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Ive read Through Hell for Hitler and it is a fantastic book. Sad to hear of his passing as his story gave a certain personal feel to the war on the eastern front to me.
Henry Metelmann, who has died aged 88, fought with the German army during the second world war, but later became a communist and peace activist in Britain. He served in a Panzer division at the Battle of Stalingrad. The shock of that defeat, and the long retreat out of the Soviet Union across eastern Europe, opened his eyes to the reality of nazism and led him on a lifelong journey of atonement.
Metelmann was born in a working-class town near Hamburg, the only son of Fritz, a railway worker who was a staunch socialist, and Alma, his highly religious mother. Throughout the 1930s he was an enthusiastic member of his local scout group, which was merged with the Hitler Youth. He was seduced by the lure of Hitler and the glamour of the brown and black uniforms, the banners, fanfares and promises of glory, something that caused immense sorrow to his father, who died in 1940.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/henry-metelmann
Henry Metelmann, who has died aged 88, fought with the German army during the second world war, but later became a communist and peace activist in Britain. He served in a Panzer division at the Battle of Stalingrad. The shock of that defeat, and the long retreat out of the Soviet Union across eastern Europe, opened his eyes to the reality of nazism and led him on a lifelong journey of atonement.
Metelmann was born in a working-class town near Hamburg, the only son of Fritz, a railway worker who was a staunch socialist, and Alma, his highly religious mother. Throughout the 1930s he was an enthusiastic member of his local scout group, which was merged with the Hitler Youth. He was seduced by the lure of Hitler and the glamour of the brown and black uniforms, the banners, fanfares and promises of glory, something that caused immense sorrow to his father, who died in 1940.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/henry-metelmann