My time in Germany as a contractor was challenging, exhausting. and fun. I worked with a fine group of people, generally, though much of the management and leadership left much to be desired. There WERE some outstanding leaders there, but they could not overcome the many others that should not have been there.
But that's another story, altogether.
While there I met some wonderful people who had so many stories to tell. And many did. One of those was Janine, an wonderful older woman who worked at the Gasthaus where my wife and I stayed for most of the 22 months we were in Europe. My wife stands in front of the establishment below.
I offended Janine one day. I asked where in Germany she was from.
"Do I look German to you?" she asked aghast. Janine was a flaxen-haired woman with nicotine-stained teeth. She carried the beauty of her youth, though clearly aged, with dignity, style, and determination. My only answer was, "Honestly Janine, everyone looks American to me!"
America is a nation of immigrants after all.
"I am Polish!" announced Janine as she struck a regal pose. Then she told me her story.
But first, a story of war and invasion.
Poland was formed from diplomacy and conquest in the aftermath of World War One. It's bulk was carved from the carcass of eastern Prussia, and expanded after wars against Republican Russia, the new nation of Ukraine, and the newly formed Soviet Union. It was a nation widely known for its martial traditions. Poles had fought with and against the Russian Empire, with the Prussians and the Germans (after German unification), and with Napoleon, always with the eye to reestablish the Polish nation.
Janine was born in the portion of Poland that had been Ukraine before the Polish conquest. It was this part of Poland that the USSR was granted in the secret Ribbentrop-Molotov Treaty the week prior to the launch of World War Two. After the Nazi invasion, the USSR invaded eastern Poland two-and-a-half weeks later, retaking the land they believed to be theirs. Janine, a child at the time, and her mother (I assume her father was fighting the Germans or Soviets, or was conscripted into what was essentially slave labor for the conquerors) found themselves under the communist yoke for the next 21 months.
Then, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Very quickly Janine found herself under the rule of Nazis for nearly two years.
German fortunes turned catastrophically in February 1943 at Stalingrad (now the city of Volgograd) and saw the steady and inexorable retreat that eventually led to defeat in 1945. Meanwhile, as the Soviets advanced steadily toward their home, Janine's mother had to make the decision to await liberation by the USSR's Red Army, or to run away with the Nazis.
They chose the Nazis.
"Really?" I asked. "Why?"
"The Nazis were much better and kinder than the communists." Apparently, it wasn't a difficult decision. 
Photo: Deutsche Fotothek of the Saxon State Library / State and University Library Dresden. Original caption: "Mann repariert Fahrradschlauch - Frauen holen Wasser am Brunnen auf der Straße" (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.)
Janine's family settled in Bavaria, in then-West Germany. She would go on to work for DeutscheBank in their office in Tripoli, Libya, where she would witness the US airstrikes against Libya's Gaddafi Regime after their attack on US troops at a night club in Germany.
In some ways, I envied her view of some of the most striking events in history. But, on the other hand...
If anything, her insights into a system that was WORSE than Nazism were a revelation. For that, I am forever grateful.
