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    Chris B.

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    1. That's neat Hauptman. It's interesting that the description beneath the photo is in english. You should make a laser enlargement of the photo, add a couple of old family documents, ( if you have them), old german stamps, coins, paper money and a medal or two and have the whole thing framed and put under glass. It would make a cool family memento. Cheers, Chris B.
    2. Hi there, here's a kind of a loose translation of the Hindenburg quote on the Kyffhaeuserbund medal : "Upright and proud we leave the field of battle which we sustained for four years against a world of foes." Cheers, Chris B.
    3. Hi Lawrence, thanks for the Ontario Regiment history. The hat badge is spot on, and the Armoury my son trains out of is called the Maclaughlin Armoury. Small world. Dallaire's book is called "Shake Hands with the Devil". I'd like to check it out even though it will be a sad and depressing read. Cheers, Chris B.
    4. Lawrence, is that Dellaire's quote at the bottom of your pages? I don't think that man will ever recover from what he had to witness. Never Again really doesn't mean Never Again, does it. Cheers, Chris B. PS, nice stuff. My son is in the Ontario Regiment Reserve. Their cap badge has that cat with the arched back on it.
    5. Mike, good idea! It shows initiative and a real love of the hobby. By the way, the Italian order of the Crown looks a lot like the crown on the Austrian order of the Iron Crown. Are they related? Cheers, Chris.
    6. I'm curious, did he get any awards from the Allied side after the war? Cheers, Chris B.
    7. That's pretty neat Vince! Do you have any photos of this Gentleman? If you know which orden he received, you could try to reconstruct it in full or in part. Framed and under glass with a nice plaque it would make a great display and you'd be saving a little (albeit) reconstructed, family history. Cheers, Chris B.
    8. Just to add a final note. You don't need to have a war to have Beamten. Beamten are civil servants . A Studienrat for example, is a Beamter. But yes, in war-time a Studienrat would not be a Militaer Beamter because there is not a demand for that line of work in the Army in wartime. However, a civil servant whose line of work was relevant in a military context in wartime could conceivably be a Militaer Beamter. I have a relative in Germany who is a Studienrat. He refers to himself as a Beamter. Cheers, Chris B.
    9. I would say a Beamter is a civil servant of sorts. An Amt is a Bureau. So a Beamter is like a Bureaucrat. A Beamter is aso kind of a generic term. In Germany a guy who works for the post office or the Railroad or even the Zoll could say he was a Beamter. It was kind of a "Stand" thing to be able to say, " Ich bin Beamter", rather than being a worker, ein " Arbeiter". A schoolteacher is a Beamter. When he gets hired, it says so on his certificate. He has been accepted into a "Beamtenverhaeltnis" with the State. Cheers, Chris B. PS I think their pay schedule is different from other folks, monthly or bi- weekly rather than weekly.
    10. You all make excellent points. I sometimes think the war and its aftermath have made neurotics out of all of us germans even those of us born after 1945. It's like the war has defined us, made us who we are, individually and collectively. People like my parents, who were there, just want to forget, and people like me who live with the aftermath, have this nagging, almost morbid curiosity to find out more. Understandably, those who were there more often than not don't want to talk about it. Whether its the last big air raid on Dortmund in April 1945, living on 900 kilocalories a day in the winter of 1945/46. watching the soldiers die like flies in the Rhine camps, or talking about the stories told by surviving refugees from the East, not to mention the Final Solution, it just doesn't make for nice fireside chats or warm after dinner conversation. So that leaves books and the Net and these virtual communities of individuals who share an interest in various aspects of those days. I'm actually quite grateful for sites like this one. Thanks for your input. Cheers, Chris B.
    11. Hi David. I still have some cousins in Dortmund, and an old aunt or two. I seem to be the only one remotely interested in this stuff though, and from what I heard, any paperwork that might have survived was disposed of or lost when my grandmother's estate was dealt with after she passed away a number of years ago. I've been reluctant to try the WAsT, I feel like I'm prying, like the past should stay buried or something, you know.. Still, every now and then I get curious. Cheers, Chris B.
    12. Hi Darrel. Ajax is in Southern Ontario , east of Toronto. I think the town was named after one of the Destroyers that fought the Graf Spee. Cheers, Chris B.
    13. Hi Rick, thanks again for the fast reply. Wow, that's a lot of Divisions! The soldier in question was my dad's older brother. He never made it home at war's end so all I have is a couple of old family photos. He has a Krim shield and an Ost medal ribbon bar on his uniform and he had written he was at the Narva bridgehead on the back of another photo. Sorry I can't post picts, no scanner, no camera. Best Regards, Chris B.
    14. Just Beautiful. You could almost see how a generation of young men (and women) could have been seduced by the dream and the acoutrements of a Grossdeutsches Reich and a great Crusade for a new Europe. The medals, the regalia, the pageantry, the opportunity for glory, to measure your mettle in combat. No benefit of hindsight for the implications of what you're involved in; the endgame hasn't happened yet. No thought given to the hubris of listening to a Leader who tells you he has a vision that cannot fail. All you have to do is believe... and obey. OK...enough of that. Back to the picts. As has been mentioned, there must be a market for tasteful artistically presented militaria like that. Sort of like what Robert Taylor did for aircraft art. Again, well done! Cheers, Chris B.
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