Erich Kaestner, said to be Germany’s last surviving WWI veteran, is making headlines not so much for his death but for the amount of time it took to realize his significance. He died on January 1 at the age of 107, but it was not until recently that word got out he was Germany’s last living link to the Great War. As the BBC reports:

CBC News has Der Spiegel magazine’s interview with an official from Germany’s Military Research Institute. He offers us a better understanding how Germany views its veterans:

In a country where the shame of the Nazi genocide and memories of two world war defeats still cast long shadows, both publications focused more on the German national psyche than the death itself.

“The German public was within a hair’s breadth of never learning of the end of an era,” wrote Der Spiegel, until someone updated his death notice on the internet encyclopaedia site, Wikipedia.

In its obituary for Kaestner, Die Welt noted: “The losers hide themselves in a state of self-pity and self denial that they happily try to mitigate by forgetting.”

Before word of Kaestner’s death, and as world headlines focused on the passing of France’s de Cazenave, over here in the U.S., the veteran of a war obscure to many Americans died on January 14th. Milton Wolff, 92, was the last surviving commander of American volunteers fighting in the Spanish Civil War, a conflict which pitted Franco’s fascist forces against a fragmented leftist army headed by Spain’s government. Among those serving on the government’s side were thousands of international volunteers. According to news reports Wolff left a factory job in New York City and traveled to Spain inspired by his membership in the Young Communist League. Adventure is what he got. From the LA Times:

“Our veterans only take part in public ceremonies when they are invited abroad to join commemorative events with veterans from other countries. World War I is seen as part of a historical line that led to World War II. You can’t equate the two but there is much debate about it.”

Wolff was later barred from combat duty in the U.S. Army during WWII because of his service in Spain. From the NY Times:

…In Spain, Wolff met Ernest Hemingway, who famously compared the tall, gaunt Wolff to Abraham Lincoln in a 1938 piece that appears in “Spanish Portraits.” Hemingway also detailed Wolff’s battles and ascent to commander.

Most American volunteers during the war fought with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade whose archives are located in downtown New York City. This month their Website features a remarkable look at a piece of America’s history in the Spanish Civil War—a letter written by a volunteer to his mother explaining the reasons he’s decided to fight in Spain. He was also, reportedly, the last American killed during that war. View the letter as a PDF file here.