Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 10:31:50 -0400
From: DvdThomas@aol.com
To: germanica-l@netcom.com
Subject: Re: *Nizkor Project on "Soap"

Ronald D. Schultz wrote:

> Well, David and Samuel, if I never know more about you I will know you are
>gentlemen. That's a good enough pedigre for me. But knowing where you are
>coming from certainly helps me to understand your viewpoint and establishes
>your credibility. I am then even more anxious to here what you have to say.

Thank you, Ronald.  I'll offer a brief background.

My field of work is engineering.  I was born in Texas during WWII.  My father
was off fighting Germans in Italy at the time.  Texas has many
long-established German settlements, and my maternal great-grandparents were
first-generation German immigrants who ran a successful hotel in Oklahoma for
some years.  (I say successful, although any money that was made did not run
up to the later branches of the family tree.  In the pictures it looked like
they were doing quite well running a large establishment billed as the
European Hotel.)  The war created many schisms in my family, which has not
been close since that time.  Not all war wounds are of the flesh.  In growing
up, I was quite aware of my German blood (with a lesser measure of English
and French), but separated from and almost completely ignorant of German
culture.  Not surprisingly for an inquisitive child with an incomplete home
and family life, I read of the Germans when and where I could and found
myself impressed by two things--the excellence of that tribe, and the utterly
negative image being thrust on them as a result of the war.  This was not a
consuming passion with me, but it stayed through the years.  With the
increase of the negative portrayals in the past ten years, reaching a near
frenzy of Holocaust promotion of late (predictably resulting in things like
Goldhagen's sad and sorry offering) my interests were rekindled.  With the
advent of the Internet, I could now discuss some of the issues I had
heretofore only read about.  That's where I come from and that's why I'm
here.  Alex Haley found his roots, however credibly; perhaps I search for
mine, and with utmost concern for credibility.  I am a domestic survivor
looking to get some stories straight.

David Thomas

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor