I would watch Hogan’s Heroes every day after grade school.
My old man would wander in and watch for a few minutes. Then leave with a laugh and chuckle “Oh those crazy guys”. As a WW II vet I’m partly glad he left me in my innocence - but looking back I sure wish he had told me how things really were.
Although I AM still able to talk with my mom about those times. Interestingly, she did not have much information or knowledge of the Jewish Camps. Only what she saw when she was dragged to Schindler’s List and modern day remembrances. She said during the war and afterwards the plight of the Jews wasn’t in the papers much.
There have been occasional mentions in these pages about deportations of Jews, shootings in Eastern Europe and protests by American Jews about what the Nazis were doing. I think what shocked most people was the revelation of the killing on a industrial scale that was going on in the camps and the extreme cruelty as to the living. Certainly, the American troops who overran camps had no idea what they were running into.