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Praetorium Honoris

Sunday, March 10, 2024

The Bus

Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation Parade
Leipzig, Deutsche Demokratische
Republik, 1953
(Source)
If von Lüttwitz hadn't have known better, he could have sworn that he had gone back in time to the 1930s. The only difference between the youth parade marching down the street before him now, and what he remembered from his youth, was the absence of the swastika. The cult of personality in East Germany was still strong, Communist leaders had replaced the Nazi leaders, but the similarities were striking. It made him sick.

He had grown up near Leipzig, he'd gone to university here before the war started, things were somehow the same, yet different at the same time. Most of the rubble and destruction had been cleaned up, no doubt by Germans employed the same way he had been after release from the American POW cage. Not exactly volunteers but driven to return order and cleanliness to their cities and towns.

The Americans found it amusing, the Soviets used it as a tool to get the people to accept the transition to Communism. Most Germans were glad the war was over, some, like the East German leadership, were happy to help the Soviets construct what they just knew would be a worker's paradise.

Von Lüttwitz scoffed and shook his head at the thought. He better get moving, he had a bus to catch.

"Something bothering you, Comrade?" said a man nearby.

Von Lüttwitz turned abruptly and gave the man what his troops used to call his "officer's look."

"Yes, today is a work day, I'm surprised these youths have the time to parade up and down the city streets. It's frivolous." Looking at the man with disgust, he added, "Comrade."

The man lowered his gaze and muttered, "My thoughts exactly, Comrade."

Without waiting for any further interaction with the man, von Lüttwitz walked to the corner where the bus for Dresden was loading. The officials at the bus depot had assured him that the bus made a stop at Reinsberg.

"What is in Reinsberg, Lüttwitz?" The official had glanced at his identity papers when he handed von Lüttwitz his bus ticket and his papers.

"My uncle has a farm near there. I haven't seen them since before the war."

"Just how long were you in the American camps, Lüttwitz?" The man had seemed genuinely interested, he looked around cautiously to make sure no one was in earshot. "I was held in the East until '50, after Stalingrad."

"I was captured near the end of the war, damned Amis kept me in a cage until '48. Then it was clearing rubble. When the West went capitalist, I decided to come home, to Saxony."

He had learned well the lessons they'd taught him about how to get along in the DDR. Thing is, they weren't that different than when they had been under Hitler and the Nazis. The only thing he had trouble getting used to was the loss of the "von" in front of his name. No nobles under Communism they'd pointed out to him when they had given him his papers.

"Have a safe trip, comrade." The way the bus official put it made it sound like what they'd called each other in the Army, not the "Comrade" of the Soviets and Communists.

Von Lüttwitz tucked his papers away in an inside pocket and gave a brusque nod and a quick smile to the bus official, "Danke, Kamerad."

As he boarded the bus he saw a Soviet patrol just down the street, two men and an officer. It took all of his self-control to keep from staring in hatred at the three men. He knew, deep down inside, that the two men were probably conscripts, just doing as they were told. But the officer, it was him, and bastards like him, that had subjugated the eastern provinces of Germany and were diligently molding them into a Communist state.

"Is this seat taken, Comrade?"

A young man gestured at the seat next to von Lüttwitz, he had a look that von Lüttwitz was familiar with, that of the young fanatic. Youths like this had help drag his Germany down into the sewer that was Nazism, now they were intent on replacing that fanatical regime with one imported from the Soviet Union.

"No, it is not, Comrade."

The youth obviously wanted to engage von Lüttwitz in conversation, something he'd rather avoid.

"Look, sorry Comrade, but I've had a long day and I'm off to our field headquarters near Dresden. I'd rather sleep than chat. Is that going to be a problem?"

The light went out of the youth's eyes, thinking that he was dealing with a Party official or, worse yet, a member of the police, he immediately apologized. For the rest of the trip, he kept  to himself.

Von Lüttwitz was starting to doubt the wisdom of this trip.



48 comments:

  1. Reading this Sarge, I thought......"Socialism/Communism, THIS time WE'LL do it differently." Looks like Wokism has been added to this century's mix.

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    1. It's always the "wrong people" tried to make it work. Nope, it's the same idiots time after time. Problem is, as a system and a philosophy, socialism sucks.

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    2. You all beat me to this comment. Was busy shoveling wet snow as so to feed the critters this am. Nothing like slipping on snow covered ice to ruin your day. So, shoveling and spreading sand it first.

      Reading over the rest of the comments, I too ponder just how "restrained" we self-edit as not to offend the perpetually offended VS those that can make TROUBLE for us at HR and such.

      But then again, those troublemakers are often perpetually offended.

      Are we that far from the Bus ride described?

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    3. The Perpetually Offended Obnoxious People will search out or invent reasons to feel offended. I sometimes think that the most offensive thing to do to them is to not give them any reason to feel oFENded. Because then you are obviously hiding your racism, misogyny, various phobias, and general bigotry.

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    4. Michael - 'Ware the ice and snow ...

      And the perpetually offended!

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    5. Joe - I like your acronym, the POOP.

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    6. I'm too old and grumpy to not hold my sarcastic tongue that's in my wise-ass mouth. But for my wife and my mental health I do avoid, mostly, those sections of Gainesville that are infected by mind leaches.

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    7. I tend to avoid where the POOP hang out.

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    8. Purely unintentional, Sarge.

      Yep....unintended, didn't even notice....

      Yep....that's my story.

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  2. How long did the allies hold the German POWs?

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    1. In the West there were POWs in custody as late as 1949 (the French tended to be vindictive, after all, the Germans did occupy their country and held French soldiers as POWs throughout the war, as hostages). The Soviets held theirs until as late as 1955, some never went home.

