On which side were your ancestors in WW2?

[Искра]

One history thread :) I got idea from Stromfront Croatia.
On which side were your ancestors in WW2?
You can put multiple answers. (Fuck, while making this thread I press wrong button... can admin fix this...)

[Jia]

Landlord civilians :mad:

[Искра]

Kuomintang?

Btw. my family from father side was in Partisans. They all died in concentration camp. Only my grandfather survived. His wife's (my grandma) part of family were German civilians.
My other granfather was to young, but his father was deserter of Waffen SS division: Prinz Eugen. He was sent to Bosnia and when he ralized what he need to do he shoot himself in leg, went to hospital and then run away from hospital. He was hiding whole war. From my grandma side of family whole family end up in concentration camp.

[Revy]

the US.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

Brazil
joined due to alliance w/ US
so I voted US/British

[Jia]

Kuomintang?

They were disrupted heavily by warlordism, they move southwards to more Kuomintang-control area. They move interior to Wuhan for many years to escape Japan, they were bankrupt by the end of war.

[RHIZOMES]

My US granddad graduated the US Air Force the day Hiroshima happened, so the only action he saw was being a guard at a POW camp for Italian and German soldiers. My other granddad was a civilian in occupied Denmark, 13 years old when the war ended, and apparently at one point in the war was running frantically through a forest with his brother escaping German bombs.

A more interesting war ancestral back story for me is how I had relatives who fought on both sides of the American Civil War.

[Pirate Utopian]

On my father's side my grandma was half-Jewish so she spent most of her time in hiding.

I dont know about my mother's side but didnt hear anything shady, so I'll assume they were just civilians.

I know an uncle of my dad was a pilot who fought against the Germans.

[which doctor]

My grandfather was in the US Air Corps, but he never went oversees, I think it was because he was in the steel industry or something. Also, an uncle of my father's was killed when his plane crashed somewhere in France somewhere near the border of Germany, apparently it was his first mission.

I can't say my family made too big of a contribution to the war effort.

[Os Cangaceiros]

My grandfather was a US Army serviceman in the Atlantic Theater, and he fought in the invasion of France.

I don't know much about his time there, though, because he almost never spoke about it.

[Dimentio]

Panama declared war on Germany in 1941. My maternal ancestors are from there.

[DecDoom]

My grandfather joined the US Navy just in time for the war to end. The only action he saw was when he almost slammed a troop transport into some leftover Japanese mines because he had no idea how to drive the boat.

[Comrade B]

One grandpa was in the US Navy, the other a German paratrooper division.
We had a relative in the SS, we also had one who was killed in the holocaust, as well as a couple who were sent to their deaths in Stalingrad
The American side had a lot of members in the military, for many generations, from the Alamo, to the world wars, to Vietnam. My family gave enough to the country and now I have the right to hate it.

[DecDoom]

Now that I think about it, most of my ancestors are Lithuanian... and decidedly anti-Soviet, judging by the letters sent to my great-great grandmother.

Could be German collaborators. :mad:

[The Douche]

My grandfather got a purple heart on the beaches of normandy. I am antifa OG haha.

[#FF0000]

My grandfather was in the Rainbow Division. Liberated Dachau. Get at me.

[rebelmouse]

parents of my father didn't participate in war but they helped to partisans (they helped to one important to hide himself), father of my mother finished 2 years as slave in Germany, he died when I was young, so I didn't meat him so much, I don't know if he supported partisans but surely he hated Germans.

[manic expression]

My granddad and his brothers were in the US' European campaign and saw action at a few battles (Normandy, Battle of the Bulge IIRC). Part of my family was also involved in the Belgian resistance against the German occupation.

[9]

My family was on the side of the US. They were all Eastern European Jewish immigrants having been in the US for 10-20 years or so. My grandfather was in the military but he ended up playing the sax for the band so he didn't do any fighting (which is a good thing because he was/is a total stoner and would have been a horrible fighter). As far as I know, no one other than him was enlisted, though. But seeing as most of their relatives who stayed in the Pale ended up dead at the hands of the Nazis, its not hard to see why they supported the US.

