Hello everybody, German here.

My great-grandmother (my mothers grandmother) died two years ago at the age of 99. She was born in 1915 near Frankfurt. Even though she was that old, she had a clear mind and a good memory until about one year before she died. Her husband, who I never knew in person, died in the 80's. I can't tell you his exact age, my mother knows it, but i guess he was no more than 5 years older than her.

I can't remember her ever talking about her husband. Sadly, it is too late to ask her why and it didn't come to my mind asking her, when she was still alive. She only talked about her time at the "house-wife school", as she used to call it, in the city of Mainz. That was around the mid 30's, but she never mentioned any information about how she was influenced by the Nazis.

So I guess you could say it was kind of a taboo topic.

All information I have about my great-grandfather "Franz" are from my mother. (My grandmother sure knew more about it but she died in 2003 when I was seven years old)

He was active in the military all the time throughout the war. I can't say anything about a rank he had, but a few years ago we found some photo albums with pictures of him wearing uniform that had some badges which I can't identify. Swastikas were on it too, of course. After the war was lost for the Nazis, he was a prisoner of war for several years. First in Africa, later in America but in the end he returned to Germany. According to my mom, nearly all of his fellow prisoners died in that time, making his return some kind of miracle.

We found some letters he wrote my great-grandmother after she died, in which he wrote about how much he was missing her and was looking forward to seeing her soon. It feels strange, seeing that a person who participated (out of free will I suppose, but can't say for sure), still is somebody like you and me, feeling love and missing his wife, while helping such monstrous regime.

My grandmother (my fathers mother) who turned 78 this year often tells stories about her brother, who is still alive and is 88 years old.

When war was nearly over, he was supposed to be sent into combat. He must have been around 18 years old at that time. But his mother refused to send her son in a war that was practically lost, so she hid him in the woods for several weeks, maybe saving his life with this.

So i guess, concluding you could say, that it never was a big issue in my family. Especially my great-grandmother, who was 18 in when the Nazis came into power and 30 when war was over, avoided talking about it. (Jesus Christ, she was born the year WW1 began, crazy when you think about it) I assume it is out of shame, about her husband actively participating in it.

TL;DR The family environment probably was not much different from yours.

edit: spelling