Tagged With "1945"
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
It is a sad - difficult story. I want to meet Reiner too. Your work and research and photos of the land where he was "found" bring his story alive - right here, right now!
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
Very powerful. I keep thinking of that local man's mothers story and it's similar to stories I've heard from some ,in the the WW2 generation living in Eastern Europe ,about the Russian Army of WW2.
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
I'm really enjoying this moving series, History Digger. It is a captivating narrative. Admire your dogged determination to find the truth. Thanks for making us all a part of your journey.
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
I wanted to add the photography by Pawel Wyszomirski is just wonderful and timeless. Really captures your journey.
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
Amazing story indeed. I've heard many recollections from veterans of WW2 and all of them beyond belief. When I was a schoolboy (in England) my Math Teacher was in the real "Great Escape" in 1944 and told us boys stories to make your hair stand up ! But when he told us of the Germans making an "example" of repeat escapees his eyes were full of the horrors of war. Then we'd get back to the Math lesson. "Tomorrow we'll found out how we hid the guard dogs!"
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
GarryRF, Thanks for your response. I'd like to hear those stories, despite the horror in them. What a way to teach kids math. Yikes.
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
Whitney. I was just emailing TravelRob. Maybe you could contact a TV station here in England. The Centenary of WW1 is big news across Europe this year 1914 - 1918 and we have many programmes looking back at all the wars since. Have you seen the "Great Escape" Movie. ( Steve McQueen - James Garner and all ) ? Some facts are true - some "based" on the true story. It's very late here in England. Contact you tomorrow.
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
Just having lunch - what subject you interested in ? Prison Camps, What was untrue in the Great Escape or what was true ? Vanishing guard dogs ?
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
ALL of those. Wish I could sit down for lunch with you and hear the rest. I'm quite interested in using my Reiner research material for various genres—adult lit, young adult lit, and film.
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
As you've seen in the Great Escape, taking prisoners into the forest and killing them wasn't just a Russian idea. It was used against the Allied POWs by the SS. But there were many allied airmen shot down over Germany who returned home after the war with life saving surgery by the "enemy" Metal plates fitted to the skull where the bone had been shot away I remember. Shall I send an email to your website Whitney ?
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
GarryRF. Yes please send that email. Or DM me on Twitter @whitneystewart2. My uncle was shot down by Germans, but was saved and mended by Partisans. See Finding Reiner #2.
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
Just to add a note: on our way to Mont-Saint-Michel this morning, we noticed signs pointing to a Deutschesoldatenfriedhof, or German Soldiers' Cemetery. Curiosity took us to it and we were surprised by its story. It was constructed in 1961 for reburial of soldiers who had been buried in small locations all over Normandy, the Channel Islands and other nearby areas. It is a solemn place, and quiet, and the spirit expressed in the signs and in the design was one of reconciliation and hope for...
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Re: Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
Paul, Thanks for that note about the German cemetery in France. I may make a trip to several of these war cemeteries on my next trip overseas. I just heard from the German War Graves Commission this morning with more photos of Reiner's grave.
Blog Post
Finding Reiner #6: Frozen Grave
" To be honest, I no longer try to calculate how things are going to turn out in this war. No one is going to escape unscathed. One must not be miserly with the little life that we have. Those who are anxious and fearful, they will be struck first....