Waffen SS vets Memoirs

[münster]

Well,,,as life goes on people die. My ex girlfriends Grandfather is not doing so good and Iam going to ask to sit with him and record his experiences as a Grenadier for the Frewillige Nederlander. Iam going to then transcribe it on paper. He seen action in Warsaw and did bomb clean up for the Dresden raid. Captured by Cossaks , escaped and was POW of the Brits. Iam looking for any ideas for the interview. Fire away guys

[Oberjunker]

Ask him about his Grundausbildung. when did he recieve his Runen? How long did it last, etc. What dates was he in Dresden? Was he part of the defenses on the Oderfront? I thought that Nederland was north of Seelow at the time? Good luck, and I hope that you share his experiences with us here as we would love to hear his story. I recently met and talked with a man who served in the Marine Artillerie and was a Faehnrich on a KM Artilleriefahrpram in the Oder river and they motored around lobbing shells at soviet tanks.

Good luck!

[Wessels]

Because reasons vary, ask him what his personal motivations were to join the Waffen SS and how long from the the time he first thought about it to actually enlisting? Also, did he come across others in the Waffen SS whom he actually knew from home prior to the Wafen SS? Did he have a choice as to the Regiment/Division he was asigned to? Did all his Kameraden from his time in Grundausbildung und Gelaendeausbildung later end up in the same Rigiment? Please make sure that he knows that there are many who are proud of his service against the Soviets!

[münster]

Good advice here. He joined up because he was an orphan. His Father died in WW1 from wounds. He is German but the put him in the Nederlander because I think it was the closest collection point. He was in Dresden directly after the raid. He started in the HJ marine. He met Hitler briefly when they played with a brass band at the Kyffhauser memorial. Hitler patted his shoulder and said "MAchts Weiterer Junge"He told me tons of stories, we sat for 5 hours with a pot of coffee and ciggs.

[Jens]

Hello Dion

Best thing to do is to record it with a videocam or taperecorder as few are good enough to get everything down on paper. Its also the good way to remember people later!

just my advice !

regards Jens

[Oberjunker]

Also, when he was deployed when/what was he issued? (we all know that it varied, but it would be interesting to see what he got at that point in the war)

[münster]

He got a Walther and a k98,,First he was a motorcycle messenger.