist and that became his savior. The Generals etc... knowing they were probably going to die asked him to draw them while in battle and to bring those portraits back to their families. In exchange they protected him from the frontlines. He showed me a few portraits he still had and he was quite the artist. Even 50 years later it still bothered him that he could not find all the families to deliver the portraits to.

Many stories, including a guy who served under Rommel (the desert fox), exchanged cigarettes with the US army during a christmas eve ceasefire and later became a POW living in a prison camp in the US. "It wasn't a prison camp.....it was a vacation camp with so much food". He once said, "After we got out of our country to fight we no longer heard the German propaganda and started to see what was really happening. Instead of fighting for what we thought was right we were fighting because we were trapped."

Anyways Germany is a wonderful country and I truly enjoyed my time there.