2012 WWII Days - Rockford, IL - German WWII Fallschirmjäger Veteran With StG44
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 พ.ค. 2014
- The largest World War II-era re-enactment in the United States with more than 1,200 uniformed re-enactors from 40 states representing soldiers from the United States, Great Britain, France, Poland, Ukraine, the Soviet Union, Japan, Italy and Germany.
We are the last generation that will hear the stories of the war from the people that survived it.
Google will record it :D
Yes indeed
@@FRFFW yes, but actually hear ww2 veterans.
Yeah, I know this one 103 American Captian for the U.S Army Air Corps. He is still alive to this day!
Very sad...last people wich we truly can learn from!
A very polite old man. Answered questions with honesty. Was a great opportunity to ask some better questions about what he experienced during WW2. These old soldiers are harder to find every year.
+V Avotins Unforunately they're getting older.
I mean Hundred years ago,WW1 was being fought in Europe.
It's getting closer to be the hundred year anniversary of Armistice Day too...
+TheCommunistDragon51 my mother took me to my first Remembrance Day ceremony at 7. She showed me veterans in red berets who were paratroopers she said look son when you are my age they will be gone.
When I was 19 because of those words I joined the royal Canadian legion
Travis Walsh
Hope it's great for you,I don't got the mentality for military duty,but if it has to happen,damn it I guess I should be the one to step up and do it.
These old guys though...imagine what they think of the world now adays,after they done gone and blown half of it to hell and back again...lets just hope that doesn't happen again because then it'll be the whole world getting blown to hell.
Of course he was polite. The Germans are well known for their politeness.
chainoad
*I apologize in advance for this*
Yeah so polite they let other people use their showers.
Why are these people tryimg to tell the guy about his gun?
He was there & not a re-enactor.
John Confrey well he is 85 so he might not remember specifics
@@squintsyadams8463 you need to chill out
@@muzhikforchaplin1203 Why? You wanna glorify the dead old Nazi war criminal? Fuck you.
Squintsy Adams wow. You need to stop. My grandfather was in the Wehrmacht. He was in the 91st Luftlande Division, 6th Fallschirmjäger regiment. After the surrender of the Wehrmacht he fought the SS. The SS are the Nazis. The Wehrmacht was the German army that was manipulated. The Wehrmacht was lied to the entire war about the holocaust. They were told that they were “rehabilitation centers”.
@@squintsyadams8463 yessir:DDDD
He looks so happy to be reunited with an STG. 44
CharlieActual it’s the first time he’s held one. He’s a fraud
@@Grandizer8989 Just because he never held one doesn't mean he's a fraud. Stg44 aren't common infantry weapon and thier are only small amount of them compared to other weapons in german arsenal.
Inquisitor Steele no German WW2 that I’ve met would be caught dead in a uniform. He was Hitler Youth at best who manned a flak cannon. Stolen valor is very prevalent among WW2 vets to this day, including Americans
@@Grandizer8989 So do you have any solid evidence more than that? Also he is definitely old enough to be part of regular formation since from my sloppy research he was currently around 93-94 year old. Old enough to be part of regular in late part of the war.
Inquisitor Steele I work at a WW2 museum and know historians who attended Knights Cross reunions and they all say the same thing, true German vets would never put on a uniform. I’m not saying that he didn’t serve, he probably had some sort of auxiliary roll. We just caught a DDay vet who said he landed on Omaha where he actually landed 12 days later and never saw action. Guy was 93 at the time. If you scroll through my videos, you’ll see him giving a speech about it months before he was outed.
German, American, British, Russian, Japanese, French, ANY war veteran is a war veteran and deserves to be treated like one. We respect them for service, stories, and memories, not for whether their government won. Thank you for giving this man something interesting and enjoyable to do! It has been over 70 years, they all deserve our care before it is too late.
Canadian Cherokee There will always be those in a larger group that will give said-group a bad name. It doesn't mean that everyone in the group is the same as those who give them a bad reputation.
My grandfather served in the Second World War as a Japanese American.
It's good to be tolerant when they did not destroy 27 million of your people, most of them civil! It will be another hundred years and I will ask my grandchildren not to forgive!
Anonymous X yeah.... in the paratroopers.... literally had no part in the atrocities, they were too busy fighting on the front lines and dying while the “elites” guarded the camps...
You respect them for the service of volunteering to be a part of a Regime that was responsible for millions and millions of Human Rights abuses?
I'm glad he isn't ashamed that he was a soldier of germany, and takes part in the reenactment community.
Every man, even mere boy's did their part and fought for their country.
I'd happily listen to this elderly gentleman all day.
Don't care about that 'officer' guy, too much about politics, and sort that damn cap out
I'm disgusted by people that disrespect veterans just because of the side they fought on. Not all of our boys in WW2 were Nazis, not all Yanks in Iraq thought it was the right thing to do and not all Japanese soldiers wanted to kill innocents at Pearl Harbor. I had a lot of family that served both Germany and Britain in WW2 and I dearly love and respect them all, one of them worked at a death camp and I still love and respected him, he did what he had no choice in. I've been lucky enough to be born and raised in Germany, hear that half of the story and then move to Britain to hear their side of it, at the end of it all neither of the soldiers were evil, they were just young men tricked into killing eachother for stupidity's sake. I wish I could shake this man's hand and hug him.
Yeah, must looks at Japan, today Manny respect the Japan but why not NAZI
respect for what? They ran over European countries. They betrayed a fellow ally. They were the attackers, not the defenders. I wont bring up the other obvious things.
@@tomservo5007 So what? They were wronged multiple times by the allied powers purposefully dismantled and humiliated. If you grew up in a country that was beaten to a pulp and then intentionally crippled you would probably just as gladly signed up to get revenge. Every soldier should be respected they all have their reasons for having fought just because you dont understand them doesn't mean they are bad people it just means you are too uneducated to know better.
@@ryman1933 how does that explain the killing of their own 'undesirable' citizens? German citizens! Germany crossed the line. I bet, if they didn't do half the things they did, they would be publicly celebrated without controversy.
It was reason of killing millions of Jews?
This guy should write a book or something, I'd love to hear a German veteran's take on WW2.
Ryan Casey read Blood Red Snow or Sniper on the Eastern Front.great reads
Youre kinda on to something here. Now that I think of it, ive never heard of a German soldier’s experience in the war.
"In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front", by Gottlob Herbert Bidermann, is an excellent book.
Watch Europa the Last Battle.
@@arttheclown9458read Otto Ernst remers interviews and books
The man asking the questions seems like he's more interested in the era's politics than the soldier's individual story. The soldier was correct about Churchill, and the interviewer didn't appear to like his answer. Also, if your going to portray a German officer, you should know what a Panzerfaust was.
Gregory Nasrallah I agree. The panzerfaust was a commonly used weapon back then. It's almost like not knowing what an MP 40 is.
Plague Doc common it was but the weapon seem less effective than the anti tank gun
actualy it was very effective weapon for its price
Gregory Nasrallah - And also, wear the uniform (any uniform) correctly. His cap positioning is disgusting!!!
Churchill was a war criminal, just look at what he did with Dresden
i love how the man bravely says it as it is for example how he explains that churchill was the enemy and how usa benefited from the war tech wise, and the awkward silence from the other guys when they heard that he was so positive looking back at his time in ns germany and described it as it was just like the states, haha you can see especially on the guy playing nonchalantly with a fucking stick instead of listening to this veteran of the fallschirmjäger the uncomfortable situation they thought it was when he didnt bash ns germany.
that's great, he is a survivor of the communist plan to destroy everyone who knew what real NSDAP germany was about.
Churchill even said how the unforgivable sin of hitlers Germany was breaking free of the economic trade system run by the central banks. They set their own system up, along with their own currency etc. and by doing that the central banks could not profit.
