2439 upvotes, 12 direct replies (showing 12)
View submission: An Open Letter to the Reddit Community
My grandfather came to the US in the 1950s.
He had nothing left in Germany. His property was looted or destroyed; his family, almost totally murdered. He'd spent the war fighting for the British without a passport as the only sort of turncoat they'd readily accept - a Jew.
He was a bitter, cynical man with an irrational denial of his own mortality. A man who never fit in and who could never go home. A man whose jeep had hit a German land mine, requiring him to collect the steaming bits of his driver - a kid from Kentucky - from yards around.
And y'know what? Nobody cared.
No one cared that he was German, or Jewish, or had a glass eye (though, in fairness, it was a *really good* glass eye.) Nobody cared he couldn't stand American food and didn't really get the culture and *flatly refused* to buy German cars or anything touched by IBM. (His typewriter was a Wang.)
My grandfather was a refugee - one never accepted by the country on whose behalf he fought. An American gave his life for him in the war; but it was America that gave him a life to call his own.
Comment by [deleted] at 31/01/2017 at 02:21 UTC
64 upvotes, 4 direct replies
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Comment by painahimah at 31/01/2017 at 01:14 UTC
147 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Thank you for sharing your grandfather's story. I'm grateful for his sacrifice
Comment by [deleted] at 31/01/2017 at 06:22 UTC
12 upvotes, 2 direct replies
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Comment by [deleted] at 31/01/2017 at 07:50 UTC*
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
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Comment by [deleted] at 31/01/2017 at 21:49 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
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Comment by HiItsCal at 31/01/2017 at 10:58 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
That last sentence is fucking beautiful.
Comment by [deleted] at 31/01/2017 at 07:26 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
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Comment by CucksGettingRekt at 31/01/2017 at 22:24 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
And his descendants re-payed the favor by trying to destroy the American nation. Fucking kikes
Comment by [deleted] at 12/02/2017 at 20:21 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Comment by LuckyCatEchoDeng at 06/02/2017 at 03:42 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
YES NO ONE CARES~
Comment by oorr23 at 31/01/2017 at 14:26 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
An American gave his life for him in the war; but it was America that gave him a life to call his own.
Comment by TheMarketLiberal93 at 31/01/2017 at 19:11 UTC
-1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Touching story, but German refugees didn't drive trucks into crowded places and commit mass murder in their new countries...