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I thought long before commenting & have never contributed to any forum before but this situation is unique to me. I am 52 years old and live in the Midwest. I was born outside of Frankfurt, W. Germany to German parents who both had experiences with Soviet military in WW II. My father, from Munchen, at 18 years was conscripted into Heer as panzergrenadier in 8/44 and posted to Poland and Hungary. Was captured by Soviet forces in late 3/45 at Oder River. My mother, a Berliner, was 15 in March 1945 and she and her BDM schoolmates were conscripted to work in the field hospital located in the flaktower at Tiergarten. By April '45 she was manning a AA gun with Volksturm soldiers and HJ. Gun was being used as an artillery piece. They were literally scared to death of what the Russians were going to do to them. Around May 1st she abandoned her post and headed home to her mother and younger sister, Steffanie, 13. They hid until news of the surrender were complete although they say there was still fighting. The initial Soviet troops ransacked their apartment and took whatever valuables they found. A few days later additional Soviet soldiers arrived and proceeded to terrorize what was left of the neighborhood. My mother, grandmother and aunt were repeatedly raped by various soldiers. My aunt Steffanie was taked by 2 Russian soldiers and never seen again. My maternal grandfather was attatched to Paulus's Stalingrad campaign. My grandmother last heard from him 4 months before the surrender at Stalingrad. He was 44 years old. His surviving comrads (very few) say he was alive at capture in January.

My mother and grandmother made it to the Western sector in January '46. My father first met them after being released from Soviet captivity in 1949. He had no teeth and had been badly tortured. They met while civilian employees of the US military in Frankfurt and were married in 7/51. Came to the US in '54. My father died at the young age of 48, primarily due to complications of his Russian imprisonment.

I did not learn of all these things until after my father's death as it was considered both shameful and a source of great anger. My grandmother is still alive in Freiburg and for her, the 60th anniversary of VE day was very painful. I understand and appreciate the suffering inflicted on the Soviets by German forces during the war but Stalin literally made a pact with the devil, used it to his advantage to kill hundreds of thousands and propagandized his soldiers into destroying any Germans they met, even in surrender. There was no honor in that whatsoever. I'm sorry this took so long, probably nobody will read but it means a great deal to me and my family. Im Ruhe. JPS