Teo Domanski: An SS Soldier on the Eastern Front

Teo was my grandmother's third husband. He joined the SS, under-age, towards the end of the war when they were desparate for men. He was sent to the Russian front.

He and a friend came to a field and the friend told my grandfather to go ahead and he would give covering fire. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it turned out, the friend accidentally shot my grandfather in the back so when the Russians came forward they left him for dead and killed the friend. My grandfather was then discovered by Canadians soon after and was to spend the rest of the war as a POW in Canada and eventually found his way to England.

What amazed me about my grandfather was how he had been brainwashed as a child at school. He really thought Hitler was a marvellous man, proivding full employment etc. He did not believe the Holocause ever happened - and I don't think it was deliberate self-delusion.

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