[Absolut]

My maternal grandfather and all of his brothers were in the Wehrmacht. One brother died at the siege of Leningrad, when trying to save his friend, he was a medic. His other brother fought in Yugoslavia and Greece (I think) and ended up being captured and sent to a POW-camp in Sparta. My grandfather was drafted when he was around 16-17 I think, in 1943 and sent to France. He was in Normandy on D-day, however not at the beaches. Eventually, his unit managed to get encircled by the Americans, and one night, he and an officer went to check their positions out or something like that, got lost in the woods, went to sleep and when they woke up, there was a Sherman tank right in front of them. He was taken prisoner and sent to a camp in Enlgand for about a year, and then sent on to the US for another few years, before being able to go back to some relatives in Austria. This is, however, not the hardest part for him to talk about. He and his family came from the Sudetenland, which was populated by Germans, who after the war were driven out (around 3 million I think) from Czechoslovakia. He lived right at the border to Austria, so his village was completely levelled as it was in some kind of demilitarized zone. So he pretty much lost everything. Then he went to Sweden and became a blacksmith and a union organizer, which I think is pretty awesome.

I have another relative that fought on the Eastern Front, got captured and sent to forced labour, got back to Germany in 1955, then went back to the Soviet Union and took a bunch of pictures of what he had built.

My paternal grandparents were in Denmark. All I know is that my grandfather worked in a dock. After the war they came to Sweden too, because there was no work at all in Denmark, if I remember correctly.

[Wanted Man]

Civilians. They worked at schools. The most significant war history for my family is that a relative of my grandmother (her sister, IIRC) was imprisoned in a "Jap camp" in Indonesia. My grandmother still dislikes the Japanese to this day.

[Holden Caulfield]

Both my male grandparents served in the Royal Navy, one stationed in Bombay, the other on a mine sweeper somewhere.
And one of my Grandmothers served as one of them people who answer phones at HQs or whatever, dunno what the other one did.

Interesting aside my dad works with two veterans, one who escpaed from Norway to England at the start of the invasion in a tiny little boat.

And one who told him that France was a nice place, but that the locals weren't very friendly. He was there is 1943 when he was in the Waffen-SS

[Il Medico]

My Grandfather fought in the Pacific war (in the Navy), he was at Guadalcanal. That's about all I know though.

[ls]

On my mum's side, great-grandma was in the RAF as a canteen helper, on my dad's side they were all just civilians.

[Pirate turtle the 11th]

Grandad was conscripted into the army when he was a teen and was at dunkirk and north africa where he became a POW. He was freed by the soviets and fought alongside them until he rejoined the Brits, afterwards he was present at the liberating of some concentration camp which still gives him nightmares.

[Il Medico]

My daddy killed Hitler. :)
Your Daddy was Hitler???:confused::blink::confused:

[Jia]

Your Daddy was Hitler???:confused::blink::confused:
Everyone knows stalin killed hitler personally in an epic 4-day duel.

[Jazzratt]

My (recently deceased) paternal grandfather was an engineer on the UK side. He was involved heavily in post-war rebuilding in germany, which is pretty fucking awesome. My maternal grandfather was, presumably, a civilian.

[Comrade Gwydion]

My grandparents were dutch civilians. Although my grandfather has some quite heroic stories, they're about him fleeing from the germans through their supply lines, not about resistance/sabotage. Being thirteen years old he and his brother walked all the way through the netherlands so that their parents wouldn't have to feed them


My other grandfather and mother also have no real resistance stories, except that they stole and hid two guns which belonged to Wehrmacht soldiers the night before the allied arrived. (The wehrmacht had commandeered the houses in the vilage, but in their house there were only two soldiers).

I also heard from my GF's grandfather that he was waiting at a railroadcrossing, when suddently he saw Hitler himself standing in front of the window in the passing train.

All three of them were kids at the time, so they didn't really do much beside that.

[Bandito]

My grandfather was a partisan in Lika, Croatia.
He shot his own brother who joined the Chetniks and was involved in butchering of civilians. After the war, he ended his life in labour camp on Goli Otok.

[Искра]

My grandfather was a partisan in Lika, Croatia.
He shot his own brother who joined the Chetniks and was involved in butchering of civilians. After the war, he ended his life in labour camp on Goli Otok.
Similar story to founder of you Party isn't it?
My grandma is from Lika and she's Serbian. Maybe she knew your family ;)

[NecroCommie]

All my four grandparents were too young for the front, and their parents too old. That I know that my grand-dad was a red orphan from the civil war, and during the second world war he worked as a cooks assistant in a finnish concentration camp. He did not have much choice, so I don't blaim him.

