The Grandfather: Der Großvater

By Jesse Thomas Becker

Joe Harper ('Pop Pop') is a beloved grandfather, decorated war hero, and family patriarch. He is loved and respected by everyone that knows him especially his family but a stroke has brought his past under a cloud of suspicion because Joe came out of a coma no longer able to speak but has been heard murmuring German, a language he does not know.
The Grandfather weaves the story of Joe's Harper from his heroic war efforts in WWII as a member of the 508th Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division to his time spent in a POW camp in 1945 intertwined with the modern story of his trails being accused of something someone of his stellar track record and life should never be accused of: being a Nazi.

Is society's Zeal to correct for the past so onerous it will ruin the reputation of a decorated war hero or will it be revealed to be justified?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: Jul 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781649691637

Book preview

Chapter 1.

September 13th, 1995

It was no surprise that everyone loved Grandpa Joe Harper. He was the quintessential sweet older man that invoked memories of the archetypal grandfather from classic films, as though he were the physical embodiment of all the positive imagery of grandfathers in popular media.

Joe was skinny but not frail, with deep blue eyes that reflected the sun as though they were opals. The grandkids called him Pop Pop and everyone loved it so much they adopted the nickname themselves. The name suited him, and, like most great nicknames, it just fit, as though Joe was just a name he would have until the moniker of Pop Pop would rightfully take its place. More than once, a stranger, such as a nurse or a telephone salesman, would ask for Joseph, which would create some confusion because people didn’t call him Joseph or even Joe. They only knew him as Pop Pop. Sometimes even Pop Pop himself wouldn’t respond to Joe. He would tell his grandkids that Joe was the old reminiscence of a man he wasn’t anymore, as though he were eager to shed the past like a snake does its skin. He was transformed into the lovable elderly man everyone knew and loved. He was Pop Pop.

Pop Pop was tan but not dark, as his northern European heritage would not allow his complexion to become any darker, plus he always wore a fedora tilted to the side like Sinatra, which he would remove indoors and in the presence of women, which just added to his charm and kept the sun off his face. He was handsome too, even at 85, and would have given Sinatra a run for his money in his prime. He would blush when his late wife Emily, or Umma, as she was known by the grandkids, used to tease him about his similarities to ol’Blue Eyes. He would say, Oh, honey, Frank would be ugly if he couldn’t sing and I can’t, so I must be hideous. Then he would laugh, oblivious to the fact that no one but himself was laughing, which would inevitably cause anyone in his company to laugh or at least smile. Jovial was one of the many adjectives that seemed as though they were created specifically to describe Pop Pop.

It was obvious Joe laughed a lot; the deepest wrinkles on his face were smile lines which had become pronounced in his old age and played across his face as though they were lines on paper. Joe was lovable, however, there was something mysterious in Joe’s eyes, a feeling of conflict that reached out from them as though his past were screaming to speak. This look always beguiled his family and friends. Everyone that knew Pop Pop could feel a sense of conflict, even though he was the happiest man in the neighborhood. Not even his late wife could put her finger on the mystery of Pop Pop. Most people just attribute these feelings of conflict in him and many men his age to their time in World War II.

Pop Pop would never talk about his past prior to meeting Emily. When questioned, he would turn slightly cold and irritable, not enough to make the enquirer notice outright, but just enough to make them not want to dig deeper. What was known to the family from the minimal attempted inquiries was the following:

Joe was an only child, born April 19, 1922, to Danish immigrants, Hans and Petra Schneider. Hans, with Petra, whilst she was pregnant with Joe, had emigrated, along with Petra’s mother Gretta, looking for opportunity, like most emigrants after WWI, and settled in Detroit. They changed their last name from Schneider to Harper to fit in with their new country, and when their baby boy was born, Hans and Petra named their son the most American name they could think of – Joe – much to the dismay of Gretta, who wanted them to name him after her late husband Deiter. But this was the new land, the land of the free, and Hans and Petra wanted nothing about their son to be European. He’d be American. Joe Henry Harper, it was, and, really, is there a more quintessential American name than that?

