Chapter 824 Khedira's Growth Experience
In fact, Khedira's story is not as complicated as Xiao Peng said. In short, it can be summed up in one sentence: his maternal grandfather is Hans Munch, a descendant of an old aristocratic family. This is why Khedira is jokingly called the "Prince".
Chinese people don't know much about this name. In fact, this name is only known to a small number of people in the West. There are only two words about this person's life: doctor and Auschwitz concentration camp.
During World War II, Germany built numerous concentration camps, the most notorious of which was Auschwitz. There, the so-called "Institute of Hygiene" under the leadership of Eduard Wirtz housed the infamous "Angel of Death," Josef Mengele, who conducted human experiments and used gas chambers to kill numerous prisoners. The number of Jews killed at Mengele's hands alone reached six figures.
But what is a bit speechless is that after Germany's defeat, Joseph Mengele escaped punishment: he fled to South America with the help of his Jewish lover, and did not die until 1979 because he accidentally drowned while swimming...
There is a bit of black humor in the story that a Jewish executioner escapes with the help of his Jewish lover.
Hans Munk was also a doctor at the institute, but unlike Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death," he was a good doctor who strictly adhered to the Hippocratic Oath. While Josef Mengele killed people, Hans Munk did his best to save them. His last act before leaving Auschwitz is still unbelievable today: he gave his pistol to a Jewish man, asking him to protect him.
After Germany's defeat, Hans Mounk was tried in Poland for war crimes alongside other Auschwitz prisoners. Many former Auschwitz inmates testified in his support, claiming he had saved countless lives. He was the only one acquitted of all the prisoners on trial. The judge ruled that he had not only committed no harm to the camp inmates but had also helped them with kindness, regardless of their nationality, race, religion, or other political beliefs.
Since then, every World War II anniversary, Hans Munch, the "good man of Auschwitz concentration camp", has been praised, even though he died in 2001. But to this day, his name is brought out to commemorate every World War II anniversary.
But no matter what he did, Hans Munch was a genuine Nazi. Although he was honored as the "Good Man of Auschwitz", his life in Germany during these years was really not very good.
At that time, Germany was divided into two parts: West Germany was governed by Western countries, and East Germany was governed by the Soviet Union. Now, let's be honest, West Germany had very good policies towards World War II veterans.
According to the treaty, Germany had to unconditionally disband its Wehrmacht after the end of World War II. Countless soldiers returned home and became different people. West Germany immediately began finding jobs for these soldiers and doing its utmost to improve their lives. They not only included the length of service of German soldiers during World War II in their social security contributions, but also provided them with full pension and compensation benefits—a rare exception, as these benefits were generally reserved for soldiers from the victorious nations. Furthermore, they had a remarkable law that required veterans to receive retirement benefits higher than those of civil servants of the same rank, allowing them to enjoy a comfortable retirement.
They were not only particular about their own people, but also about the Foreign Legion: Germany at that time also had a large number of "mercenaries". For example, the "Blue Legion" that made the Russians suffer in the Battle of Stalin was actually a Foreign Legion formed by the Spanish. It was an important military force of Germany during the Soviet-German War. After the end of World War II, the "Blue Legion" was withdrawn to Spain in batches, but they enjoyed the same welfare benefits as German soldiers. To this day, the German authorities still support the survivors of these Foreign Legion and still pay them pensions and pensions.
The reason they did this was because of a promise made that year: all foreign soldiers serving Germany would enjoy the same treatment as German soldiers.
To be honest, West Germany did a great job in this regard.
But... Khedira's family is in East Germany.
First, don't assume East Germany was poor—at the time of the reunification, it was wealthier than West Germany and even richer than the Soviet Union at the same time! Why was it so poor? It was similar to the Soviet Union: heavy industry was developed, but light industry was almost nonexistent. The most interesting fact is that the East German Women's Federation once diligently produced a teaching material for women at the time, teaching them how to sew their own underwear at home.
This shows the light industry capabilities of East Germany at that time.
But East Germany's heavy industry, including its military industry, was truly remarkable! At the time, China's best military steel and other materials came from East Germany. Furthermore, the country boasted a developed agricultural sector, with over 21% of its population receiving college or higher education. By 1988, East Germany's per capita national income had reached the level of the world's developed industrial nations.
Then someone said, why did so many people cross the Berlin Wall to West Germany when they were so happy?
The reasons are very complicated. Life in China is better now, but aren't there still many people running away?
From the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to its demolition, approximately three million East Germans fled to West Germany, an average of nearly 100,000 per year. This data is widely publicized by Western media today. What they did not mention is that two-thirds of them left the country legally with the consent of East German officials, and about one-fifth of them returned to East Germany from West Germany due to unemployment, stress and other reasons.
There were also quite a few people who moved from West Germany to East Germany back then. Over the years, the total has reached nearly one million, including current German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose family moved from West Germany to East Germany in 1954. So, in the final analysis, it was just a normal population movement.
A big reason why East Germany's economy lags behind West Germany is that it encountered the same problem as the collapse of the former Soviet Union: a large amount of state-owned assets were embezzled by capitalists, causing the people to live in dire straits.
So where did the people who embezzled state assets come from? West German capitalists.
Of course, although East Germany was good at that time, it still has a problem that cannot be washed away today, and that is the "Stasi", the East German secret police.
This KGB-trained secret police force, in addition to counterintelligence, also had the responsibility of monitoring former Nazis. After all, this was a former Soviet-controlled area, and the treatment of former Nazis was not particularly friendly. Khedira's childhood was marked by discrimination and persecution.
It is a miracle in itself that Khedira has managed to grow up mentally healthy.
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