Some German Soldiers were Respected, Others Not

We ran into the Herman Goering Paratroop Division. It's hard to, you know, a lot of people look at me when I say they were good soldiers. They were probably, they were the older type soldier and I, I say they were gentlemen. Because, we had got people that they would take and they would give them cigarettes and fix, if they were wounded, fix them up and lean them against a tree because they knew that we were coming along to get them. When I say we met gentlemen in Italy, we met the Hitler Youth going up through the lowlands, and they were born to be bad. They were bad kids, fifteen and sixteen they'd spit on you and they were a different type of soldier all together than the fellows we met in Italy.

And when I was over in 1999 back on a pilgrimage, I got to Rome and this German heard there was some 1st Canadian Division boys, and he came over, he was one of the Herman Goering paratroopers and he came over and we had a great afternoon together, he was a real, his name was Wilhelm Fritz, he was a real, he was a real nice guy. Well you know like he said to me, he said "You stick up your head" he said "I shoot you." and he said, "Thank God you missed me." You know, so, and that's the way it was, you know.