American photographer Jonathan Alpeiri spent a year photographing World War II veterans. Among the participants in his project were veterans of the Wehrmacht and other Nazi formations in Europe. Many of them admitted that they donned their military awards for the first time since 1945.
Interestingly, Jonathan is half Russian (on his father's side, his mother is Spanish). He was born in 1979 in Paris, but as a young man he moved to his father in the United States. Alpeiri has chosen the profession of a hotspot photographer. He visited the rebels of the subcommandant of Marcos in the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Maoists in Nepal, photographed the endless inter-tribal conflicts in Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as the Congo. Of course, the conflicts in the Caucasus - in South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh - did not go unnoticed by them.
His experience as a front-line photographer allowed him to articulate why he took up “civilian” photography of veterans: “Compromise is the best way to make progress, and not only in the military, but also in the political sphere. If the veterans of the once opposing sides can reconcile, it will be easier for politicians to do the same."
Alpeiri photographed 92 veterans in 19 countries. But his project is still ongoing. “Right now I am in contact with Serbs, Bosnians, Uzbeks, Balts, Finns, Chinese and Japanese. The nearest target is 100 veterans from 25 countries of the world,”he says.
The Interpreter's blog lists photos of some of the veterans with their biographies.
Above: Norwegian Bjorn Ostring was born on September 17, 1923. In 1934 he joined the youth section of the Norwegian fascist party, Quisling. When the Germans invaded, he took part in the defense of the country. But then in the spring of 1941 he joined the Wehrmacht. In January 1942, he was sent to Leningrad, where his unit lost half of its strength in heavy battles. As a result, Quisling recalled the Norwegian units back to the country. Upon his return, Ostring entered Quisling's security service. After the war, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for high treason, but was released in 1949.
Karl Ulber was born in Vienna on May 28, 1923. He was drafted into the Wehrmacht in October 1941 and trained as a paratrooper. Ulbert arrived on the Eastern Front in October 1942 to fight partisans in the Smolensk region. In March 1943, his regiment was sent to the front. He also fought in France and Italy before being captured in 1945. Ulbert was released from the camp in March 1946 and returned to Vienna.
Mrav Hakobyan, an Armenian who fought in the Battle of Stalingrad. In close combat, a German with a sapper shovel injured his arm, which had to be amputated.
Fernand Kaisergruber was born in Antwerp, Belgium on January 18, 1923. In his youth, he joined the Belgian fascist Rexist party. After the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, he voluntarily left for Germany and worked in a factory in Cologne. He joined the German army in September 1941 and left for the Russian front in June 1942, where he stayed until November of the same year. After heavy fighting on the Eastern Front, part of it was withdrawn to Germany. Kaisergruber returned to Russia in July 1943 with the Waffen-SS. While retreating in February 1944, he was wounded twice and broke his leg. After that, Keisegruber was demobilized.
Daniel Bokobza was born on March 22, 1924 in Tunisia. Was drafted into the French army in October 1943. Arrived in Great Britain in July 1944, and a few days later he was sent to Normandy. Participated in hostilities in the Vosges region, earning a military cross for participating in the capture of 200 Germans. Demobilized in October 1945.
Israel Badger was born on March 1, 1919 in the city of Kremenchug in Ukraine. His family moved to Moscow, where he graduated from high school and then worked at a car plant. In the fall of 1939 he was drafted into the Red Army, where he became a political instructor. He entered the war in Ukraine, and when his commander was killed by a sniper's bullet, Badger began to lead the battalion. He was wounded in September 1941 and spent four months in the hospital. After being discharged, he was found unfit for service, but he persuaded his superiors to send him back to the front. The badger was eventually transferred to the training unit near Gorky, where he stayed until the end of 1942. He was then transferred to Moscow to control supplies for the armored forces. He left the USSR for the USA in 1985.
Giovanni Doretta was born on March 14, 1921, into a family of Italians living in Paris. He lived in this city until 1935, when his parents returned to Italy to work on the family's farm. He was drafted into the Italian army on 21 January 1941 and trained as part of the elite division Alpini Cuneense. In August 1942, his detachment was sent to the Russian front in Ukraine. He took part in the battles for Stalingrad. Doretta recalls that the Italians fought in the bitter cold in thin uniforms. On January 27, 1943 he surrendered. The prisoners were put on a train to the Urals, and during their trip, a typhoid epidemic broke out. Only 10 out of 80 soldiers arrived at the scene alive. Then he was sent to Moscow to work in a factory. Later he began to guard German prisoners of war. He was repatriated to Italy on April 1, 1946.
