[mulmen]

In the 1990s my cousins and I did a series of interviews with my grandfather about his experiences in WWII. Last year my cousin found the cassette tape of her interview and we all listened to it at Christmas. That was the first time I had heard my grandfather's voice in a decade.

In the 90s the stories themselves were interesting but now just having his thoughts in his voice is invaluable. I'd be equally happy with a recording of him describing his weekly coffee with his buddies, or what he had for lunch.

My parents picked up a couple of recordable storybooks for my 2 year old nephew. Right now those mean nothing to him but in 30 years they will be priceless.

[jeena]

I did record a special episode of my podcast just one year before he died. He was 86 at that time and my last living grand parent, so it was quite obvious, now or never. I'm really happy to have done 1.5 hours him remembering his childhood and youth as a German teenager during and after WWII https://jeena.net/pods/6 (it's in Polish/Silesian)

My other grand dad wrote a long letter just two days before he died. His whole life he was haunted by what he saw and did as a German soldier during WWII, and this is also what he wrote about in that letter which I later translated and published on my website http://paradies.jeena.net/artikel/zweiter-weltkrieg (in German) (need to fix the char set there too).

[jacquesm]

That is very precious material. As the world slides closer and closer to the last of those who saw these things with their own eyes dropping off the chances of repetition are increasing and their real life memories may be just what will stop the next round of madness. Thank you very much for doing this.