My grandmother immigrated from germany with her family when she was about 5-8 yrs old. She remembered seeing someone being chased around a tree and shot at by a soldier while she was on the train. Her family left because of the war. She told me Her mother and another woman (I assume her dad was there too) brought in about 50 orphans into their house as the war began and they looked after them. They were jealous of her because she slept in the bedroom with her sister and mom while the orphans slept in another room. One day two soldiers came in and demanded their food. She says her mother grabbed a knife and told them they weren't taking the food (it would have killed all of them) and I guess the soldiers were scared or weren't completely heartless because they left.

She told me on of her cousins when he was about 16 was told he had to guard a fence of what I think was a work or concentration camp. She didn't put any blame on him though which I found strange but she described it as him standing next to a fence far enough away that he didn't see what was going on (idk if he found out or when) and he was also told he'd be shot if he didn't do it. I'm not sure what I'd have done at 16, probably stood by the fence.

One of my great grandparents was captured by the russians (he was't a soldier) and thrown in a prison camp. He had to eat rats to survive and I'm told he had night terrors for the rest of his life. My dad told me how when he slept over their (his grandparents' house he'd hear him scream at night. And he would sit at the kitchen table at night and just stare off.

my omi apparently dated a guy who was taken by russian soldiers, along with his mother, and then they killed his mom and threw them both into a box for a week or so. Somehow he survived. The russians also buried people alive I was told.

So thats pretty much what I've been told relating to my family.