Biography

Henry Metelmann

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Henry Metelmann was born on December 25, 1922 in Altona, Hamburg, Germany. He was a writer, known for Timewatch (1982), Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy (1998) and Soldiers (1984). He was married to Monika Metelmann. He died on July 24, 2011.

Was in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), an organisation which opposes military action that may result in the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, and the building of nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom.
After leaving Germany for England, he became a stout anti-war campaigner, communist and peace activist.
Fought in the Battle of Stalingrad, (17th of July 1942 - 2nd February 1943), now Volgograd, in southwest Russia and serving in the Panzer [tank] division.
Joined the Hitler Youth at the age of twelve.
His working class parents', with his railway worker father's socialist belief, opposed the Nazi regime, his father passed in 1940.

[2013, aged 79] To think they can solve things through bombing, they are wrong; that is my life's experience, I belonged to what was then the strongest war machine ever, the German army was superior from a purely technical point of view, and we were riding a wave.
[2013, aged 79 ] In the end we were thrown into the dust. When I look at Vietnam, the world's strongest power, the USA, was beaten by the Vietnamese.
[2013, aged 79] Even though my father hated everything connected with the Nazis, I liked it in the Hitler Youth. I thought the uniform was smashing, the dark brown, the black, the swastika and all the shiny leather.
[2013, aged 79 ] We did not know about what happened to the Jews until it came out after the war. When it did come out I could not digest it. Whatever you think of the Germans, they developed a very high cultural level. That such a nation could do that, to kill millions because they are of a minority, I could not believe it. I thought it was not true. But then the proof really came through.
[2013, aged 79 ] In school we knew about the concentration camps. We knew but we were being told that they were 'anti-German elements' and 'bloody Jews' and the 'filthy Gypsies' and the 'Bible thumpers' and all this 'rubbish' and burglars and swindlers and those who break the law. That is what we were taught and I believed it. I thought it was great.

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