[Bandito]

Similar story to founder of you Party isn't it?
My grandma is from Lika and she's Serbian. Maybe she knew your family ;)
Except his brother was Tito's right hand who didn't move a muscle when Tito threw him to Goli Otok.
Also, he survived Goli Otok. Several times. :)

[Pavlov's House Party]

my grandfather flew a spitfire in the RAF (he was 16) during the "battle of britian" because canada didn't have an airforce in that part of the war :laugh:

[Rjevan]

My ancestors were civilians. They were German patriots and monarchists but highly critical of this "hysteric Austrian and his criminal thugs". They got into problems quite regularly, my great-grandfdather once even got into KZ Dachau but was released thanks to some friends who stood up for him and pointed out his bravery in WWI at the eastern front. My granduncle was ordered to the eastern front shortly after this, he was stationed in safe Paris before and my family still believes he was sent away on purpose. He took part in the battle of Stalingrad and was caught, my family recieved several letters from him after this but then they stopped and he never came back. Nobody knows what happened to him, he was never registered as dead but also never came back. It is very likely that he died.

So I chose Civilians and German: Wehrmacht
Edit: I'll choose, as soon as an admin fixed it. ;)

[kalu]

Brits, Sri Lanka was a British colony...
None of my family fought, though my uncle had to hide when he was three during a brief Japanese air raid on Colombo and Trincomalee (Brit Indian Ocean naval fleet).

[ls]

Brits, Sri Lanka was a British colony...
None of my family fought, though my uncle had to hide when he was three during a brief Japanese air raid on Colombo and Trincomalee (Brit Indian Ocean naval fleet).

The civilian (dad's) side of my family were from India also, it seems that it was purely volunteer-driven around that area during WWII from what I can find, a lot of people purely stayed civilians.

Indeed, Trotskyist parties apparently mounted anti-war protests in 'Ceylon'/Sri Lanka during WWII also, very interesting if you ask me, shame they didn't mobilise a mass base of support.

[Pogue]

(all in the british armed forces, joined up either just before or during the war, not conscripted)

Maternal grandfather was captured at Dunkirk as Infantry and spent the rest of the war as a POW.

Paternal grandfather was in the Navy, was working the big guns on the ships at Normandy ebfore being stationed in getting food to the Norweigans in naval Convoys, we have a certificate from the king of norway to him thanking him for his involvement. Alot of people got those I think.

[Panda Tse Tung]

All civilians, and all too young to not be civilians.

[kalu]

The civilian (dad's) side of my family were from India also, it seems that it was purely volunteer-driven around that area during WWII from what I can find, a lot of people purely stayed civilians.

Indeed, Trotskyist parties apparently mounted anti-war protests in 'Ceylon'/Sri Lanka during WWII also, very interesting if you ask me, shame they didn't mobilise a mass base of support.

Yes, I think one of my family members was married to Colvin De Silva or Phillip Gunawardena (Lanka Sama Samaja Party), I forget which one. The LSSP (Trotskyists) did start the Suriya Mal (Flowers Campaign) during the 1930s, but then they had to hide during the war due to British repression...

If your family was from India, you all had the great Subash Chandra Bose giving the British hell, right?:lol:

[Sasha]

dads side kept their right-conservative-catholic heads down, but as far has i can tell never actualy collaberated with the nazi and werent involved with the NSB (dutch national socialist party).
moms side were jewish-communist who had front experience in spain so they joined the resistance enmass. :thumbup1:

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Both of my grandfathers were in the US Navy in the Pacific. My maternal grandfather was on the Arizona when it sunk at Pearl Harbor. My paternal grandfather was actually in the Navy in the late 40s, I think he helped do data collecting like stuff when they were experimenting with atom bombs out there.

[ls]

Yes, I think one of my family members was married to Colvin De Silva or Phillip Gunawardena (Lanka Sama Samaja Party), I forget which one. The LSSP (Trotskyists) did start the Suriya Mal (Flowers Campaign) during the 1930s, but then they had to hide during the war due to British repression...

Ah, that's pretty cool, he did a lot of good that Phillip guy, the other entered parliament which was a shame.


If your family was from India, you all had the great Subash Chandra Bose giving the British hell, right?:lol:

They all supported the independence movement, mostly Gandhi's faction though as most of them were more conservative. Some of the more loosely tied connections of the family were more 'militant' about it (imagine rural Goa, a couple of crazy bored 20 year olds with guns yeah you get the picture) and went and fought in other places and stuff, but the bulk of them were pretty passive (I suppose coming from a long line of teachers and headmasters might dull the want to be 'revolutionary' :p).

[Random Precision]

My maternal grandfather was in the US Navy and was training to be a tailgunner when the war ended. So he never saw action. He joined the Marines later though and saw action in the Korean War.

