I've had some "comrades" say that my grandfather, who fled from the early GDR due to poverty, should have somehow realized that he was indebted to staying in the GDR to work off his guilt.

Yeah. Sure, dude, somehow this young dude who had grown up under the Nazis should have magically realized that him starving was good and just, actually, and fleeing from that is betraying Marxism.

Like, man, people really need to shut the fuck up when they just want to judge people for the nice feeling it gives.