My grandpa met German POW's (1 Viewer)

[Gideon]

I remember my grandpa telling me about German POW's and describing how some commented that his eyes were blue yet he was a Jew.

Anyway, I was going through his WWII sketches and paintings and came across "POW's at Mess". Thought you folks might find it interesting

 

[Louis Badolato]

Thanks for sharing the story and the photos. Was that your Grandpa who played professional football? I always love hearing stories about your family, and seeing their artwork. How is your dad? Tell John I would love to take him to dinner one of these days.

 

[Gideon]

No, the grandpa who played football was on my moms side. He was a physical training instructor for the navy. I have some photos of him on the beach doing morning exercise routines with the recruits. Pretty cool but nothing spectacular.

His brother captained a PT Boat similar to Kennedy's in the Pacific I believe. I don't have much in records or history on my moms side of the family.

I'll let dad know.

 

[Louis Badolato]

You have some amazing family history, Gid. Captain of a PT Boat. I bet he had some stories. Those guys had a very dangerous job. Those night battles off Guadalcanal depicted in the Pacific series on HBO often involved PT Boats. They would lay in wait and try to torpedo the Japanese troop transports as they attempted to land reinforcements.

I hope I get to see your dad, but it would be great to see you too, one of these days. Its been at least a couple of years.

 

[Scott]

A war that big swept up a good number of artists. I grew up in an "art colony" where there was a US Navy combat artist Sven O. Carlson and a Romania veteran Nick Blazhev who had sketch books full of scenes from his time in WW II.
The works by the soldier artists aren't always representational art of exactly what men uniforms and gear looked like, but show the spirit of the events. Thanks for posting the picture and link to your grandfather's art.

 

[Gideon]

Yeah Scott. My grandpa was in a photo recon unit with a bunch of other artists.

What they produced captured the feeling of where they were more than the gear. I am going to post a another pen & ink in a few moments. It is one of my favorites from his time in service.

 

[Gideon]

This is the link to the full gallery:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jerom...ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=125087&id=176621302242

Here is one of my favorites:

The Letter
December 1943
You can just feel the barracks.

 

[jazzeum]

Very good drawings, great actually Gideon.

 

[DCN1898]

I don't have a picture of it to post but, My father supervised German POWs in Illinois. One of the POWs made a highchair out of scrap lumber for my older sister. My dad never dreamed in 1944 that in 1947, he would be with the Army of Occupation in Germany. He never got the German Soldier's name. It would be fascinating to find out what happened to him.

 

[arnhem44mad]

I remember my grandpa telling me about German POW's and describing how some commented that his eyes were blue yet he was a Jew.

Anyway, I was going through his WWII sketches and paintings and came across "POW's at Mess". Thought you folks might find it interesting

When I read the title of this post my first thought was 'We're still keeping GPOW's?

 

[4th Hussar]

I enjoyed the drawings on the facebook page. Very well done.

 

[DMNamiot]

My wifes grandmother had German PW's working on her farm in Colorado during the war. The culitvated fields and tended various crops as well as doing odd jobs around the barns. She told some interesting stories about them. They were a good bunch according to her and absolutley loved seeing her kids who were all blonde and blue eyed, certainly adds a more human aspect to the evil hun. Unfortunately she didnt take photos of any of them because I imagine film was difficult to get. But the stories were interesting especially from the how nice many of them were. My dads father was a Dr during the war and while they were stationed in AZ he treated PWs in the camps around Phoenix. Not too many stories from that side of the family because grandpa Charlie was rather quiet and didnt tell many stories.

Thanks for sharing the drawings as well very well done

Dave

 

[Gideon]

my grandfather described the pow's as being pretty antisemitic and making it known to him what they thought. he said he felt no sympathy for them though some may have nice people; "I didn't concern myself with their well being".