HITLER WAS THE NICEST GUY I EVER MET - Father Witting Chronicles Vol. 2



* ~  Regarding this conclusion of the (somewhat) election-themed interview session with my father-in-law,  please keep in mind that this segment was recorded just a few days prior to our most recent presidential election.~ L

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Father Witting:  "The next thing is really not an ELECTION theme.  It's really just about our family:   Reactions and interactions with our backgrounds…

My mother was born in Denmark.  My father's father (Charlie Witting) was born in Germany:   He had 6 brothers, but my grandfather was the only one who immigrated to the United States.  The rest of them went to South Africa."

Me: "Was there a reason for that?"

FW: "Well, (the famous) Boer War  was fought against England in South Africa.   This was all the Germans that settled in South Africa.   The Germans and the Afrikaners - not blacks, the white natives -   fought against the British because the British controlled their colony in South Africa.    Winston Churchill was a war correspondent.  He covered the war and was captured by the Boer - which were mainly Germans.  He escaped, but it was a pretty famous story at the time.

When my father's father (Charlie) came to this country he joined the American Navy.  He was a Chief Petty Officer, the equivalent to a Master Sargent (the highest ranking enlisted man).   Not an officer, but he was on ships that fought in the Spanish-American war in the Philippines with Admiral Dewey.   Dewey was the head of the Navy during this war, which famously started because of YELLOW DOG JOURNALISM, by the publisher of the Journal American:  William Randolph Hearst.   

There was a tremendous explosion on the Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, (resulting in) a lot of American soldiers being killed.  There were always suspicions - to this day they really don't know if it was bombed of what.  Either way, it was used to start the war against the Spanish and for the Americans to kick the Spanish out of Cuba. Also used for the Americans to take over the Philippines, which was under Spanish control. 

My grandfather served honorably in the battles in the Manila Bay to win the Spanish-American War.  In Cuba, Teddy Roosevelt led the Rough Riders.  They trained out in Montauk."

Me: "Who were The Rough Riders?"

FW: "Teddy Roosevelt organized The Rough Riders.  They were soldiers, under his control.  And they fought a big battle in Cuba."

Me: "How'd they get that name?"

FW: "Well, because they were on horseback.  And Teddy Roosevelt was a very frail young man.  And he went out to Wyoming and lived with cowboys to build himself up.   He knew cowboys and he respected them, so when the war started he organized The Rough Riders: Soldiers who were good on horseback.  They stormed up San Juan Hill and defeated the Spanish.  

But getting back to Charlie Witting - he was in that same war.  When he left the Navy, he met my grandmother. "

Me:  "How did they meet?"

FW: "They met in Newport, Rhode Island.  He was stationed there at the time.  It was at a fancy naval dance.  Her name was Jenny Pipe.  And they married and had 4 sons and one daughter - their youngest. Jenny Pipe was Scottish, Irish and English, born in this country.  My father was the 2nd oldest boy and of all the children, he knew more about the family.

The oldest boy - Edward Witting was a physicist who worked on the Atomic Bomb down in Oakridge Tennessee (Note:  This was known as The Manhattan Project).

Me: "Now, I know a little about this.  Edward Witting was actually instrumental in fashioning the Atomic Bomb?"

FW: "Oh yes - he was absolutely instrumental.  He became Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army.   And even when the H-Bomb was developed, and when they set them off in the Pacific, he took care of all the radio transmissions and communications, monitored how the tests went, all of that.

On the History Channel, I saw him one day, sitting in his undershirt.  They had pictures of him, ya know.   This was after he died, maybe about 10 years ago.  I questioned his wife about it - Mary Witting - she was still alive.   And she DIDN'T WANNA TALK ABOUT IT.   Because he was connected to the H-Bomb and the A-Bomb, and all of the connotations that go with that.   

So, when my father was 18 years old - he was a young carpenter and he built his mother and father a house in Centerport, Long Island.  They had bought land on the water and the house is beautiful.  Then the next brother, Harold Witting, worked for Republic Aircraft out on the Island.   This was the factory that built the Thunder Bolts (a P48 interceptor/one-man fighter plane).  These flew alongside and protected the bombers while fighting off the German Messerschmitt.

Harold Witting was also a volunteer fireman and he talked my father into also becoming a volunteer fireman when he lived out in Centerport.  And volunteer fireman LOVE TO SET FIRES.  They have a record of doing that.

Me: "Excuse me, what do you mean they SET FIRES?"

FW:  "Well, they're YOUNG GUYS, and crazy, they want some action."

Me: "Ok, so this sounds like a pyro of some sort…"

FW:  "ExACTLY.  ExACTLY.  So I think he said that they were involved in setting fire to some restaurant: LINK'S LOG CABIN."

Me: "The place went up?"

FW: "Oh, yeah!  And then the volunteer firemen - they went ahead and put it out.  They were big heroes and everything because of that.  So that was a little shady." 

Me: "…Um….yeah…?"

FW:  "Then their youngest boy, Alfred Witting, he had infantile paralysis.   This was before there was a vaccine to cure it.  So he was crippled for the rest of his life, and his mother (Jenny Pipe) was a strong woman.  She sent him to jewelry school in Pennsylvania, where he met his wife.  They ended up working together, setting up a very successful jewelry store in Floral Park. 

Then they had 2 sons,  and both of their sons had asthma.  So Alfred sold his business in Floral Park and they moved out to Arizona,  had a nice house with a pool and everything.  But instead of buying another jewelry store, he opens up a LAUNDROMAT.  So now he's fixing laundry machines - has all that headache to deal with.  AND HE FAILS.  It was a dumb thing to do."

