The Forum > Article Comments > Just shoot me? > Comments
Just shoot me? : Comments
By Irfan Yusuf, published 21/10/2005Irfan Yusuf argues under the new anti-terrorism laws those with strange names or slightly darker skin will be the first suspects.
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I lived amongst the Germans for about 1 year, and actually became engaged to a young lady there. Her father planning to immigrate, and wanting to know if I was the right person to marry his daughter and have the lot (house, etc) decided he was going to test me out. Where else but in a pub. And, I generally do not drink alcohol, as I prefer coffee. I was no match to this man, and so used my wits to get him to talk. He was drinking, and I was listening. His mates joined in, and every time I was given a pot, I nicely moved it over to one of his mates. They talked about the war, how they were forced to do things or face deportation themselves, if they were lucky enough not to be shot, and how it wrecked their lives. The ongoing nightmares they had from these killings. Sure, there were some who proudly announced how they slowly killed enemy soldiers with their bare hands, but then, I heard similar stories about the Dutch adventures after WWII in Indonesia doing the same!
We lasted until deep in the night in the pub and finally I had to take my future father-in-law home. The next day he announced that I was accepted.
I never forgot the girls of my dreams but held that while I had learned the hardship of the other side and what they had to go through, I could not see myself to be married and having to participate in possible future pub get-togethers considering the number of my family members having been killed. We parted as friends!
I feel no resentment towards the Germans, I lived there for about a year, and later served in the NATO at the “IRON-CURTAIN”, but it is another thing to have this in a family environment.
I understand that what they told me about how Hitler came to power, and this appears to me now to be replayed in Australia!
We didn’t learn any lesson of WWII.