Definitely. I wish I was old enough to talk about it before my Grandpa died, since he was in the German army at the time.My grandma never said much about the war, except for one story that always stuck with me. When the Russians were outside of her village, she had to bury herself in the ground for 3 days without moving or eating until they finally left.
Seems the same with many Germans from that time. They seem too ashamed to talk about anything that went on, even those that had nothing to do with the horrible stuff. Could be trauma too...most everyone in mainland Europe suffered atleast one horrible experience in those years.
This book may be of some interest to you :
Opa war kein Nazi - Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust im Familiengedächtnis (Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag,2002).
My German girlfriend had 2 grandfathers I met 15 years ago when they were still alive.
One was a convinced nazi and behaving accordingly. At the end of the war he was captured by british forces when hiding on a farm posing as a farm boy. With his good english he quickly talked his way out of jail and became rich doing black market. He did serve me tea and talked to me how much he loved UK, not completely understanding that as many
French Canadians I have reservations towards Great Britain as ex-colonial power.
The other one was a social-democrat (SPD) and reluctant to nazism. He served on the Eastern Front and after his capture he was detained in a camp for almost 5 years, seeing a third of his comrades die. He was keep alive thinking about his wife and his nice farm he would get back. His wife waited for him but had to sell the farm. He then worked in a car factory but always missed his farm and the countryside. Quite a sad story. But he was still cheerful and always teasing me, the lustig Kanadier.
