Tribal pain....

I think I look about as German as your typical German looks like. Blond, blue eyes at 5ft9 probably a bit short..but features mannerism, gate etc German alright.
I have been in North America for over fifty years. But that is not exactly what I wanted to write about. There are moments when I feel this nagging tribal pain. Looking at an old news clip for instance seeing close to a million German soldiers marched off to Siberia, that gives me deep feelings of sadness and pain.
Somewhere about 1925 one of my mothers brothers decided to leave Germany for America. Mother grew up with several siblings in an orphanage and lost contact with brother Karl who presumably was alive and well in America. About a year ago when the names of several Iraq GI casualties were announced , one of the fellows killed was named ... Bixler. Could he have been the grandson of my long lost uncle I wondered. Somehow I felt a sense of loss...someone I never knew gave me a feeling of tribal pain..