Joe was raised as a normal child of immigrant blue-collar parents. Joe’s dad worked as a mechanic and Petra was a stay-at-home mom. They would never speak Danish at the Harper home. Even though both parents never had the best grasp of English, they had never resorted to Danish once they had moved. Joe, however, did know some bad words in Danish which he had picked up from his father when he would get upset and say them under his breath at Petra, but that was very rare. Those Danish bad words were so rare and out of the ordinary for his father that he’d always remember their pronunciation and would almost jokingly use them, usually in the wrong context, when Umma would ruffle his feathers.

Tragically, Pop Pop’s parents both died in a car accident when he was fifteen. This was another part of his past he did not talk about. After his parents died, he was raised with lackadaisical rules by his elderly grandmother, who barely spoke English and was in the early stages of dementia. Little is known of his high school years, but it was clear that Joe was a class clown with loose rules from a mentally absent grandmother who allowed Joe a great range of freedom not known to boys his age, but a much larger personal responsibility as well. This explained Joe’s great sense of independence and uncanny confidence that only relying on one’s own wits and self-reliance can provide.

Joe joined the army directly out of high school because he had no clue what he would do, and even though he never admitted it out loud to his wife and sons, they believed he was duped by a recruiter. However, Joe never spoke highly of the military and actively persuaded his kids not to join.

Much of what was known about Pop Pop in his younger age is from assumptions by the family and inferences into what made him tick. These assumptions were bouncing around in the mind of every one of critiquing age in the Harper family because they were intrigued. Pop Pop was very open about his life after the war but not before. Why was this? This confused his family, especially Umma, but Joe would always say, I never existed until I met Emily. Umma never knew him until after the war, and because he had no living family, she never indulged in questions about his upbringing because she sensed a level of pain and anguish that the death of his parents at a young age and the subsequent raising by his mentally absent grandmother had caused. His grandmother had died when he was away at the war. He was never too fond of her, so her memory was not worth bringing up.

The feelings of self-worth and accomplishment which are usually established through family contact did not seem to be disrupted in Pop Pop, so, as Umma used to say frequently, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so she never brought it up. But Pop Pop’s sons, Henry and Lee, as they grew older and started to question their upbringing, would always wonder about what Pop Pop was like when he was their age. What were Pop Pop’s parents like? But upon enquiring with their dad, he would respond with the subtle negativity that prevented anyone from diving deeper into his past.

There was another subject you did not bring up with Pop Pop. That was his time in the war. All the family really knew was that he served as a captain in the 508th Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division of the army. No one, not even his late wife, knew much about his time in the army. He joined at 18 in late 1940 and spent two-plus years on base in the US waiting to be deployed, which finally came early in 1943. He served two years in heavy combat all over Europe in horrendous circumstances and was captured and held in a prisoner of war camp inside Germany. It was evident that he had experienced horrible atrocities, that he had seen many men die. He had killed many men. Moreover, he did not want to talk about it.

No one brought up his time in the war with him. Umma admitted that for the first 15 years of their marriage, he would wake up with night terrors, screaming sometimes in a gibberish mixed language similar to German that she never understood. One time, Pop Pop admitted to her that it seemed unfair that he had survived when so many had not. He did not feel worthy of the gift of his life when so many were denied the pleasure of life itself. Why was he so lucky when he was not a good man? But she just brushed off the comment and assured him he was the best man she knew. Because of these nightmares, she never brought up the war and would warn others to not speak about it in front of Pop Pop.