My paternal grandfather was only 12 when the war ended, but he was later in the US Army stationed somewhere near Hudson Bay in Canada.

[RedAnarchist]

A lot of people in my family fought in WW2. One of my great grandmothers was one of 13 children, and all 8 of her brothers fought in the war. One was killed along with a number of other British and Polish air forcemen when their plane crashed in 1942. More distant relatives from Canada, the US and Australia also fought.

[Kamerat]

Seems like most of you have really old grandparents. Or has the average age on RevLeft increased?
My grandmother parents on father side where communist partisans, who ended up in Bergen-Belsen after a neighbor of a quisling ratted them out to sie germans. The rest of my ancestors where civilians.

[Sasha]

nah, my grandpa was indeed too young (15 orso i believe, because his family was deemded dangerous he wasn't allowed to work in germany so they made him guard tree's in an forrest, saved him from KZ though), his father and big brothers were in the resistance though

[LOLseph Stalin]

I honestly have no idea. I'm pretty sure they were just civilians.

[RedAnarchist]

My grandparents were all born in the early 1930s. My two grandfathers did National Service in the 1950s (one in the Army, and one in the RAF - he went to loads of places like Aden and Malta).

[Patchd]

My mum's family managed to afford a journey to Thailand, from China on a shitty boat, during the civil war, in Thailand, my grandma's father and mother were used by the Japanese to build the Thai-Burmese railway, where my great granddad died.

On me dad's side, my granddad only drove trucks to German and Italian POW camps in Britain.

[Wanted Man]

dads side kept their right-conservative-catholic heads down, but as far has i can tell never actualy collaberated with the nazi and werent involved with the NSB (dutch national socialist party).

About the same for my grandparents on both sides, as far as I know. Except that one side was catholic and the other protestant. I don't know about their politics in detail, except that my grandfather on my mother's side was a loyal Anti-Revolutionary Party (i.e. reformed protestant conservatives) voter. This party later merged with the Catholic People's Party and a smaller reformed party into the current Christian-Democratic party.


Seems like most of you have really old grandparents. Or has the average age on RevLeft increased?

It is more likely that a lot of young people were conceived when their parents were relatively old (late 20s and early 30s as opposed to late teens or early 20s). Of my grandparents, only my grandmother on my father's side still lives, and she's 88 (and more lively than that 83-year-old wuss called Fidel! :cool:). Being born in the early 20s, my grandparents must have been aged between 20 and 25 during the war.

[gorillafuck]

Both my grandpa's fought on the US side.

[RotStern]

German: Wehrmacht.

[jaffe]

kept their right-conservative-catholic heads down, but as far has i can tell never actualy collaberated with the nazi and werent involved with the NSB (dutch national socialist party).

this

[Weezer]

Neither, as far as I know. My grandfather on my dad's side avoided to go to war by saying he was gay, and that was that.

[Patchd]

Neither, as far as I know. My grandfather on my dad's side avoided to go to war by saying he was gay, and that was that.
Did he get imprisoned for that, or given psychiatric 'treatment'? I thought in most places at that time, homosexuality was still seen as a sexual deviance and a mental issue.

[Weezer]

Did he get imprisoned for that, or given psychiatric 'treatment'? I thought in most places at that time, homosexuality was still seen as a sexual deviance and a mental issue.

Nah, the U.S. Army just said "oh ok buddy," and went on there merry way.

My grandfather was no where near homosexuality. After his divorce, he wrote letters to Korean strippers...sadly I read one.

[RedRise]

Didn't we forget the ANZACs? or does that just come under British/US? My mum's side were all Australian. Dad's side was Jewish but I'm pretty sure mots got out of Germany/Lithuania/Poland in the very early days so they were probably just civilians.

[Raúl Duke]

Most likely it's possible that some relatives of my German grandmother fought for the Nazi side. Not sure what political allegiance my ancestors had during the early 30s when the Nazis were trying to gain state power though.

My grandfather in my mother side was drafted to go fight in the pacific front for the U.S. but by the time he was finishing up training the bombs were dropped and peace was declared to he didn't have to go fight Japan.

[An archist]

My grandparents mostly hid in their basement, trying to avoid bullets.

[Bandito]

Interesting stories we have here...

[The Author]

On one side of my family, I had a relative who fought for the U.S. Army throughout the campaigns into Italy. He played it safe, staying out of harm's way a lot and meeting a lot of local Italian women along the way. In this respect, he had a good time and the war for him was not "his fight."

