Loading ...Ukraine’s Nazi past
As a young lad I heard lots of stories about the Weimar Republic. My German neighbour had emigrated to Canada around 1924 after he lost everything.
He kept in touch with relatives who stayed. Before he moved into a nursing home he gave my brother and I his stamp collection. Mostly European stamps. My brother took the lions share and had a whole collection. Going back to 1900. I being younger got the duplicates as I had more interest in coin collecting.
He had relatives in Ukraine, Romania, Austria and of course Germany. Not sure when he collected these stamps.
After seeing Oliver Stone’s “Ukraine on Fire”, I dug out my old album which I have not added to since the early 70’s.
I now see that German stamps overprinted by the word Ukraine were used in Ukraine during the occupation.
I had a neighbour who lived adjacent to my commercial properties in the 80’s and 90’s. He grew up in Soviet Ukraine. Fought in WW2 against the Russians. He was a rough and scary character even at his advanced age. Strong and fit in his late 80’s.
He had to escape to Germany after the war. I had lots of conversations with him on weekends while doing yard work around the property. Based on his prejudices, I assumed he was a Nazi supporter from his stories.
Ukraine has an interesting history. As a kid I thought it was part of Germany after seeing the German stamps with Ukraine written on them. What does a 10 year old know?
Fascinating Columbia . Stamps…I used to Collect them…Great hobby
The Guy who built our home was a German…also old and tough as nails
He was the son of a Police officer and was recruited into the German Nazi Army at age 17
at the tail end of the war when all was already lost
He was given an Officers ranking . They were hard up at that point
he was captured within days and shipped to a camp.
He escaped on foot and eventually somehow made it to Canada
We have NO idea