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Comment by apaprocki | Hacker News Reader

It is still pretty shocking to realize how lucky I am to be alive. My grandfather was captured by Germans, sent to prison in Germany, escaped from Germany, was re-captured in Warsaw, sent to a prison which then forwarded him to Auschwitz. Then for the next 3 years he was kept there, sent on to Mauthausen, and then to Gusen until he was liberated by Americans in 1945.

The facts that make it even stranger -- he was not Jewish and was born in Massachusetts in 1916. He apparently told them left and right he was a US citizen and they just ignored him.

Talk about beating the odds.

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Mauthausen (not Auschwitz) is a trip everyone needs to make. The most moving experience of my life was visiting it when I was younger. There's just something about that camp. It's remote and ominous. It really gives you a chance to contemplate just how awful that whole episode of human history was.

First congratulations on beating the odds :)

he was not Jewish and was born in Massachusetts in 1916. He apparently told them left and right he was a US citizen

Could he prove that he was an American or maybe Americans weren't that popular by then either?

He was arrested while using a fake ID to evade the police from his first capture and that ID had a fake first name and birthplace, so perhaps that is the reason. (I never met him -- he died before I was born)

Passports were not required back when he left the US, so I doubt he had proof handy and even if he did it was probably a fine line. Showing proof he was American could have made him a target instead of helping.

I think this sort of story is surprisingly common. Most of our knowledge of such things is derived from films and books written by the victors (don't forget the UK government had a propaganda wing for WWII until the 1970s). These promote the nazis as well organised and ruthless.

In fact, much as most design by committee systems are, the nazi regime was a bit of an incompetent mess with holes left right and centre.

If you ever meet a Jew who is willing to discuss it, they usually have a relative or two who escaped to a more friendly country.

If you ever meet a Jew who is willing to discuss it, they usually have a relative or two who escaped to a more friendly country.

Have you ever heard of term "survivorship bias"?

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