YeOldeScience because of the allies
Well ya know he did say they were trying to brain wash the people, so I mean he did point out the negatives.... and for the average German the quality of life did actually go up because hurler delivered on his promises... it’s just terrible that he delivered on ALL of them
I mean before the war if you were a German in Germany life was much better for awhile under the NSDAP. During the weimar era there was rampant unemployment hyperinflation unrest and when the NSDAP took over most people saw an increase in their living standard. Im not trying to be one of those people saying Hitler was good but put yourself in this mans place most of his rememberable childhood would have been under national socialist rule.
Hero he is a hero
@Wicked Lester x2
@Anton Sc nobody can read ur sh1t and i mean ur russian, why do u even complain, when the sh1t hole named soviet union caused over 100 million deaths and were in fact even worse than n@zis, gtfo
@Anton Sc just here to translate: Do you think the Germans are better than the Russians ?? See you on the battlefield. You will have a chance to be a hero
@Anton Sc "do you think that the germans are better than the russians?" well i mean its not like that the germans killed 10,600,000 russians where the russians killed 5,318,000 germans (not incuding the civilian deaths)
@@Solesz and they totally didnt betray their country by making it starve and censor the people , also they didnt totally bring random people to the gulag because they were paranoid of spies , no that never happened totally
remember he is a person not a monster
Most of them near the end were literally forced to fight so yeah they're human beings
CRAZYD4VE87 I respectfully disagree
Mike Lindell May I ask why?
CRAZYD4VE87 because I've spoken to and watched many interviews with Waffen SS soldiers and they were also people more like patriots fighting against communism for their people that's just my opinion btw
@@crazyd4ve875 not just them any soldier would do it
4:22 sudden urge to panzerfaust
6.eggs. Hahahahahahaha made my day
JA! JA! RIPPNITZ STRIPPENBECK! EYYNTZIG BLUTTENZACK! JAWOHL!
Do you want some anti tank rifle old man?
He just starts having flashbacks and running for cover, “GET THE PANZERFAUST!”
I felt like he kept on trying to get him to confess his sympathies to the nazi cause
I mean they are questions a lot of Americans have
@@flyingchimp12 yea but he were a soldier and not a Nazi so he don't know what happened back then with the Jewish people...
we can't do anything about the past now
@nomad 101 Hm but the fact that the most germans didn't know bout the Concentration Camps is true. My Great-grandfather fought in the Luftwaffe back then and he didn't know anything bout the camps.
@nomad 101 okay but you don't know if he is a Nazi or not, he was clearly a commanda in the Wehrmacht.
the questioner seems like he's trying to guilt him and he thinks its funny.
It's just great to hear what really happend doing the war from a veteran especially a German one.
I know right its good to have inlease some ww2 germans soldiers to know what really changed about them in their life
why was the interviewer beeing so smug about everything
i wish i could talk to someone like him and ask him about Germany at that time . and the reason i said like him ... because he speaks everything on his mind .. this german generation was best and had great potential ,, so sad they had to fight the world.
Yeah I feel the same. My grandfather served in the Wehrmacht in the east and he died in 2008. He was the best man I ever met and I love him. But I was too young for asking him all the details of his experiences .. I hope I meet him again in walhalla one day. I wish I could talk to him just for one hour
Same here EvilDevil1900. My greatgrandad was a German who served in the British Army during WW2 and passed away quite recently. I never got to see him as often as I would have liked to (I only ever saw him once when I was 7). He did tell my Dad some cool stories about his adventures in North Africa though. Apparently, him and his mates got captured by some German soldiers and they were put into a cave until they could figure out what to do with them. When the Germans were alerted by something (Probably an airstrike most likely), my Great Granddad and his mates stole their Guard's car and drove off lol. That might have been a huge over exaggeration but I like to think that it happened
Germany was far better in the imperial times(german empire)untill 1918.
@Solid Water well said
I love hearing from German veterans. They don’t get nearly enough attention.
I deeply respect Germany,and everyone who fought for it in ww2.