Lavik Blindheim was born on August 29, 1916 in the Norwegian city of Voss. At the time of the invasion of the German army, he was trained as an infantry officer. In 1941 he decided to make his way to England. To do this, he made an epic journey: first he went to Stockholm, then to Moscow, Odessa, then to Tehran, Basra and Bombay. From there, he finally arrived in Glasgow, Scotland. He was interrogated by British intelligence, and then sent to London, where he was trained as a saboteur. Then, in April 1942, Blindhein was parachuted into Norway, where he organized a resistance group and stayed with it until the end of the war.
Evgeniusz Witt was born on March 6, 1922 in the city of Baranovichi in Poland. His father was an officer in the Polish army, and after the German invasion in 1939, Witt never saw him again. He and his mother were taken to a labor camp in the city of Biysk in Altai, where Witt began working as a carpenter. In 1941 he was released and joined Anders' Polish army. Witt was trained in Uzbekistan and then sent to Iran, where the Polish army was armed and reorganized by the British. In March 1943 he arrived in Glasgow, Scotland. There he was trained as a radio operator, and until the end of the war, Witt carried out radio communications between the British and the underground in Poland. He emigrated to the United States in 1948.
Adolf Straka was born in Slovenia on February 27, 1925. At the age of 17, he went to work at a steel plant in Austria. He was drafted into the German army in February 1943 and sent to serve in French Dijon. Straka stayed there for six months, and in the winter of 1944 he was sent to the Eastern Front in the Vitebsk region. After a month of heavy fighting, he was captured by the Russians. In the USSR, he joined the unit formed from prisoners of Yugoslavs, as part of which he fought against the Germans until the end of the war.
Ernst Gottschetein was born on July 3, 1922 in the Sudeten city of Schreibendorf (now part of the Czech Republic). In the fall of 1941, he volunteered for the Wehrmacht. He fought on the Eastern Front, in December 1941 he was wounded near Moscow. Gottstein was sent to Vienna to recover. Then he got to the African front. Was wounded again - this time in Tunisia. Evacuated to Berlin, then to Denmark. He fought in the north of France.
Herbert Drossler was born on November 24, 1925 in Thuringia, Germany. He was drafted into the German army, Rommel's 21st Panzer Division. Drossler was in France and participated in the defense of Normandy against the Anglo-American forces. In August 1944, the Americans took him prisoner. Initially, he was in a prisoner of war camp in the town of Audrieux, but was then transferred to work on a farm near Caen. He worked there for another 5 years before his release. Drossler did not return to Germany, since his hometown was part of the GDR. In 1961 he received French citizenship and continues to live in this country.
Milivo Borosha was born in Croatian Zagreb on September 11, 1920. He completed pilot training at the Yugoslav flight school. After the defeat of Yugoslavia, he was drafted into the German Luftwaffe. He got to the Eastern Front in December 1941. In June 1942, he and two of his Russian partners in the Luftwaffe landed a bomber in the rear of the Red Army. He was taken prisoner and even spent several days in the Lubyanka prison. In December 1943, Borosha was sent to serve in the Yugoslav unit formed on the territory of the USSR. Until the end of the war, he fought in a Soviet bomber. He returned to Yugoslavia in April 1946.
Thomas Gilsen. Born December 5, 1920 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He volunteered for the engineering unit, became a sapper. After a short stay in Egypt, he was sent to Benghazi, Libya. When Rommel's troops attacked his regiment, they were forced to retreat, but even earlier Gilsen and other explosives left booby-traps in the hotel. The building subsequently exploded, burying many German officers under the rubble. Gilsen survived the seven months of the siege of Tobruk. He was then sent to Burma. Gilsen managed to fight in Europe - in 1945 in Belgium and Holland.
Jean Mathieu was born on August 7, 1923 in French Alsace. When the Germans occupied the region, he was sent to a labor camp in Northern Bavaria. In January 1943, he was drafted into the German infantry division, but Mathieu deliberately spilled boiling milk on his leg. This allowed him to receive a reprieve of 6 months. He then went to serve in the German Navy as a member of the crew of torpedo boats. In June 1944 he was transferred to the Coast Guard. After the Allied invasion of Normandy, it was planned to transfer him to the Eastern Front, but Mathieu deserted and hid in the French town of Lapoutroix until December 1944, after which he joined the forces of the Free French.
