the stories from my grandparents… well, they didn’t tell us much about the war. perhaps they tried to safeguard us from the awful details? I don’t know.
My grandpa served as a driver for a ‘commandant’ in a German town after the war. My grandma was an orfan, she was obliged to bring water to the fields, on a hourse-driven cart.
Most important are their philosofy ideas which they shared with us. My grandfa died when I was 3, but my grandma spent a lot of time with me. She always had time for me. I learned so much from her! And I do miss her much!

As many russians she worked a lot, got up and went to bed early. She made home supply of long-lasting food. Never threw away a tiny piece of bread.
I don’t, too.
Though we live in much more food-abundant times, I won’t throw away bread. We make fried sandwiches, or croutons, or freeze the extra bread. Soaked with milk/cream bread we add to meatballs, but we have no habit to throw it away.
Nowadays with a lot of internet kitchen recipes I see that many national cuisines are very economical when disposing of products or with fuel consumption.