I agree with you 🙂my family suffered from ww2 as they were just normal citizens and yet they saw their family members gunned down 😓I can forgive Germany but I will not forgive the dousebags and notzis who took hitlers view to far 😐as why would you kill you someone a Jew a scientist someone who’s gay all because their different? 😐bruh 😑just let it go that’s life for you 😐every animal in a habitat is different and yet they share the responsibility and resorces they have 😐humans these days get so affended like if someone is gay they make a fit 😑and it’s kind of sad
@@jettmthebluedragonlol
@@jettmthebluedragonnot normal citizens
I agree with you!!!
God bless the old soldier. He was dead on about the warmongers Churchill and Roosevelt. Unfortunately, history is written by the victors.
The story would be best told by the defeated?
Sie haben recht, mein Freund. Sie haben recht mein Freund. Historie hat immer zwei Seiten.
Kain Nosgoth Danke. Wie wir hier in Brasilien zu tun: fique com Deus (Bleiben Sie mit Gott.)
Jose Carlos Ribeiro Danke. Bleib du im ew'gen Leben mein Freund. Gott mit Uns!
Kain Nosgoth Amem!!!!
See how excited he was to get that stg 44, even pose with it for a while, probably dreaming back when he was younger. i feel so sad ;(
Same dude I respect him so much I would salute him and shake hands
Really amazing to see an veteran handling the gun, notice how he directly points the barrel upwards as he gets it, real pro
Or just has any common sense related to guns.
Tucky 421 well considering that he’s from GERMANY.. and I am from GERMANY. Not every country likes mass shootings
The interviewer was very disrespectful, the man was just trying to fight for his country.
My father Emil Henrick Gast.Born in the U.S.3/15/20 of German heritage one of 13 siblings.And 1 of 4 brothers to fight in WW2.Three of my uncles fought against their Vatherland. Which I'm sure was hard to do. My father was a decorated WW2 vet that fought Japanese on the Philippine Islands.He passed away 10/8/12 at 92 yrs.Myself being of German descent have great respect for all VETS.of all country's.Besides they were fighting for their country's. RIGHT?. I miss him dearly.And wish we would have talked more about his experiences.So to all VETS.GOD BLESS YOU....Thank You for reading, Douglas Henrick Gast
Doug Gast Very beautiful Such an amazing tale. I too recently lost a relative that was a WW2 veteran.
BigRedChester Thank you.And sorry for your loss also.
Enjoyed watching - Thanks for posting
Hope he's still alive to this day! Awesome to see him reenact his original role.
I love how they didnt immediately know the panzerfaust, its not a rocket launcher its a recoiless rifle actually
I would feel horrible wearing a knights cross I didn't get from anything but some internet shop in public. I might even refuse a real one, so how this guy can look a real victim of the war in the eyes decked out like that amazes me.
knights cross is not for pussies ...
I felt exactly the same way.
Even more so if the gentleman you are interviewing actually earned one.
Stg 44 the best rifle assault...
+Juan Diego Gandarilla I've used them in video games. Much prefer the mp40.
hey kid that naivere like going to.,,.
Compare.
9mm., 7, 92.
. I
,
Did you know today NAZI German army that time were still considered as modern army cause of their advance weapon that time and highly professional trained army.
@@ahlong2339 German not Nazi
wdum, they were good, but its not like they were that much better than Americans, brits, or russians
What a great piece of kit. Soldiers who were lucky enough to use one in WW2 must have had A FEELING OF GREATNESS WITH IT.
no matter what side anyone has ever fought on. I love hearing veterans of all sides telling their stories. always be open minded and receptive.
You can tell as soon he touch the gun so many memories came back
I can't hear a blasted word of it.
The German vets answers to those smug questions were great...what would you do if Germany won the war? I’d be farming my land in the Ukraine! Loved the answer.
Amazing. I admire how he doesn't hold back when asked. He was careful not to catch any flak but was still honest. More should know about the other side of WW2 by watching The Greatest Story Never Told, David Coles documentary, and Hellstorm. As well as Fred Leuchters work. The world makes complete sense then.
Disregarding politics, Germany made pretty good guns.
They had generally good equipment, their tanks suck tho despite what Wehraboos would say.
