History is never far in Germany.

Cpl. First Class Leon Berkepeis is among 100 Dutch soldiers staffing German battle tanks under German command. His grandfather, a Dutch freedom fighter, was shot dead by the Germans during Hitler’s occupation of the Netherlands.

Nearly eight decades later, one of his friends in the battalion is a German whose grandfather was in the SS.

The base in Lohheide is walking distance from Bergen-Belsen, the former Nazi camp where Anne Frank died in 1945. Some buildings on the base were used by the camp toward the end of the war. Today, there are regular visits organized for soldiers.

Some Dutch soldiers recalled being told to avoid World War II jokes before arriving. “Don’t mention the war,” a German major had warned them.

German and Dutch soldiers said they still don’t know if they get to keep the thermal underwear they were assigned for a major NATO exercise in Norway last fall.

Apart from that, the battalion has few complaints. Its fleet of 24 Leopard tanks is set to expand to 44 by year end.

But the soldiers know they are the exception to the rule.

“We are getting priority,” said one of Corporal Berkepeis’s German colleagues, Capt. Frederik Fischer. “If you want a European army, this project cannot fail. If Germany wants to be taken seriously, it cannot fail.”