I definitely wasn't. My father hated guns to be around him in his house. And so my brother and I weren't even allowed to have an air rifle. My brother and I assumed that his hate was based on his experiences with WWII and the absence of his father, being a soldier, when Dad was young and needed him very much. My paternal grandfather was captured on the Krim peninsula in 1944 and released from Russian captivity in 1950.
In our opinion father always linked guns to war and war the the absence of loved ones. But we were suprised to see him fire an old military rifle in later years after my wife and I had moved in a rural area into the neighborhood of a shooting range. My brother brought a 22 short Polish training rifle, made in 1932, and Dad, of 1936 vintage, was very eager to try this gun. The one and only "weapon" he liked to shoot was bow and arrow.
Your grandfather's experience from capture to all his time in captivity must be one to marvel at given the mortality rates of eastern front POWs. Did you ever get to speak with him?
Yes, but only for a short time. I was just under 7 years old when he did. It was an accident. He fell down the stairs leading into the basement. He wasn't sober at that time. But I recall that once I had asked him about Russia. He replied that it is a wonderful country and that he as a POW sometimes had more to eat than the civilans he had some contact to when occasionally leaving the camp to work outside.
Decades later while celebrating the 40th anniversary of work of a co-worker I learned that my grandfather was one of the guys still talking in Russian while at work. Granddad, Dad and I had/have the same employer. Six years in Joe Stalins camp obviously coins your life even positively.
But my father told me that Granddad must have had nightmares because sometime in the night he was shouting and crying in his sleep.
Another story I recall which came from my father that when Granddad was in Russia and fighting partisans he once took a foxhole filled up with lots of food. Among the cans was corned beef Made in the U.S. At that very moment he and his comrad new: The War Is Over! When the Americans were delivering supply to the Russians there was no Endsieg/final victory anymore.