@@adverumthegreat4736in terms of reliability, yes. In terms of accuracy, raw firepower and protection they were excellent.
Maybe the Soviets beat them with raw firepower with their 122mm tank guns.
Most German equipment was exceptional. Which actually factored into Germany's downfall. Production times were longer and more complicated than Soviet and most American/British.
Gosh, its clear that the interviewer did not know what the Panzerfaust was and that "Fallschirmjaeger" means "paratrooper". Sad if you are interviewing an actual German WWII vet. But, anyhow, thanks for sharing this video, its nice to see these old guys especially from the other side.
God bless you sir
"Can you still field strip it?" What a moronic question. The guy asking such brilliant questions could better spend his time looking for a field cap that fits.
Respect for the war veterans of WW2
God bless the old soldier
He had all sorts of memories going through his mind as he was holding it
Love how sophisticated he looks holding that weapon!
Him holding that STG made his year.
Love how they knew very little to nothing about the German forces and weapons, lmfao
i love everything about history stories ✋👍respect that old veteran 😍
What are like about world war 2 veterans, any war veterans are their stories
Nazi doesn't deserve for respect.
@@alexeytotochenko2575 neither do soviets
This interviewer is absolutely terrible
Great man 👍🏼
As someone who's never been, I used to hold the Rockford event in a sort of reverence because I kept hearing how big it was. But then I kept hearing from people that it was nothing more than a huge Farb fest and judging from the looks of this hippie, long-haired, knights cross-wearing, Stasi-esque goober, it looks like I heard right.
respekt veteran and long life.
He looks happy and excited when he took his favourite weapons. 😊
... Are they the longer jacket/Parker like,the Luftwaffe, ground forces used ( in summer splinter, or marsh pattern) ?.
Swift as greyhounds, tough as leather, hard as Krupp steel ;-)
History is written by the winners.
i love how the interviewer is casually suggesting that the fallshchimjager solider is a nazi, he sets him up with questions to determine if he still is , like "Who do you think PERSONALLY Benefited from the war"... the answer the interviewer was looking for was THE JEWS but the veteran did not say that he said america, i bet most people won't pick up on this
"What would the world be like if Germany would have won?" Hahaha! A way better place that's forsure! We probably be 100 years further in technological advancements than we are now.
+Mister M Not really. Blacks would have been treated like how the other European powers treated their African colonies. Plus there would still be Jews, they would have just been deported from Europe to Palestine.
trollking99 Have you heard about the Endlösung?Or Rassegesetze?
Mister M Have you heard of the Haavara Agreement or the Madagascar Plan?
trollking99 No,I am sorry.Please tell me!
The German nationalists didn't care about race. It was ethnicity and religious values.
What would it be like if Germany won... I'd be a farmer
Good vid...i'd love to meet that guy...i know you couldn't help ot but it was hard to hear him talk with those idiots driving tanks and firing guns in the background.
He was still sharp as a razor and deadly accurate.
Respect to this gentleman I don’t care what people say I’d say he was fighting for his family and country not the Nazis
You are my hero.
What baffles me is that German veterans seem to be much more respected in former enemy countries than their own. They were brave soldiers who fought for their country just like everybody else and got the same physical and mental scars. A memorial day would be the least they deserve. It would be to honor these people, not to glorify Nazism.
Every soldier of the war was a hero no matter from what country they went to fight on the offensive or on the defensive they left they family's and not everybody returned
70 years since he holded the weapon and he does it as it was yesterday
Sherman passes by
"You give me the panzer faust ill ammo rack this bastard"
Amazing how clear his mind is most of my countries veterans are completely senile
We fought on the wrong side...London is now a minority English city
Still remembers trigger discipline after all these years. I guess its just something you dont forget
saul goodman interviewing veterans interesting
horrible bad interviewer..
wish he had a fucking microphone
Cant hear shit, atleast put up subtitles
each time a Sherman rolled by he had a flashback
Imagine millions of innocent people and innocent soldier died in WW2 just because of 2 or more leaders that hate each other and wants a war
Those soldier aren't the enemy the leaders are ,the soldiers are just doing what there told to do
Exactly.
