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Praetorium Honoris

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Homecoming ...

(Bundesarchiv Source)
Jürgen von Lüttwitz was understandably nervous as they approached the Soviet sector of occupied Germany. The war had been over for seven years, he'd been released from the POW cage after two and a half years in captivity.

As an officer he had been de-Nazified but in a very perfunctory manner. The Soviets were throwing their considerable weight around and the Amis were more interested in opposing them than their old enemies, the Germans. He had been asked if he still admired Hitler by a very young American officer.

"I never admired Hitler," he answered, far more abruptly than he meant to.

"Not even when you were winning the war?" the young officer had persisted.

"Lieutenant, I was an enlisted man during the early years of the war. The Nazis stole from my family, I have no love for them. As to Hitler, he was, to me, just another damned politician. Later on, as an officer in the German Army, I learned to eschew politics. We were too busy trying to stay alive anyway to concern ourselves with what was happening in Berlin."

The young American lieutenant nodded, made a few notes then looked up at von Lüttwitz, "Okay then, you're free to go." Then handed the bewildered German a piece of paper.

As von Lüttwitz took the proffered document, he nodded and muttered a thank you. Somehow he had been expecting more from this session. It all seemed so anticlimactic. As he turned to go out the way he had come in, the American spoke.

"Not that door, you're a free man. The door to your right exits out of the camp. Was there something you needed from the barracks? I can have my sergeant fetch that for you."

Von Lüttwitz thought for a moment, his Knight's Cross wasn't there, it was hidden elsewhere in the camp. But as he thought about it, what need did he have of that? A decoration from a now extinct government. He paused, then spoke.

"No, I have everything I need on me. There is nothing left in this camp I need to live. At least not that I care about."

That had been seven years ago, he remembered it as if had been yesterday. Now he was riding in a beat up Volkswagen Käfer¹ headed east. The man driving had been invalided out of the army in 1944, he had lost part of his foot in the East, now he ran an illicit transport service into the Soviet Zone.

Von Lüttwitz had worked as a laborer, clearing the rubble from Germany's ruined cities. He even had a brief stint working for the U.S. Army in a supply depot. He had been saving his money, which took time, his wages weren't much, barely enough to rent a small room and feed himself.

One day, he had run into an old comrade from the East. The man had been startled to see von Lüttwitz.

"Herr Major!" the man had exclaimed.

Von Lüttwitz blushed, "Those days are over Heinz, just call me Jürgen."

The former Gefreiter looked ashamed, "Sorry, er, Jürgen, it's been some years and the East was horrible, but some of the best times of my life were in your unit."

"It's alright, I know how you feel. Have you been back to Saxony, since the war ended?"

"I was living there in '45, we fled to the west when the Russians were advancing in the spring. It was horrible, but I'm still alive. Many others are not."

Von Lüttwitz glanced at the man's empty sleeve, he had lost an arm in the Hürtgenwald. "How is, that?" He nodded where the man's missing arm had been.

The former Gefreiter looked at his empty sleeve, "Ja, I miss the arm, but had I not been wounded, I'd probably still be in that damned forest. That Ami mortar round probably saved my life." He grinned as he said that.

"Have you heard anything from our old homeland?"

"Yes, Jürgen, things are pretty rough. The Russians are being, well, Russians. I can't say I blame them, we acted badly in the East. If I was you, I'd stay away. The Bolsheviks have long memories."

The two men had parted and oddly enough it was that encounter which made von Lüttwitz determined to go home. He was a Saxon, and proud of that fact.

He looked up from his reveries as the small car began to slow down.

"We're nearly at the border, my friend. You still want to go on? A few people change their minds at this point." his driver asked him.

"No, I've come this far. Let's drive on."

To be continued ...



¹ German for beetle, the German nickname for the VW Beetle.

36 comments:

  1. Hey! A new episode with the old gang........excellent (said in Monte Burns voice) Sarge.

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    1. I felt the urge to revisit the lads from the first book.

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  2. Eventually, we all want to go home.

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  3. After the war... A good start!

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  4. Sarge,
    Sounds like another great story coming our way. Looking forward to it. Well done!
    juvat

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    1. I saw that photo and thought, "Jürgen needs to go home!"

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  5. Going home can be good, but the home you arrive at isn't always there. The streets are improved, empty play lots filled, the trees have grown, ... yet the welcoming hugs, ahh, those are indeed Home.

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    1. In von Lüttwitz's place, things aren't going to be the same, not even close. His old neighborhood might not be there!

