Blogs from Germany, Europe - page 976

An Excerpt from the Travel Journal of Nigel Fox (c. 1945) Entry 32 -- An Extraordinary Parley The Armanenschaft believed that the death of an individual was a tragedy, but the deaths of a millions of people was merely a statistic. When it come to the Holocaust is hard to express the magnitude of the evil that has been done. This extermination process was carried out on a regular basis during the final years of the war. The efficiency and massive scale of the genocidal procedure perpetrated with the help of modern technology staggers the imagination. The wasteful tragedy must be multiplied by millions. The Two witnesses I too had suffered personal loss. It had been confirmed that my old and dear friend Pastor Hans Hoff was dead. He was condemned to death on April 8, ... read more

An Excerpt from the Travel Journal of Nigel Fox circa 1925 Entry 16 -- The Putsch "As head of the Triumvirate, I am your true leader. In many influential circles there are those who believe that the restoration of a strong state will be sufficient. I say no, a thousand times no . . . " The politician's speech droned on. He was totally unaware of the revolution that was unfolding around him. Oberland troops surrounded the hall and the auditorium itself was infiltrated. Many of the government security forces were loyal to the Kampfbund. Hans’ simple plan was working perfectly. "Again I say no, a thousand times no. Even the strongest man empowered with the greatest authority cannot save the nation without the energy and enthusiasm of the people. Were we to attempt to lead ... read more

Our next NATO Infrastructure Committee visit was to West Germany. By now Linda was over her morning sickness, and at five months she was showing her pregnancy. This was a good thing for her as the German escort officers were very considerate of her condition. Everywhere we went they found her a seat, and brought whatever she needed to her. 15 September 1985 Sunday. We all met at the Melsbroek Belgian military airbase at 9 am where we then boarded a German military transport aircraft for the short flight to the military side of the Koln-Wahn airfield. We were greeted by our German hosts from the Ministry of Defense. We then boarded buses for a sightseeing tour of Bonn and the Rhine River towns in the immediate vicinity of Bonn. We were then taken to our ... read more

From 1 March 1980 to 13 July 1984 we lived in Boblingen near Stuttgart Germany. I was offered a job as Technical Advisor at the headquarters of the U.S. European Command at Patch Barracks in Vaihingen, on the southern outskirts of Stuttgart. So on 1 March 1980 we packed up our possessions and drove from Glan Munchweiler to Stuttgart. We lived in a hotel in Vaihingen until we found an apartment in Boblingen, a ten minute drive on a forested road from Patch Barracks. Our apartment occupied the second floor and a Yugoslav family, whose husband worked at the Mercedes Benz factory, was on the first. Our landlady lived on the third floor. She only spoke the Schwabian dialect of German. So that we could communicate with her, we took another conversational German course, but gave ... read more

In August 1978 I had another business trip to a conference with the German Ministry of Defense officials at the Armed Forces Recreation Center on the southern shore of Lake Chiemsee. This was one of many former Nazi resorts taken over by U.S. forces. Again, during the day I had meetings, but afterwards Rich (a colleague who would also become a lifelong friend along with his wife Judy), Linda and I would tour the countryside between the lake and the German Alps. We would find a nice restaurant during our travels, and enjoy delicious schnitzel, sauerbraten, strudel and beer. On another day we took a boat out to Herrenchiemsee Island to see King Ludwig II castle by the same name. The castle was modeled upon King Loius XIV's Versailles. Our conference was cut short because our ... read more