Researching a family member.

[Robinj]

I am researching a family member who died during ww2. After getting to know some stuff, i found this.



In the struggle against Bolshevism, fell on March 2, 1942, for leadership, people and country, on the eastern front, our loyal comrade

SS-Schutze

Theodor Heinrich Jansen

In the age of 24 years.

Stammbn 163371
Wehrmacht of power
Oberhausen-Sterkrade

it rests in the cemetery in Chrifzij (russia)

On behalf of the comrades of the PO and W. A.

The group leadership of the group 5, Oberhausen - Rhld - April 15, 1942

It's a big of a shock, knowing that there might be an SS-er in your family.

[daiv]

Interesting. I am fascinated with history. In the process of studying the past, wars get a lot of attention because they are such defining moments and often many other aspects of history are tied directly into these conflicts. So a student of history is naturally a student of war. WWII then becomes a major aspect because of the massive scale of it. So I've really spent a lot of time on WWII.

One thing that I've observed and maybe this is helpful - many many people of all nationalities found themselves quite unhappily caught up in terrible circumstances that they did not want to be in. Certainly, there were plenty of guilty people, but I think there were a lot more people who were just trying to get through the day without getting killed. Theodor could well have been one of them.

Based on the date of death, it seems he was spared the fate of nearly all his comrades on the Eastern front who experienced one of the worst situations in the entire war the following winter. I would not want to be a German infantry man in Russia during the winter of 1943.

One of the things I always try to do is pretend I don't have the historical perspective of knowing so many details and step into the mind of the individual at that time.

Here are a couple movies that can make a person really appreciate living in a time of peace:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Far_as_ ... l_Carry_Me" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downfall_%28film%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Robinj]

I have seen Der untergang(downfall) alot of times in the ast few weeks. I found a photo of a soldier inn staliingrad who looks a lot lke my dad.

Thanks daive for the other link. I haven't seen that one yet.

[daiv]

The other is more of a fiction-based-on-real-life. But what I like about both of those is the way they give a feeling to be one person in the struggle. While war is between two or more nations, the nations are made up of individuals. I am especially fascinated by the individual experiences of people involved. Whether it is the experience of leaders -such as portrayed in "Downfall" or just a "regular" person like in "As Far as my Feet Will Carry Me".

A documentary that I thought did an incredibly fantastic job of relating the individual experiences of war is the documentary "Gallipoli" (2005) - I highly recommend it. I may mention that I was disappointed in the Mel Gibson film of the same name. Not bad, but not as good as I hoped.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450426/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Peterthecactusguy]

I am sure not everyone knows that I do this, but I am very active on a game called World of Tanks, which naturally is a fun game for me. It has WWII era tanks that you can drive and fight in against other players. Anyways, I know a little bit about tanks in general, and I have been to Aberdeen Proving Grounds and have seen a lot of the tanks up close.

Basically with the German army it was sorta like this. You had a few very bad people at the top. Then you had people below them that weren't as bad. Then you had the regular enlisted men and stuff like that. The first group was stuck in a bad place sorta like Daiv said. Then the next group some of them were stuck there, some weren't. The last group are truly evil people and some of the worst in history.

War films are always interesting. Das Boot was pretty good too. I only mention that because it was one of the better ones that was a German viewpoint of the war side.. A lot of people forget that many of the people that we called "Nazis" were actually just poor enlisted men that wanted to serve their country. World War II started as a direct result of the end of World War I.

And if you think that people in the German army had it bad, I feel really sorry for people who were in the Russian army.

As for the video recommendations, I will have to check them all out. When I was in high school I took the PRE-ROTC class but I didnt want to go into the military. When I was growing up there were a few bad incidents around when I was at the age where I was thinking of joining the military.. Somalia was a disaster and basically made me decided that the military wasn't for me. However military history is interesting, and basically it relates to history of politics, religion, economics, and other factors. Therefore it's a very interesting subject.