Hypothetical Person- how credible is this bio?

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Burnden
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Joined: 28 Feb 2010, 00:15

Hypothetical Person- how credible is this bio?

#1

Post by Burnden » 28 Feb 2010, 00:36

Hi there. I am an unsuccessful and unpublished writer with hopes.
I am writing a book at the moment with a major character who was in WWII and would like comments on how credible the following is:
Rough outline of Helmuth’s wartime experience
In June 1940 he is one of those who cheer as the Germans march into Alsace/ Elsass, at the time he is 15 going on 16. He promptly joins up to the Hitler Youth, though his parents persuade him to agree not to volunteer until he has finished school (at 19).
In Aug 1942 he is drafted and is assigned to officer training, which I believe was 6 months of college followed by 6 more “on the job.”
He is allocated to the SS-VT and on his first day at the Neuengamme camp near Hamburg he has to execute a prisoner (he later realises this is a test given to all new arrivals). Over the following days he is unhappy about the treatment of the prisoners and is to prone to ask questions and so is soon transferred to the Eastern Front.
He is reallocated to the Der Fuhrer Panzergrenader regiment of SS Das Reich in March 43 for the closing stages of the third battle of Kharkov (or just after it) and then into the battle of Kursk.
He is moved to Montauban for the refit/ upgrade to Panzer Division and by now he’s a Untersturmfuhrer (2nd lieutenant) with an Iron Cross (to be confirmed) and is in command of a group of 3-4 Panzer IVs.
As part of the “march” north/ French Resistance control duties he takes part in Oradour-sur-Glane, and then on to Caen.
So far I’m not sure if his tank was disabled and him taken as a POW during Caen or later in the Falaise Pocket.
After the war, he was held in Dachau as an SS member till 49 and in 1953 he was tried in absentia in Bureaux. As an Alsatian conscripts given an amnesty for his part in Oradour-sur-Glane.

I hope that there are no really silly errors in this- I've taken bits from various sites and Osprey books, but it's very possible, even probable, that I've misunderstood bits as I've put the above "history" together.

Thanks in anticipation
Burnden

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Christoph Awender
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Re: Hypothetical Person- how credible is this bio?

#2

Post by Christoph Awender » 28 Feb 2010, 18:20

Hello Burnden,

Why not take a the real career of a SS-Führer???
If they are silly or not I don´t dare to judge but there are several errors that jump into my eye even at first reading.
Assigned to officer training?? I guess you mean volunteered!?
1943 the SS-VT did not exist any more.
6 months college and 6 months §on the job" - highly simplified and not really correct.
executing prisoners as a test??? I can´t really believe that someone takes this as serious!?

I am sure other will find something else. So why not take the career of a real Waffen-SS veteran??

/Christoph


Burnden
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Posts: 2
Joined: 28 Feb 2010, 00:15

Re: Hypothetical Person- how credible is this bio?

#3

Post by Burnden » 28 Feb 2010, 21:57

"but there are several errors that jump into my eye even at first reading."

Thanks Christoph- that's brilliant :D

I'm not sure that a real person would "work" the character I'm looking for re-ignites an affair with a provincial French woman in the late 60s and so must have been stationed in France for a while during the latter stages of the war and must have been able to speak reasonable French.
I also want some sort of "Oradour-sur-Glane event" but he can't be dismissed as either "evil" or someone who just follows orders (hence wanting him to be transferred out of the camps). Ideally I want someone who was brutalised by what he experienced (so Kursk/ Kharkov are good).
The main story really is a comparison between his actions in the war and those of his illegitimate daughter during the Paris riots and more in 68/69.

"Assigned to officer training?? I guess you mean volunteered!?"
Would someone conscripted be able to do this?
Christoph Awender wrote:1943 the SS-VT did not exist any more.
Ah! I just spotted the quote button.
Thanks, by then were they standard SS? I'm guessing Totenkopf?
Christoph Awender wrote:6 months college and 6 months §on the job" - highly simplified and not really correct.
Simplified is what I'm after it's just a para in the story but helps explain his position at the time they meet.
How far from the mark am I?
Christoph Awender wrote:executing prisoners as a test??? I can´t really believe that someone takes this as serious!?
:oops: Sorry. I had read something similar on another site (can't recall which now though)
But it does make a good dramatic scene.

Again thanks for your help so far. I'm sorry to come back with more questions, if I come over as confrontational- Sorry I'm not really.

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