My maternal grandmother was a closet NAZI. I became convinced of this when back in 1969, while touring Germany, she bragged about M.A. Schneider's brother being a former S.S. officer. She stood there with pride as she proclaimed it. Looking back, I wasn't impressed, rather I was shocked that she made such a declaration with such pride.
Grandpa was a racist, but not a NAZI. Born here, he was outcast by his family in Wisconsin and sent to Cleveland as a family delinquent. He never spoke of that side of the family until after his sister's funeral, and then we knew of cousins, (Esh, Eddie, etc).
Mom was also a closet NAZI. Her first language was German, but that meant nothing. What finally bled through after all the years passed was her emmense double standard and bigotry; her harkenin back to the Von Kelp coat of arms and the Fiefdom that she continually pounded home stating I would be the Heir of. This was pure bullshit!
The facts get lost upon them that WWI erased the last vestiges of the AustrioHungarian empire. There WAS no remaining fiefdom. The Coat of Arms most likely never physically survived WWI. Why would you send your own 14 year old daughter, ALONE, on a student visa during the Auslicz in 1938. Talk about frickin' insane!!! That was grandma for you.
To hear the female side of the Weishaar's boast about the Von Kelps, with the same Arian Zeal .... it's all just so much crap! It was a nice story maybe before 1914... when grandma still lived there before emigrating to the US... but Opa already moved here. What's THAT tell you??
Opa was a working man. A tool smith that worked between Cleveland and Pittsburgh for years before he sent for Oma and Grandma. When grandma arrived it was 1912. Why would Opt to leave a fiefdom to go to the U.S. if he were an Heir to the Fiefdom? He wouldn't. Our family history was bullshit.
Opa came to the U.S. because of opportunity... PERIOD! If there ever were a fiefdom, it would have fallen on MALE heirs. Not me... not even uncle Julius. Grandma and aunt Emma were cousins, and allegedly couldn't inherit, due to no heir.
The big lie was that Opa couldn't inherit because he was not royal. He was, however, a very good tool smith. THAT is the extent of that side of the family royalty. His claim to fame was that his employers here in Cleveland as well as Pittsburgh did not want him to retire and, as a master tool smith, he worked well into his 80s. He died in 1957 after working a very long time as a hard working immigrant.
That other bullshit fed by Grandma and mom was Arian Arrogance. After years of memory sorting through grandma's stories, I'm convinced grandma was a Hitler sympathizer, and she bred the Naziesque thinking into my mother through mixed up beliefs against the results after the dust settles from WWI, as well as the restructuring of nations after it's end in 1918. THAT was the extend of our royal blood..... but it was also the onset and predisposition towards grandma's sympathizing with the NAZI government of the 1930s.
In the end, grandma's delusions reverted to singing pre-war NAZI marches, babbling in German making no sense, and much the same for mom.
