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.