However, one time, Lisa, Pop Pop’s granddaughter from his son Henry, when she was 12 before she understood the social norms of her grandfather’s generation and was in her awkward pre-teen stage, asked in a joking manner if he had ever killed a German. Joe, who had never been stern with Lisa before or really done anything but smile at her, got a look of disgust on his face, and, in a scowling manner, replied, That is an inappropriate question! You stupid little girl. Death is very serious and you should give it the respect it deserves. Lisa was very distraught about Pop Pop’s comments and never brought up the subject again. She warned her younger brother Andrew and cousins not to ask Pop Pop about the war. Regardless of this one mishap, Lisa loved her Pop Pop. She absolutely adored him. Everyone did.

Pop Pop was the archetypal grandfather. On his visits to his grandchildren, which had become increasingly frequent ever since his wife’s passing from skin cancer, he would impart wisdom, share a story, and play with the children just as though he were still a kid. At 85, he was still mobile, and the children would jump on him and he’d lift them up and roll on the ground, though it would take him a bit to get up sometimes and he’d get dizzy, as he, like most others of his age, was on the blood thinner aspirin but that was all he was taking. He was a model of health at 85, really. His doctor always congratulated him on his health. Pop Pop’s only vice was Jameson Irish whiskey. He’d been drinking it on ice for as long as he could remember and would have a Jami on the rocks, as he called it, every day after dinner. No one had ever seen him drunk but he would indulge in wine and other drinks at family events, especially his sons’ weddings. But he was always a pillar of control.

His sons would always tell him to take it easy when playing with the kids, which is a little backward because usually, caution was for the kids to take it easy on the 85-year-old. But Pop Pop would never listen. He would scoff at their request and continue to chase the kids or play tag or whatever he was playing with them at the time. Umma was the only one that could get him to settle down with the grandkids. She had control over him. He’d do anything for her and always had, but she had never taken advantage of his trust and willingness to please her, mostly because she felt the same towards him.

Umma was Pop Pop’s counterpart: the classic grandmother. They were perfect together. They were the old couple you see walking home from the grocery store, she with flowers, him holding the groceries, with her hand tucked nicely in his arm, as though there was a handle for it there, using each other for balance which had been lost in their old age. They still doted on each other after 50 years of marriage. Everyone who met them commented on how cute and lovely they were together, especially those at their Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids Michigan, which their two sons attended with their families. When a new member would discover either Henry or Lee or any of their kids were related to Pop Pop and Umma Harper, they would always comment on how wonderful and adorable their family was. However, no one in the family, even young 13-year-old Lisa, would linger on the compliment too long, so as not to seem arrogant about the positive perception that most people had about the Harpers.

Joe and Emily were together for 55 years. They had met, as had many in their generation, right after the war. Joe had returned from four years in the military in 1945. They met in a bar in New York City on V-J Day. Emily, who was 20 at the time, had worked in a factory building tanks. However, she was not like the classic propaganda posters of a strong woman with arms like a man saying, We can do it. She was petite and cute and had retained her dainty qualities, despite working on the factory floor. She was not a weakling, however; she was athletic. She was a strong swimmer, a skill she had obtained by spending her summers working as a lifeguard in Leeland, Michigan at the community pool and at the beach on Lake Michigan when needed. However, she didn’t have the large arms and curvy figure of many women swimmers. She remained skinny and used to laugh with her daughters-in-law about how her body would have been considered sexy by today’s standards, but then she was considered almost gaunt. Emily’s body type was exactly what drew Joe to her in the bar that V-J Day, that and the liquid courage of a few whiskeys, which he admitted during Henry’s wedding toast. This appropriately received many laughs and ahhs of admiration from the guests.

