I suppose even if your relatives lived in the east, they might have fled west like mine did, before the borders were closed. "In the 12 years between the establishment of East Germany in 1949 and the construction of the wall, over 2.7 million East Germans fled to West Berlin." (http://library.thinkquest.org/20176/berlinwalltimeline.htm)
I've always been somewhat uncomfortable about my German ancestry too, because of the holocaust. I felt that way more so when I was young. As I got older, I realized that not all Germans supported the Nazis, and even the ones who did, didn't all know the extent of what was going on. In the same way how not all Americans support everything the U.S. government does, or how a lot of people don't know all the underhanded things that the government does.
I have worried about what I might find going through some of these documents. I do know that one of the family (not a direct relation though) was a soldier or officer in Africa under Rommel. He died before I was born.
I remember hearing that my aunt, when she fled to the West, was detained by the Nazis and had to work for them for a while (she was a dentist).
When I found out that I had a Jewish ancestor on my dad's side, I think a part of why it pleased me was because it meant that no longer was I only descended from "those oppressive Germans" but also from someone on the other side.
no subject
"In the 12 years between the establishment of East Germany in 1949 and the construction of the wall, over 2.7 million East Germans fled to West Berlin." (http://library.thinkquest.org/20176/berlinwalltimeline.htm)
I've always been somewhat uncomfortable about my German ancestry too, because of the holocaust. I felt that way more so when I was young. As I got older, I realized that not all Germans supported the Nazis, and even the ones who did, didn't all know the extent of what was going on. In the same way how not all Americans support everything the U.S. government does, or how a lot of people don't know all the underhanded things that the government does.
I have worried about what I might find going through some of these documents. I do know that one of the family (not a direct relation though) was a soldier or officer in Africa under Rommel. He died before I was born.
I remember hearing that my aunt, when she fled to the West, was detained by the Nazis and had to work for them for a while (she was a dentist).
When I found out that I had a Jewish ancestor on my dad's side, I think a part of why it pleased me was because it meant that no longer was I only descended from "those oppressive Germans" but also from someone on the other side.