So your Grandad was a Nazi...

Thomas and I stayed with his relatives in Berlin over the holidays. As I was poring over old family photos, I noticed a peculiar thing: Thomas' grandad looked a whole lot older than I expected. Bald, thin, with weary eyes and lined face, he seemed like he was in his fifties. At first glance I thought that he was Thomas' great grandad. In fact he was just in his early forties.

I approached Thomas' aunt, who confirmed that yes, he was her father. He died before Thomas was born, in the 70s at the age of 56. She was 15.

"Why did he look so aged?"

"He was a medical doctor. After the war he was detained in a Russian labor camp for the next six years, and didn't come back to Germany until 1951. He died of a heart attack. I guess being imprisoned took a toll on his health."

Whoa.

The implication is that he was a Nazi kind of took me by surprise. Thomas's family is not racist. However, I always had this sugary sweet hope in my heart that Thomas' family was a lot like the Von Trapps. I never thought about it, but in my heart of hearts I wanted the family to be one of those nice people who helped the Jews.

Later that night I told Thomas that finding out that his grandad was a Nazi freaked me out a bit. In a hurt tone, Thomas told me to get over it. "Hello, if I had been born in that time I would've been a Nazi too. There were benefits to being a party member. Just because they belonged to the party didn't mean that they believed in it. Why are you judging my grandad because of my country's past?"

"By the way, my aunt (from the other side of the family) was a member of the Stasi, and that is at the opposite end of the political spectrum."

I mean how hardcore is that? First, I find out that his granddad was a Nazi, and now I find out that his aunt was an East German Stasi?

In a world where even the German Pope was a Nazi, it honestly shouldn't be surprising. Trying to find a native German family untouched by the Nazi regime would be trying to find a household untouched by death. It doesn't exist.

By all accounts, Thomas's grandad was a great guy. Up to this day, his children adopt a reverent tone of voice when they talk about their father, the mighty doctor who survived a Russian labor camp.

I also feel a bit of envy. My grandparents were teenagers during the war, so they didn't do anything more exciting than hide out in the mountains of their respective provinces.

I need time to come to terms with the fact that Thomas' family, like the rest of the Germans, are players in Germany's conflicted past. It's not that they wanted to be a part of any of these groups. The circumstances of Germany's turbulent history forced them to be so. While I try to accept these facts, I am praying, hoping, that no Jews, gays, or political prisoners were harmed in his hands. Maybe, just maybe, he was a Von Trapp after all.