I think it was almost 10 minutes that we were chatting at the river banks.
“Did I bore you off? Do you want me to continue?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“Because of the Treaty of Versailles, our country was weakened. They took away our lands and military because they were afraid we’ll be more powerful than they are. They didn’t want to lose their powers in Europe to us.”
“So there came Hitler. He was a nationalist at that time and he wanted back those lands that were given away by the Treaty or Versailles. So he gathered all his men and said to the Allied Forces; We want our lands back and if you’re not giving them back, we’ll take it!”
“He attacked and invaded Rhineland, Austria, the borders of Czechoslovakia and then Poland.”
Suddenly he stopped and started at me.
“And do you know how World War 2 started in Europe?”
I shook my head.
“It was the 1st of September of 1939 when Hitler attacked Poland. Very soon after that, Poland’s allies declared war on us. Everyone, including the UK, France, Australia, US, New Zealand, Canada and a few more countries.”
“You see, everything they wrote on the papers labeled Hitler as the bad guy. In fact, he’s a nationalist and hero in Germany, you know? He’s just taking back what was taken away from us.”
By now, it was coming to 20 minutes that we were chatting.
“Oh, I can see my friend waiting for me opposite the road. I got to go. I hope you’ve learned something and have a wonderful trip back.”
We shook hands and I thanked him for his brief history class.
This was the second time that someone was talking to me about the history of the place since I was here 2 months ago. The first was in Berchtesgaden where a 80+ year old man talked to me how happy he was to be back there since he was there during World War 2 as an American soldier.
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