Grandpa’s Nazi past shocks Jewish star

[rangerrebew]

Grandpa’s Nazi past shocks Jewish star

Chelsea Handler confronts dark family history as she undergoes a televised journey of self-discovery

By Yifa Yaakov August 10, 2013, 5:27 pm 342
 
American Jewish comedienne Chelsea Handler realized her family history was no laughing matter last week as she underwent a journey of self-discovery in an episode of TLC’s Who Do You Think You Are, which was aired Tuesday.
 

In the episode, Handler, who was raised Jewish by her Jewish mother and non-Jewish father, confronted the dark secret her “very, very big, strong” German grandfather, Karl Stoecker, had avoided discussing for years — his Nazi past and role in the Holocaust. 
 

“My German grandma definitely spoke about her life during the war way more than my grandfather did,” said Handler. “He never spoke about it.”

The 38-year-old comedienne discovered during the episode that before immigrating to the United States, her grandfather had been interned in a POW camp for years, probably in Montana. Prior to that, discovered Handler, he’d served as a Nazi soldier in Hitler’s army during World War II.

“When he went back to Germany, he was very eager to come and take his family and move them back to the United States,” said Handler.

Handler, who was raised in New Jersey, became emotional and broke down during the episode as she struggled to reconcile her Jewish upbringing to her grandfather’s Nazi past.

“My grandfather served in the Second World War as a soldier. Whether or not he agreed with Hitler, he was serving in the Germany army,” she said.

“My father, I guess, made a deal with my mother when they had children that they were gonna be raised Jewish. So I connect with my Judaism, or the Jewish side of my family, more than anything else.”


Read more: Grandpa's Nazi past shocks Jewish star | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-comedienne-faces-grandpas-nazi-past/#ixzz3X6uDiZJY
Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook

[musiclady]

A lot of young men were forced to be part of the German army who were not Nazis.

Those who fought, especially by the end of the war were barely more than children, inculcated with Nazi philosophy by being forced into the Hitler Jungen.

Her grandfather may well have been an unwilling participant.

[PzLdr]

There is nothing in the article that indicates: [a] Her grandfather was a member of the NSDAP, That he was a member of the Waffen SS, the Ordnungspolizei, the Gestapo, or any organization involved in the Holocaust, or [c] He was captured subsequently to the start of the Holocaust. All we know was that he was a German captured during the war. Statistically, he may well have been captured in Africa, where there was no Holocaust. A shoddy headline based on an even shoddier premise.

[Free Vulcan]

Crap article by a crap reporter who wanted to pimp the Holocaust, and what a tool of a woman for letting herself get used like that. Anyone from Germany surely isn't so naive to think that any of their German male ancestors of the right age range couldn't have possibly served under the Reich. Just about every male from teenager to elderly did so. What a bunch of fake drama.