After World War 2, coming home was not a celebration but a ride into mayhem.


 Germans returned to a nation in ruins cities were bombed shells and food was in short supply. A good deal of the soldiers were prisoners of war who had been detained in gruesome Soviet camps and therefore were back later in life, several years after the war physically worn out and mentally scarred.Adjustment was a nightmare. They were having difficulties with locating jobs and reuniting with families struggling in the same situation. The social rejection was more difficult than the physical ones. They were not considered as heroes and the people saw them as soldiers of a losing army but worse still as representatives of the criminal Nazi regime. Civilians were afraid that these mutilated veterans could take the battlefield violence home. The society was in a hurly-burly to forget the shame of the war and the returning soldier was an unwanted constant reminder of the guilt of the nation.


Ironically, the Cold War provided a covert mission to many veterans at a time when they were shunned by the German society. Senior officials organized a secret army, the Schnes-Truppe, of thousands of veterans who were willing to combat the Soviets. This shows that their identity as soldiers was not diminished in any way as their country rejected them but rather were ready to go into the next war.

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