Everyday Soldiers : a glimpse into the daily life of the Third Reich's front line men
This Exhibit is a unique and often unspoken glimpse into the daily lives of the men behind front lines. German officers, many of them young boys - conditioned as soldiers and following orders. It goes to show the less spoken and unseen human aspect to many of the boys behind the Reich. Soldiers as any others, as any of our nations, fighting for those at home and beside them - following the unquestioned footsteps set by their superiors before them. The men were chillingly alike our own, vastly everyday soldiers. Behind the horrors committed by infamous names and deranged individuals, were millions of German citizens, driven by the propagandist possession - many of them just blissfully ignorant boys - kept so simply to ensure the orders carried out. Given by those famous names, the brainchildren of heinous minds who had not a drop of blood on their hands, carried out by the puppeted mass of everyday soldiers, boys wanting nothing but to gain pride and honor for the only nation they'd ever known and loved - a chillingly familiar reality in so much of our modern world. In this exhibit, you will see three photographs, one in which German soldiers sit upon and enjoy the contents of crates of beer, in another they have a smoke and discuss the headlines, a young man in uniform stands on the steps of his home. Also featured are collectible cigarette cards - A Nazi party 'tinnie' collectible rally day badge, and matches and cigarettes as those in the photograph. These artifacts above all tell of daily life - the camaraderie between men, in a rare glimpse into the downtime in an era of war. The untold losing side - as history is written by the victors. We must never forget the eerie normalcy of faces behind the horrors we've come to know.
