First time poster here,

My grandfather was orphaned during WW2 in Austria, so I can share with you his story. My grandfather, lost his mother during childbirth in Niederoesterreich, Austria. He then spent the next few years growing up with his father, a hunter by trade, and grandfather who was a carpenter. As WW2 broke out, his father was drafted as an officer and sent to war on the eastern front. Towards the end of the war, when Germany knew they had lost, they started sending young children and old men to go fight, a unit of which, his father was given command. His father knew the war was over and refused to take children and old men to war, so he marched his way to the nearest Russian base, and surrendered arms. The Russians put his father into a labour camp, with little food and no medical treatment, which resulted in him getting severe infections in his legs. His father consequently threw himself in front of a train, committing suicide, he was survived, by my grandfather, who never forgave him for giving up on him.

By this time my grandfather was 8, alone, with nowhere to go as everything, from families to infrastructure was in shambles. As my grandfather was in a part of Austria occupied by the Russians, they were basically in charge of the humanitarian effort to help rebuild. My grandfather said he remembers him and all the other orphans riding on the tanks on their way to the boarding houses. He then spent the next 10 years going from orphanages to boarding houses, were they were fed pea soup with worms, rotten apples, basically anything they could get their hands on to keep these kids from starvation. At 16, he was done living as an orphan, having nearly been charged with murder for beating a kid to within an inch of his life for stealing food from the younger children, and subsequently he joined the army. He worked his way up to a special unit, whilst getting married and having two kids. After an honourable discharge, he moved to South Africa in search of a better future, where he started off laying railway tracks to put food in his families mouths. After many years of struggle he retired with 3 houses, 3 cars, two kids ,two grand kids and three dogs. He was a family man, and would have happily given his life for any one of us, in fact, I believe he did in a sense. His hard work put me and my brother through university, and allowed my father to emigrate out of South Africa for a better future. He died of bowel cancer in 2009, refused to take any pain medication and went for a 5km hike the day before he died because the dog needed exercise. He was a truly great man, despite his hardship, he was capable of inhuman amounts of love and caring.