Joe himself was similar in appearance when he met Emily. He was quite tall, in fact, 6’3, but considering she was 5’7, he towered over her, which made him look even taller. He was not weak, but his skinny build made him seem that way, which was unfortunate for the sailor who thought he could alpha male his way past Joe to edge him out for Emily’s attention. The story had been recollected many times by both Emily and Joe, and, as far the family understood from the many times the story had been told, the sailor had pushed Joe aside – lightly, according to Umma, and heavily, according to Pop Pop – and said something condescending about his skinny strawberry blond appearance and some cliché about how the navy was better than the army. Apparently, it was some derogatory comment about how army men are horrible lovers. Joe responded with something witty that caused the navy man to take a swing at him. Missing him, as Joe ducked, the fist connected with Emily, with a resounding smack in the eye and she dropped to the floor, holding her face. Pop Pop grabbed the sailor as he was off balance and lifted him into the air, which brought great surprise to the sailor’s face. He struggled to get free but had underestimated the strength of the young skinny army captain, who, with ease, threw him over the bar table, knocking the wind out of the sailor when he landed square on his back. The sailor scrambled up and ran off with tears in his eyes, according to both Pop Pop and Umma. By this time, though, the entire bar had erupted into a full-on brawl between the army and the navy – even some air force men were unfortunately in the location and got sucked into the chaos of testosterone-fueled military men drunk on whiskey and beer, all railing against the different factions. Pop Pop dodged some more punches, threw the sailor’s friends off his back, and managed to make it to Umma, who was still on the floor holding her eye. He picked her up and rushed out of the bar and into the alley. Before she knew it, she was at her apartment with a cold steak on her eye and a beer in her hand. They had not been apart from each other ever since.

Pop Pop finally admitted to his sons at his wife’s wake what he had actually said to the sailor. The boys were alone in the corner of the room. Other mourners were close to them but not close enough to hear them talking, after Henry’s wife Gwen had lovingly told the story to some members of the church who had not known how they had met when they had been asked to fill in with the conversation. The boys were in the corner with their dad, being supportive and creating small talk to fill in the time, but really eavesdropping on Gwen’s version. Pop Pop smiled slyly at the part of the story when she said, He responded wittingly.

Lee, who was always impulsive (which he had picked up from his mother) and a little inappropriate (which he had picked up from his dad) saw Pop Pop’s smirk and asked, Dad, I know this might be inappropriate, but Mom, even on her deathbed, wouldn’t tell me what you said to the sailor to cause the fight over her.

Pop Pop saw it was just his grown boys, who both had families of their own, and said, All right, boys. I’ll tell you what I said, but it’s vulgar and inappropriate, so don’t tell your kids or friends. He continued, looking heavy at heart, and motioning for the boys to lean in, as he whispered. His voice cracked when he mentioned their mom but he continued. Your late mother promised me that as long as she was alive, I would not repeat what I said but now that she is gone, here it is. After that son of a bitch sailor had just told me I was a bad lover, I responded by saying, ‘I may be a bad lover but that is because I have not fucked anyone, while this sailor has had lots of practice with both his hands and the majority of his shipmates’ assholes.’

After he spoke, he leaned back with the same smirk of deserved confidence on his face that had caused Lee to ask the question in the first place. Lee and Henry were shocked. Never in their wildest imaginations could they have thought their beloved Pop Pop could have said these words. During their whole lives, they had heard their dad curse once, maybe twice. Both leaned back with big uncomfortable smiles on their faces, both not knowing whether to laugh or ask questions.

Finally, after a brief moment, Lee responded quite loudly, half laughing, No way! lifting himself up on the balls of feet as he said it.

Several people in the room perked up to see the small commotion in the corner from the Harper boys.

Henry was next and asked, Are you serious, Dad?

But Pop Pop acted as if nothing had happened and walked away from the commotion and joined Gwen, interrupting her conversation to loudly say, so most could hear, You want to know what I told that sailor to get him to fight over Emily? Everyone quietened. Most had heard the story and were intrigued, especially the grandchildren. Henry and Lee looked at their dad and then at each other, very uncomfortably, not knowing whether they should stop him. He continued, not in his normal friendly demeanor with which he was known for telling delightful stories. He was agitated and forceful about the story, which put many in the room on edge, especially his sons.