On the other side of my family, I had a relative who aided the French Resistance- sheltering Resistance members and spies at his house. After a while, the Germans found out what he was doing and had him and the Resistance fighters lined up in front of his house and shot. His house was then dynamited by the Germans as a warning to the local town villagers not to help the Resistance. The house is still in ruins even today. In this relative's case, his homeland had been invaded and an occupier was telling him how to run his life. He chose not to give in and was brave.

[Dejavu]

My grandparents were from the former Yugoslavia.

My paternal grandfather was a Croatian civilian writer that was forced conscripted into the local fascist government called Ustashe. He was forced to write propaganda for them. He was beaten and imprisoned without trial by the victorious Partisans but released after evidence was shown that he was coerced. He became an alcoholic later and developed health complications until he passed away in the 60s.

My maternal grandfather was a Croatian pilot conscripted into the Luftwaffe and flew supply lines through out the Third Reich. He was reassigned as a pilot in his homeland in 1942 and but almost lost his life when it was almost discovered that he flew 3 Jewish families illegally to Greece to get transported out of Europe. He saved their lives. His name is commemorated in Yad Vasheem.

Since he was an Axis officer he had a Partisan friend that was in charge of identifying citizens in some office in Sarajevo. He had his name changed and went under an alias as to not be persecuted by the Partisans. When his identity was discovered he flew to America pleading for amnesty with his family in the 60s and did not return until after 1992. He was drafted into the American Coast Guard to teach mechanical and piloting skills to American soldiers and given several accolades.

[Honggweilo]

Civilians. They worked at schools. The most significant war history for my family is that a relative of my grandmother (her sister, IIRC) was imprisoned in a "Jap camp" in Indonesia. My grandmother still dislikes the Japanese to this day.
hehe what does she think of your sister being a weeabo :laugh:?


anyway, from my dutch side they were uncooperative protestant civilians and from my portuguese side a-political catholic rural peasants in a "neutral" fascist country.

[Wanted Man]

hehe what does she think of your sister being a weeabo :laugh:?

Doesn't like it, doesn't understand it. I mean, she doesn't begrudge her for it or anything, she just doesn't like it at all.

[alfred j. kwak]

My granparents from dads side where in the Dutch resistence :D (there are even a few books they appear in). They helped French POW escape from nearby camps for example. They also earned the French "Croix du Guierre" (did i spell it ok?) for this (from De Gaulle himself :P ).

[Ligeia]

Intresting thread....unfortunately, I don't know it very well. I think on my mexican side they were civilians......on my other side, that's difficult. I know that one of my ancestors served in the WWI for the "Kaiser". And also another relative served in the red militia (during WWII or afterwards...?). They were silesian in Opole...I never knew my grandparents, they were already pretty old when they raised my father. And my father doesn't like to keep his ties with his family at all....so I don't know them really, all of them can speak polish or silesian, czech...or whatever, I can't because he didn't teach me, I've never understood why my father was so blurry with his history, the history of his family, culture...etc....everything. I've always got the impression he must have been constantly traumatized here in Germany and in Poland (everything Post-war, he didn't live at the time of WWII).
Very strange....maybe someone knows something about that region.....

[Bilan]

Communists. Go figure.

[Dr Mindbender]

Where is Japanese or Italian?

[Mälli]

Finnish army against the soviets.

[Die Rote Fahne]

No idea. But I have Jewish, German, Swedish, ENglissh etc ancestry, so possibly every side.

[the last donut of the night]

My great-grandfather was Stalin.:ninja:

[Kwisatz Haderach]

My grandparents were all peasant civilians, except for one grandfather, who was a worker civilian. As far as I know, no one in my family fought in the war.

[Andrei Kuznetsov]

My great-uncle Earl (my maternal grandfather's brother) was a Private in the 66th Infantry Division. He died 26 December, 1944 when a German torpedo sank the SS Leopoldville, which was transporting him to France.

Oddly enough, I also had a paternal great-uncle... whose name I can't recall at the moment... who was a German soldier in the Afrika Korps. He died in Tunisia in 1943. Another great-uncle, Karl, was killed at the Battle of Koenigsburg in 1945 in... uh, I don't remember which panzer division. But yeah, I actually had some family in the Wehrmacht during WWII. Crazy shit, eh?

[Partizani]

Fathers side: 15th International Brigade, British Battalion, sent back home when the international brigades were disbanded. Royal Navy and Merchant Navy
Mothers side: Royal Tank Regiment