I know, a heavy way to start the week but it has been in my Friday since Friday morning. I was channel surfing and was attempting to get by the History Channel which I never watch. It was the top of the hour and the show was about Hitler's family of origin and it reminded me of my.
While the rest of you were talking about Chevrolet and Apple pie, in my household the language was German and any topics brought up were German-related. We did not speak English at home if my German grandma was anywhere near which was most of the time. I don't remember having problems when going to our American grandma's house with language but obviously remembering being put in speech therapy in 2nd grade because I spoke 2 languages there - it had to have been an issue.
I can't remember what we talked about at American grandma's house. I just remember she was the best cook EVER and all my focus was eating as much as I could but at home, it was a different deal.
My mother was sick so that left my father and my Oma to entertain themselves. While I am sure my sister and I took a lot of time to care for, they had more than enough time to get frequent yelling matches which always had overtones of Germany. Oma was not interested in America or her ways. She was here to help her sick daughter and care for her only granddaughters. While I don't' know for sure, looking back - she must have disliked her son-in-law for bringing her daughter to America where the cultural climate looked down on Germans in 1945. He had left his new bride with his parents and went back to Germany for four years. The new bride and her in-laws didn't get along and it never got better but I digress.
One topic I remember Oma and my father fighting about often was Hitler. I am not sure why they would go at it over and over again. Like they were going to change the other's mind if they kept up the debate. I must have been 6 or 7 years old but I remember Oma trying to defend Hitler. She said the people of Germany would have starved if not for him. She credited the VW - the people's car as his attempt to allow everyone to own a vehicle. Whatever crazyness he did after that - trumped the badness in her mind. She was not a radical but from this little woman's perspective, she was going to defend him, no matter what. My father would rant and rave. RANT AND RAVE. I didn't know what Hitler had done and if my only knowledge was to be based on these conversations, Oma was winning. It seems strange now. Now that I know the whole Story. I would have loved to talk to her about all of this but she died a month before I got married. Her daughter died two years prior to my marriage, by her own hand, and she had no place to go but back to Germany. I never saw her again and was informed of her death by a telegram from distant cousins.
The whole Hitler thing has been rolling around in my head all weekend. DH had the weekend off and we had a chance to discuss the Story. Could it happen today? With CNN, Nancy Grace and Anderson Cooper - maybe. There has always been evil in the world and will always be. That we don't agree on what is and isn't, will always remain a mystery. Sometimes, it all comes down to perspective and the truth is each of us has a different one.
