Background: Some folks were resistant to the idea that the rebel / confederate flag be changed to some new design that fails to acknowledge the South’s Confederacy. A gentleman named Fritz Grueber wrote a letter to the paper, that attempted to demonstrate how holding onto old flags can hurt people.
My Family Fought Bravely
This is an open letter to Mr. Mike Crane who bitterly protested the new Georgia State Flag, and who would like it to become Fannin County’s county flag.
My name is Fritz Grueber and I was noticing your editorial protest in a recent News Observer.
I was born in Berlin in 1938, just as Hitler was gathering strength and testing his mettle as a leader of the Nazi party. My father, Heinz, a father of three young children was jobless, and was made a corporal in Hitler’s fast-growing army. He was diligent as a soldier, but was badly wounded early in the war. Nevertheless, by the end of the war he had risen to the rank of Lt. Colonel overseeing the production of aircraft outside of Berlin.
As a child, I remember being so proud of my father when he would dress each day in his uniform. I remember the swastika on his shoulder, the shiny black patent leather brim of his cap, and the many medals that adorned his uniform. He had no political agenda, he was just a soldier with a job to do, and he loved his family very much.
Near the very end of the war, he was rounded up by the Russians, and he was taken away with other officers and non-commissioned officers and was never heard from again.
I, on the other hand, became homeless as the allies diligently bombed our neighborhood prior to taking Berlin. Luckily, I am one of those blessed people who are always at the right place at the right time, and at the age of eleven I arrived in New York and was adopted by a young couple in New Jersey. My new-found parents were fine, religious people, providing me with love, and an excellent education to prepare me for the future.
Now I am retired and moved to North Georgia several years back, to enjoy the peace and tranquility offered by the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The other day, on the anniversary of my father’s 90th birthday, I searched out the small trunk that accompanied me so many years ago on my trip from Europe. In it I found the tattered Nazi flag that my mother had folded and given to me after my father disappeared. I was deep in thought as I wandered out onto our deck where the American flag flapped noisily at the top of our flagpole.
I had read your article and I wondered what kind of response I would get if I raised my flag to a point just below the stars and stripes in honor of my father and the country that he had defended.
Then I found myself visualizing the look of pain on the faces of my ethnic (Jewish) friends and neighbors, as well as the almost predictable negative response from two other nearby families that revere their WWII veterans. Yes, I thought, this is MY history and that of my country and family, but to display this flag would bring pain to those who were wronged, and those who risked and also gave their lives to bring that chapter of history to an end.
You know, the wars were not so different, except in scope. Hitler, although he was so dreadfully wrong, thought he was doing right for his people. He enslaved and murdered people, not based on color, but ethnic background. His military prisons became death camps, Andersonville became a famous death camp. The people of his country followed him because to not do so meant starvation or death. This was true to a certain extent in the South, but Fannin County was somewhat of an exception…the people of Fannin County were for the most part, not in support of the war of succession.
Nobody looks back on wars such as these with fondness. I would hope that the German people would spare themselves the pain of looking back at a war so wrong and so futile. Maybe, changing the Georgia flag will minimize our backward view of the war between the states as well. To those of us that wish to remember, we can always honor these memories in our hearts and minds, forever.
