Can we stop discussing unrelated events and hogging credits for previous generations' valiant efforts? Every country has had its fair share of heroic and inspiring individuals; we are not those people so instead of asking for recognition or points I propose we all use these individuals as inspiration and encouragement. I also suggest the time for bragging about which country is bestest is after the crisis, and if anyone is after bragging rights feel more than welcome to make personal contributions anyway you can see fit.
Since I was biting my tongue for several pages by now, allow me to get this off my chest, and then I'll be done with this for good here also, promise .
My Granddad experienced WWI as a kid , dad gone, mom and 3 boys at home, him being the eldest . Luckily, dad came home alive, but heck was everything in shambles etc, I guess you guys are all pretty informed about the State of Germany after WW I and what the Weimar Republic acually was . Anyways, as soon as my Granddads dad was home, the family started the toy thing again as good as possible, and started to build up some kind of live . Then, miraculously they ALL survive the spanish flu
phew but oops, not long and Black Monday hits and dangit, economy got hit hard, pretty hard in Germany actually, who would have thunk ?
So well, they pull through it, then the other thing started happening and no, I will NOT proove Goodwins Law, but it kindof resulted in my Granddad being a frontline InfantryMan (Squad Light Machinegunner in the Wehrmacht ) on the Western front...then on the Eastern front . He got injured....a LOT of times . As much as it was possible to reconstruct, I know his Warhistory ( there is a Beaurau here that still keeps records and makes them available to Family on request ) . Believe me, he go injured a LOT . He actually died with a piece of shrapnel in his leg in 1985...all the time up to then, doctors where not willing to try and remove it, iirc because it was too close to a very important blood vessel or something, but the important thing here is, when I was about 8 he told me there is not a day where it does not hurt him .
So well, that mess thankfully went by with him being alive, but imprisoned . He was the last of 3 brothers to come home after WW II, I dont know exactly when, I think it was '49 or so . So, he comes home . Kindof everything is broken, no economy really yet, etc...but wth, he is alive and so are his brothers, parents and all the wifes ( the sheer amount of Luck! ), so what would you think, they started making toys again . But it was already apparent that the private toy making thing would not be something good to be done what with the Russians and all, so in the early 1950s, kindof the enitre family - his Mom, Dad, him and 2 brothers, their wifes and I think 3 kids betwen the 3 young families - actually FLED from their home, separating up into 3 groups taking 3 different routes as to not be detected by the Borderguards and checks of what was GDR into what was FRG .
Settled down, kindof restarted the toymaking thing, built a house for the entire family, then built a small factory, built another house...the wealth him, his brothers and father created during the next 30 years was enough that money was never really an issue as long as I can remember, not for me, my family ( he was my mother's Dad ) not for the families of his brothers . Or THEIR daughters families . Noone was or is really rich, but there was always enough money for everything .
This man was an active part of the thing which took valiant and heroic efforts by about half the Globe to take down . To me, HE was and IS a Hero . Not because of his part in that thing, but because of the man he was, the life he lived, and HOW he lived it - and what he achieved .
Orite, done .
p.s.:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks3RfeXw-W4&list=PLUyrxMMBPMUqqorbzHb__WrTkDQThdEW1&index=46&t=0s
Well, my Granddad was about 15 years late to get the whole Story told in that Video at #1, but he got most of it .
