German Steps - Memoirs of Gramps

This is the second post that I am making for memorial day.  It’s another of the stories that Gramps told me from his experiences in WWII.

“Tell me another story about WWII Gramps,” I asked.

“Well, we occasionally used frozen “kraut” bodies for steps to get into the buildings of our temporary camps,” he chuckled.  It was strange how Gramps could laugh at this kind of statement and not come off seeming as though he were mentally cracked.  It’s just that he lived through some very bizarre times and situations and he’d had to find a way to process it so that he could continue to function.  So, it all became “funny.”

“In the winter the war kinda slowed down a bit and we could stay in one place for a while,” he explained, “so we would build ourselves temporary camps.  But materials were usually hard to come by so we had to make due.”  Gramps smiled and shook his head just the slightest bit before he continued, ” so we’d gather up German soldier’s bodies and stack them into stairs so we could climb into the buildings.”

Now, before I could completely process how I felt about this he hit me with the rest of his thought, ” when spring came around the bodies began to thaw out and soon, when we stepped on their chests, we’d hear the sound of the air in their lungs rush out through their voice boxes and it would go ‘HUUHH,’ hahh ha.”

Sometimes I wondered if I actually was mature enough to hear these stories, but I always came back for more.