Helmut The Great

So about a month ago our PLP class had the amazing opportunity to get to meet and listen to the story of a World War II veteran. This was Helmut Lemke, a German solider who fought on the Russia front. It was such a privilege to be able to meet this incredible, brave, courageous human to hear what he want through, was acsoumltly insane. There is a big difference hearing about a war veterans stories through a movie or the internet rather then actually in person. When he was telling the story about him trying to find his mother there was tears in his eyes and that is not something you would get to witness reading an article.

(Helmut in 1944)

World War II started when Helmut Lemke was just 16 years old, living in Germany. At the age of 18 he was drafted into the SS, and fought in the war. Throughout his time at war he faced crazy experiences and the way he got out of this situations was absolutely insane. Creativity mixed with fear, allowed him to survive through everything. From thinking quickly on the spot and speaking French so he wouldn’t get shot to using a piece of metal, pretending to be fixing the rail way in order for him to keep traveling to find his mother.

(Helmut in 2010)

After Helmut came to speak to us we had to write a list of concepts that could be link to Helmut and the stories he told us.

Mine looked like this…

-truth

-fear

-terror

-loyalty

-love

-forgiveness

-understanding

-luck

-brutal honestly

-courage

-peace

-freedom

-reality

-wisdom

-self control

-reliance

-grit

-time

-creativity

-values

-time

-arbitrariness of war

-concept of enemies

(Outline of the assignment)

After we chose of the concepts from our list we were asked to form a question around it, talking and answering that question through a podcast. A few people and yourself would sit around are basically record your conversation around the topic. For this project I worked with Gabi and Brianna, and instead of talking about 3 different concepts we decided to focus on two main ones. Which was “How does the mind and body adapt in the face of difficult or dangerous situations?” and “In what ways did fear help and protect soldiers during the war?”.

(Helmut with our class)

I don’t want to give spoilers so I guess you just have to listen to the podcast, hope you enjoy!

Helmut Lemke was such an inspiration to all, and was able to move and educate the class in such a way, we will never forget it. Thank you

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