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    2. In the East, a lot never went home. They built a lot of really nice infrastructure for the Party Elites. Funny that, how the Party Elites always profit off of socialism/communism while the workers that are supposed to profit don't.

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  3. The Plan is always to be better than the old Plan. People with Plans mostly inspire me to walk away. It's my life, I don't need their help, I'll screw it up for myself.

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    1. Ah yes, the Plan, I don't trust people with Plans for others.

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    2. My Plan is to bury axes in the heads of my enemies. I figure, they give me a headache, well, right back at ya! So far I have not had to resort to My Plan.

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  4. "but the similarities were striking. It made him sick."

    National Socialist, Soviet Socialist.... functionally not a clipped groat's difference between them.

    I just watched a Bill Maher clip in which he and his guests made a big deal about Trump meeting with the leader of Hungary, "and Hungary sided with the Nazis!" Do those morons ever stop to look at what the Soviet Union did the Hungary, Ukraine, et alia before WWII? That just maybe initially Nazi Germany looked like a better deal and would liberate them from the Stalinist Soviet Union?

    I'll say it again, socialism of all flavors, communism, and fascism are all just different faces of the same totalitarian die.

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    1. Yet they also slobber at the feet of George Soros, a Hungarian. Oh, that's right, it's okay if They do it...

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    2. They slobber at the feet of any rich Progressive.

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  5. Can't trust your neighbor? Or the guy sitting next to you in your company meeting,? Or your kids teachers? Or the Cops?
    Why that could only happen in a Communist Country! Not in America, right?
    Right?
    Right?
    Crickets.

    juvat

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    1. When I worked at LockMart they had these magnets, stickers and posters showing a mother duck, a couple of ducklings and a gosling. The caption was "See Something, Say Something". When they started this campaign, it had to do with security, both operational security (OPSEC) and classified security particularly on the F-35 program. There had been breaches of both. But having heard of the DEI and CRT that is being imposed at LockMart, I have a feeling it is being applied there also.

      I am waiting for billboards with that symbolism showing up out on the highways and byways with a number to call the FBI, DHS or some new thing the Leftist have dreamed up. Especially this year since we will have all of these Right-wing, MAGA violent terrorists out campaigning for conservative politicians.

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    2. I wouldn't be surprised to see billboards like that. Especially as November comes closer.

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    3. Funny (in a not-funny way) that three administrations ago and the current administration have both installed ways for people to report on the anti-social (well, at least to the administrations) behavior of others. Behaviors that garner more FBI attention than known potential school shooters (and exactly where are those school shooters getting their $30,000 worth of guns and ammo? Hmmm... not from their fed controllers, no...)

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    4. Those have always been there, just that in the past they weren't taken seriously.

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  6. What saddens me is that, often, people escape a totalitarian regime and then set out to recreate the environment that creates.. a totalitarian regime much like what they escaped from. You see it in certain prosecuted minorities from WWII and people coming from New York and California. You'd think these escapees would, like the Cubans in Florida, react in a most conservative way and wish for all the good of American values.

    But, no, the infiltration begins. Almost like the escapees aren't escaping, but colonizing.

    Sad, very sad.

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    Replies
    1. Beans, the odd thing is in that many of those cases, they will actively say they are escaping things like high taxes (or taxes at all) or crime or a host of situations - and then promptly work to put the policies in place that result in those things.

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    2. Some of them, the foreign types, are spreading jihad.

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  7. @ Bean
    A lot of the Jews that came over post-WWI were escapees from various totalitarian tyrannies; they came here believing the underlying (unscore lying) philosphy of socialism they'd been fed: both here and over there; they were/became FDR socialists and raised their children in the same beliefs.
    Some (not an awful lot) began to dig a little deeper, noticing quite a few similarities (that powerful, pernicious odor of mendacity) between the FDR government and the horrors that were occurring/they'd escaped from in Europe (we're on a war-time footing, doncha know!); behind the closed curtains they voted aginst the Democratic/Socialist party: discussing their feelings even sometimes with their spouse.
    This is why you'll find a small number of strongly Conservative Jews who fully understood the strongly anti-Semitic position of the Liberal/Socialist-Progressive/Democrat party, how it affected them personally, and why it was so important to support the ideals of the Founders, the Constitution, and any candidate who espoused these principles: unfortunately not all that many have the requisite 20/20 eyesight.

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    1. that was supposed to be Jewish Conservatives (Conservatives of the Jewish faith), not Conservative Jews (two different animals)

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    2. the Grammar Nazi can get in too much of a rush sometimes (when the OL calls "brunch is on the table" the third time)

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  8. Where can I buy copies of your books, please?

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    Replies
    1. Haven't had any published yet. Hope to rectify that soon.

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  9. ..."The only difference between the youth parade marching down the street before him now, and what he remembered from his youth, was the absence of the swastika".

    Whether wearing Hugo Boss' finest or homespun by Babushka, socialists gonna do what socialists do.

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    1. And you just pointed out what I call 'my' definitions of national socialism vs international socialism, which is natsoc dress sharp while intsoc dress shabby.

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    2. Clothes make the socialist, I guess.

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  10. Once in The Long Ago, I may or may not have spent some weeks in Eastern Europe not too long after The Fall of The Wall. One of the souvenirs I still have buried away somewhere is a Young Pioneers "Booklet", given out as there was no need for them anymore.

    Also, I got to hear an unrepentant Stalinist. It was a fascinating conversation. Believed Stalin was "misunderstood" and "a victim of circumstances".

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    1. I've met a few people like that, gone so far around the bend in regards to their political beliefs that reality tends to bend when it gets near them. Like light near a black hole.

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    2. Also fascinatingly, he was a chain smoker. I believe we recorded essentially an entire pack smoke in 90 minutes. He just lit one cigarette from the other.

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    3. Usually a sign of extreme stress.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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