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    2. Gotta say, Sarge, I'm not thrilled with the idea of "Unser Jurgen" in the Soviet zone. Yes, he'd did a masterful job leading the "Sieben Manner" but that was behind OUR lines.
      Thomas Wolfe was right; you can't go home again. At least he's got almost a decade before the Wall goes up in Berlin, but the hinterland? Probably already in the grasp of the Stasi and Honecker's goons.
      Damn.
      Boat Guy

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    3. NONE of the above should be taken as anything but "Yay! New fiction from Sarge!"
      BG

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    4. BG #1 - I was reluctant to send von Lüttwitz to Soviet occupied zone, but there is something he needs to do there. Even I'm not sure what that is yet, but he needs to go. Only then can he make his way forward and away from the war.

      But to what? Who knows?

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  6. (Me: Stressing about upcoming relocation and all the things to do "Look! New fiction from Sarge! Yay!)

    Thanks for writing this - how Germany (both halves) dealt with the post-war/increasing Cold War has never been something I have read much about.

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    1. It's an interesting time period, Len Deighton based a number of his 60s spy novels on that era. Out of which a number of pretty good films were made starring Michael Caine. (There, I got to namedrop two of my favorites, an author and an actor.)

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    2. I am trying to recall if I read a Len Deighton book once, long ago. I do enjoy Michael Caine.

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    3. There are so many, here's a partial list over at Amazon. He's written non-fictional history, spy fiction, historical fiction, believe he's done some writing about cooking as well. One of my favorites (it's at that link) is Bomber, a fictional account of an RAF bombing raid on a town in the Ruhr. Told from the point of view of one RAF crew, a Luftwaffe nightfighter pilot, and a young boy who's living in the town which is the target of the raid. A gripping tale!

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    4. Even Disney made some Cold War West-vs-East movies. One I remember was about some kids in West Berlin finding a tunnel and helping people leaving East Berlin, while dodging Stasi and others.

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    5. Back when Disney wasn't Woke.

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  7. Wonderful! The post-war lives of our fictional friends from all sides will be most interesting.
    Looking forward to more!
    JB

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    1. They make for very good vignettes. (Meaning I don't have to worry immediately about making them into a book as the episodes can stand alone.)

      Oh, thanks! (Should have said that first.)

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  8. Our hero should be careful what he wishes for, he may get it... East Germany was radically different than West Germany. Everybody spies on Everyone. Nobody is above suspicion. There are watchers who watch the watchers who watch the watchers who...

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    1. None of us know the why of von Lüttwitz's foray into the DDR. We'll know soon.

      Not to be mysterious or anything. 😉

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  9. "The Russians are being, well, Russians." Nothing new. And LONG memories in that part of the world. Serbs still commemorate the Martyrs of the Battle of Kosovo. The one in the 1380s. Throw in the xenophobia that is part of the Russian nature on top of a victory like WWII and it can make for bad times for the vanquished.

    Going home....The last time I was in Vista, San Diego County, was in early '07 when I chanted my dad's funeral (drove down from Santa Rosa, and the night before my eldest brother called me and said that he hadn't lined up any clergy, but, Hey, Joe, you're some kind of clergy, aren't you? way above my grade but you can't say no). Didn't recognize it. Roads all changed. The "new" shopping center that went in when I was in my early teens was gone, graffiti worse than up here. Heck, even Hwy 76 was changed so much that I had to drive three times to find the entrance to Mission San Luis Rey.

    A humorous side to the funeral - Dad had been with Uncle Sam's Misguided Children and visited N. Africa on the USS Brooklyn (CL-40) and then toured the Pacific. So my brother had arranged for a USMC detail. The SSgt came up and told us what they would be doing and that his rifle detail would fire a "21 gun salute." I spent about 5 minutes trying to explain to him that no, it was three volleys, not a 21 gun salute. He was adamant that it was a 21 gun salute because his 7 rifles would each fire three rounds. (sigh)

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    1. Arlington National Cemetery agrees with you, not the Marine. As does the American Legion.

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    2. I was irked enough about it that I wrote a letter to the Commander of Camp Pendleton. I addressed the lack of education about Traditions and Customs shown by someone in a leadership position. Didn't name him, and was vague about when. I hope that it resulted in some reminders going out.

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  10. I know I'm going to get a real kick outta looking through Jürgen Von Lüttwitz' eyes.

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    1. Nice way to put it, hope I can put you there.

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  11. Great to hear from Comrades, Old and Absent.

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    1. It tickles my heart that so many of you remember the characters I created, and care about them. Thank you!

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  12. The photo reminded me of a scene from "Band of Brothers". One of the Easy Company guys was doing traffic checks with what appeared to be a German MP. A young German soldier missing a leg hobbles up to them at the same time a car with a couple of middle-aged Germans drives up. They are going to the same place, but the people in the car said "we have no room". The paratrooper then throws a bunch of luggage out of the car and seats the young soldier and says something like "he gave is leg for you, give him a ride".

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  13. Replies
    1. This part of my "Vignettes" series, short stories, not a book. We may, or may not, get back to the others.

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