It is – in many cases – difficult to explain why someone today, especially someone of my age, would bother about events that happened long before he was even born.
It is even more difficult to explain that being interested and even caring about such events does not have anything to do with having sympathies for the fatal political attitude that made the Third Reich possible and even today is cherished by some. You may hopefully see that quite the opposite is the case.
The idea for this site has been sparked by an eBay Auction – one that bidding in was beyond my financial commitments. The items being auctioned have been four flight logs, personal letters and some photos of a pilot of the Luftwaffe who was killed in action in 1944.
Somebody has kept these items together for almost 70 years – when they came up for auction, however, they have been offered as four individual items, won by three different bidders. And all the sudden, what belonged together was torn apart – and with it, the history of that pilot evaporated for what was left of him has been shattered and will most likely not be reunited.
“Now, what do you care about a man that died a lifetime ago and you did not even know him?” – well, to some extent I do, mainly because this man died in a war while fighting for his country and there is very little in Germany that reminds us about it.
In my opinion, if my country – if any country – sends its men (and today women) to fight its wars, we – the people – may not appreciate that, we may not accept the reasons and we may even oppose it: that is our right in a democratic country.
But no matter what: if we send these women and men out to fight for our country, we owe them our support. They are the ones being put in harms way. They are the ones being wounded – physically and mentally. And if worse comes to worst, they are the ones that die out there. How can we not support them – as individuals – even if we may not support the war they have been send to fight in?
I am currently focusing on the German Luftwaffe – simply because of my access to information and the fact that this alone is more than enough to struggle with.
I am happy to pick up opportunities on other countries and/or branches but as things go, my access to detailed information is best with respect to the Luftwaffe. Time will tell if anyone is interested in these stories at all.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
(George Santayana)
