My Brother

[cyberia]

Regrettably, I know more about casual acquaintances at work than do about my brother, Erich. My parents found it too painful to discuss him, and no known photograph of him survived the war.

Erich was a member of an HJ group organized out of Dresden. In the summer of 1944 he was taking part in a field training exercise in the Normandy region. In the days following the invasion his unit was pressed into a kampf group.

The last official word my mother received on Erich was that he was reported missing in action on or about the third week of June.

A month or so later a friend of Erich's who was with him in Normandy, and was home on convalescence leave, encountered my mother on the street and told her Erich was in fact killed in combat sometime around the first week of July.

My mother never heard another word about my brother. Officially or otherwise.

Erich was 14 years old.

Friede, Erich

[Jim O]

Sad that so many children died in this war. My condolences on your loss. I can't imagine never having known my own brother.

[temujin77]

Sad story.

I know what you feel about your mother's reluctance to talk about things. My grandmother lost at least one child also (we don't know for sure how many). What's even tougher is that they were simply "lost", as in never seen again. Fleeing Japanese bombing was messy business, so if you lose a child in a mob of a crowd, he or she is gone forever. My grandmother never found the courage to talk about WW2 with us, so the stories are now buried with her, but we don't blame her. She doesn't need to prove to us her brave she was. She survived the war, and that's proof enough.

Much respect to your mother for enduring such human tragedy.

[TRDG]

Paul, thank you for sharing this with us, I know it must be hard, but at least we can honour him here, along with your other family members.

All my best to you and yours, past and in the present, and future!!

Cheers, my best respect.

Tom Young

[Panzermacher]

Prosit, Erich....

[lufttiger]

As PM says Prosit, Erich to have to be so brave at that age.

[KG_Panzerschreck]

A salute to your Brother my friend.

[PanzerBob]

That does bring a tear or more to this soldiers eye. my friend. Thanks for sharing.

Children never belong under arms and yet it seems we never learn. I have first hand knowledge of Children under arms, those images still haunt me. The AK or whatever almost larger than they are and the look in their eyes.

I can image the horror.

Rest in Peace Erich, for another Brother under Arms.

[cyberia]

On behalf of Erich, and all children who died under so many flags for reasons they were too young to understand, I thank you all for your kind words.

[Biscuit]

Thanks for sharing Cy! I didn't know they pressed teenages that young into service that close to home. I thought it more the eastern front and Poland. I guess governments cannablize their parts and people when they see their empire slipping away, just like the human body as it starves.

God Bless your brother mate!