Reenactors badging themselves up in knights crosses and awards of all sorts 🤣
I really wish if you are going to do a Heer officer impression that you would pay attention to details. The EM belt and buckle are a no-go as is the haircut. Not to mention the undone pocket and the ritter kreutz with oakleaves! You can pik an American out at 1000+ meters by the way they slouch and carry themselves, usually overweight. I never saw a fat fallschirmjäger either.
Not the veteran genius. The farbs.
I know! And he's so blinged up too. However he seems like a good guy and I wouldn't mind reenacting with him XD
Incoming Impact Productions If you are going to Reenact Stay away from the Farbs! They give you a bad name.
When you look more Chub 'n tuck than a 90 year old ww2 veteran
Why does the question man have no jawline?
because he is very old
Really the interviewer more interested into the politics besides the veteran don’t bring it up anymore its over i can tell that some of the things the veteran said the interviewer didn’t like if you didn’t like the thing he said stop asking him, what he said was how he and Germany felt or was supposed to feel many germans didn’t want to fight or die but it was required to stay alive.
Anybody know who this is?! Would love to have been the guy asking the questions
This is such a crazy interview. Watch how the older chap who was a german paratrooper in WWII, who held weapons and fought in battles in a war, is being asked leading questions by a gentleman dressed as a Nazi officer with an Iron Knights ? cross at his throat, and yet such long hair below his cap. His manner toward the the old soldier is strange almost like an interrogation, and yet the old guy when he hears teh questions is shocked at how ignorant or nieve or just plain foolish the interviewer / fake German Officer, and the voice of Off Camera asking in about field stripping the Assault Rifle. Its so obvious the old guy doesnt want to be fucking with it . Fuck this is crazy crazy crazy.
Just imagine wht it was like for the regular German Army soldier!!!.. He was a paratrooper!! He must have been a good soldier to be selected to be a part of the best troops in the Wermacht
Ss army veteran
@@robinaj4154 that's what people want us all to think, that because you fought for the " other" side, you must have been a Nazi thing!! So wrong!!!
What kind of eagle doe the veteran has it seems different from the old one, like does it have an iron cross instead
Guy doing the interview should’ve been working the concession stand selling Schnitz-in-Gruber
Is the German veteran wearing his original uniform? Probably unlikely considering what happened to the uniforms after years of use in the POW camps, but still curious.
Incoming Impact Productions He was an enlisted man and he has on an officers cap, so the answer is no.
Oh I never knew he was an enlisted man. I wonder what it would be like to buy reproduction items of your uniform decades after you wore the original one.
Incoming Impact Productions He mentions that he was 17 when he when he entered the military in 1944 and from that I knew he was an enlisted man.
Oh, I was not paying attention to that. I am aware the cap has an officer's braid on it :P
Incoming Impact Productions Only officers wore that style of cap.
I would of thought he would've asked for his name & things about his youth, what part of Germany he was from, etc.
The 55 dislikes were the French who surrendered 😂😂
Must be so weird from the guy, doing it all again
Mostly Volksgrenadiers are the ones using the StG
A hero.
Damn tank stop making all that racket i know how they sounded like.
I can hardly hear the veteran talking
a hero
I loved his answer to the question what if Germany won the war. "I would probably be a farmer in Ukraine"
hey live in Rockford... PS this is awesome I went there before
What is the man's name? Is he still alive?
If only his side won, the good side.
Nazi is a good side? Really?
Alexey Totochenko communism is bad
@@alexeytotochenko2575 obviously
@@astrum1508 so why ask
@cyan learn some history kid 😴
I have a friend from WW2 that’s dying of cancer
The dislikes is from the allies
Its probably his first time holding an STG44 because he was a fallschirmjager who was late , he probably only heald an FG42
It is probably possible because he never jumped.
@@max.h332. true
The German veteran is right! The history is on the winning side. The history is written by the winner.
Do you know about Babiy Yar or Auschwitz?