I heard somewhere the other day that in Canada the average ww2 vet is 88 years old, and hundreds of them die each month.
I've been reading a fair bit here lately:
The Memory Project - Stories of the Second World War - Home
My grandfather served in Belgium, and my great uncle who was killed closing the gap on Falaise in August of 44
My grandfather was pretty quiet about the whole thing. He only ever talked about it when he felt he had to counter someone's ignorance. He would get FURIOUS if someone said or insinuated that the SS were no worse than any other soldiers (they were). But then again he'd be just as mad if someone painted too rosey a picture of the allied forces... he'd seen brits, canadians and americans execute german POWs, and abuse local civilians.
In the 50's, he became close with a couple who had made it out of soviet occupied germany. Very disturbing stuff in the weeks after victory... german civilians were absolutely brutalized, and german POWs were often tortured & killed. The wife had two sisters killed by soviet "liberators", pretty much raped to death... one was 13.
My grandfather said that some went to war as animals and thrived in the environment. Others went as good people and came back as animals. Others were just broken by it. He said it was ugly, but it had to be done. He hated the animals though, it sickened him.