He continued, "The arrogant sailor came over and PUSHED me to get to Emily, and told me that army boys" (he emphasized the boys to show that that comment got under his skin) were horrible lovers. With a look of disgust on his face, he continued, So I responded by telling him, Oh, yeah…." He paused for dramatic effect.

Henry noticed this pause and tried to interrupt by saying, All right, Dad, let’s….

But he was cut off as Pop Pop continued and said, Well, General Nimitz is a sissy.

Upon hearing this, both Henry and Lee breathed a great sigh of relief. The room erupted in laughter. Gwen clapped her hands ecstatically with a giant smile and an uncontrollable laugh, as she let out a snort and leaned back on the sofa, clapping her hands in excitement about what she felt was Pop Pop’s relatively risqué response. All those that laughed did so, not out of respect for the funeral process, but because most had known the story of Pop Pop’s meeting his wife, as he would gladly share it with whoever would listen, and everyone found it comical that this non-volatile gentle soul could ever say something negative about another human enough to get another man to swing at him. He was the nicest man they had ever met, and imagining him in a fight was a struggle for many imaginations when they heard that he had fought for Umma when they first met.

Henry and Lee glanced at Pop Pop, who looked back with the same look of confidence and satisfied smirk. For a moment, all three connected to understand that the story they had heard was the real version but was meant only for them. Henry and Lee looked at each other and smiled, even though they were sad that their mother had passed. They were filled with an amazing feeling of happiness that at least she had been loved by their amazing father and that she had lived a great life. Neither would articulate it, but both felt that they had never loved their dad more than that day, when, in the middle of a sad event where they had all lost someone close to them, especially Pop Pop, he could make them laugh and be happy and still have a surprise after a lifetime of stories.

The wake started to die down around 7 pm and the family and friends started to trickle out around 8 pm, everyone paying their respects and sincerely thanking Pop Pop and the Harpers for a lovely evening, despite the sad event that had brought them all together.

The Harper boys had both settled in the place of their birth, Grand Rapids Michigan, where their dad had worked as a senior manager of the Herman Miller furniture factory, his style almost being picked up by osmosis from the stylish furniture he ensured was built to the highest stands. Pop Pop had joined on the factory floor and moved his way up to management after several years. He and Emily had moved to Michigan when they realized she was pregnant with Henry and wanted a more family-friendly city than Detroit.

Lee worked as a lawyer specializing in real estate and Henry worked as an engineer for a tool and die factory. Both had graduated from Michigan State. Living close but not in the same neighborhood, they would see each other at church and some family get-togethers but would not make special occasions to get together because they would run into each other enough through their regular routine. They were two years apart and were very similar, some even asking if they were twins. However, this was silly because they really didn’t look anything alike, but they did act in very similar ways. Both were tall, over 6 foot, slender, not athletic, and almost clumsy, like their father. Lee was a little more muscular than Henry but this was only recognizable to close friends. Both were very confident and commanded an audience when they spoke, both taking after their father in that regard. There was an obvious difference that made each unique and affable for their independent qualities. Henry had confidence, independence and a sense of worth many firstborns have, while Lee was a little more dependent and conscious of what others thought, especially his older brother. There was no real competitive nature between the two. Both were into very different things.

Henry was always analytical and involved himself in geeky clubs such as math and chess clubs, and the rotary club in high school, but he was not a geek, far from it. He actually was just smart and enjoyed those people who challenged and pushed his intellect. He was handsome, which made him especially intimidating to the few girls in the geeky clubs who lacked the social skills to articulate a conversation with someone they found both attractive and smart. Needless to say, Henry had many girls swooning over him in high school but because he didn’t associate with the cool crowd, none were the popular type. Regardless, Henry was a late bloomer and girls were really not on his radar, even the ones undressing him with their eyes in the hallways. So he went through most of high school hanging out with male friends, getting into the standard trouble, and social interactions. This all changed when he became a freshman in university when he realized his newfound freedom and that women actually liked him. He grew in leaps and