Me: "Wow.  Guess he got tired of being a SUCCESSFUL JEWELER."

FW: "I guess so!   But anyway, after he sold the Laundromat he just retired.  He had enough money left over from the jewelry store.  They had a nice life, and that was it.  The only sister married a volunteer fireman.  He was the Chief of the Babylon Fire Dept.  He was a little wacky.  He was a D-Day Survivor, and I never forgot the story he told me…

 "The day after D-Day, he was on patrol with his Sergeant and they were fighting Germans behind the beach.  They captured about 7 Germans.  And their Captain told them: "Take these Germans back to the beach."  And as soon as they got out of sight, his Sergeant said: "Let's get rid of 'em."  And they mowed them down and killed them and just went back to their men.  So he was a real tough guy.  A real tough guy.   But then, it ended up he got Alzheimer's.  He had a sad ending."

But now, regarding HITLER…

My grandmother (as mentioned) was from Denmark, which was one of the first countries that the Nazi's over-ran right away.  So my grandmother really held it against Hitler.   So based on HER feelings, I was really against the Nazi's in a big way.  ANYHOW, we had pictures in the scrapbook we worked on together (reference FW Chronicles Pt. 1)…

…These pictures were from The Holocaust - photos of Eisenhower and the British storming the concentration camps and freeing prisoners, these poor people who were near death and who looked like skeletons.  Eisenhower went to these camps, and he did this so that PEOPLE WOULD KNOW THAT the Holocaust was indeed FACTUAL.    Many, many photos of him traveling thru the camps, witnessing all of these horrible things.  

When he left office, Eisenhower pointed out what was called: THE DEFENSE MECHANISM', in that all defense companies have such tremendous power and control over the government, that they get just about anything that they want when it comes to defense spending.  And it's rampant today!  You can see Romney doesn't want to reduce the spending on defense.   And Eisenhower spoke about this: During his farewell address, he warned everybody to watch out for that.  But other presidents and politicians since then haven't taken heed to it.   

But getting back to Hitler…

I would continually talk about the Holocaust.  Constantly:  I'd talk about the Germans.  I'd talk against the Nazi's.  And my father never said too much about it, but I guess one day he just got fed up to here with me always BLURTING IT OUT to the family,  BLURTING IT OUT to anyone who would listen, all the time.  And he got so mad at me one day, that he said: 

"HITLER WAS THE NICEST GUY I EVER MET."

Even tho' he was never in Germany in his life, up until the day he died. 

But he said that,  and then he just stormed out of the room.  

So that was me and my father.

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And the last thing - Roosevelt / Dewey 1944 -  I was 8 years old.  My grandmother (Jenny Pipe) was still living out in the house that my father built for them.   We were living in Hollis at the time. 

Election Eve 1944 - Dewey against Roosevelt - it was the 4th (and last) time he was running for re-election.  No president had ever run that many times.  It was always "two and you're done".   But it wasn't in the constitution that you HAD to leave.

So during the depression, Roosevelt was successful in his first election.    He ran against hoover in 1932 and won.  Then in 1936 he ran against Alf Landon (Gov. from Kansas) and they called it Land-Slide Landon.     People were recovering from the Depression, and the NRA: The National Recovery Act (was implemented). 

They put people to work:   The sidewalks out in front of this house here, NRA made those.  Those walks are made of stones and thick concrete.  They're good to this day.  The concrete by the (Forest Park) tennis courts?  NRA made that! 

So then in 1940 - and again this is the first time a president ran for a THIRD time - Roosevelt ran against Wendell Willkie and Willkie was pretty liberal;  not conservative like Hoover and Alf Landon.   So a lot of people didn't like a president running for a third time.  BUT - it was the middle of a war, and it was (the mindset of) "don't change horses in mid-stream".  The results were closer this time, but Roosevelt won again.

Then, in 1944  - I was 8 years old - and I was really interested in politics, a lot of it because of my grandmother with whom I covered the whole war.  She'd be knitting wool socks for all the soldiers - she did it every day - and sent them off.   And she'd be knitting and talking.  

Thomas Dewey was the governor of New York State.  He had a little moustache and one of the jokes that was made at the time was that he looked like the little bride-groom that stands on top of a wedding cake.   He was pretty confident and was also the DA before he became governor and he hit really hard on organized crime, so that's how he got his start.  But still Roosevelt was a favorite.  Not a close election (like Romney/Obama). 

 My father's family were all Black Republicans.  My mother went to Brooklyn College, which was a hotbed of liberals and democrats .   Really, my mother taught me to be tolerant of black people.  She rooted for Joe Lewis and Jackie Robinson when they came into sports.  It was my grandmother who taught me to be tolerant, to be liberal and to be a Democrat.   (Even tho' I voted for Nelson Rockefeller).

My grandmother invited the whole family out to see the election returns at her house in Centerport.   We had a nice cold supper, watching the returns, and Roosevelt of course is WINNING right away, big-time. 

So - now again, I'm 8 years old - I'm chirping away: "FDR!  FDR!"  running around the house, being a pest…

Me: "Amazing how politically-charged you were from such a young age…"

FW: "Oh, yeah.  Oh, yeah.  I was TOO involved.  Because after THAT, my grandmother NEVER GAVE ME A GIFT AGAIN FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE.   I'm serious.  She held it against me, you better believe it."

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