From School to War: Growing Up in Hitler’s Germany (Contemporary Nonfiction) Read online

  As members of the Jugend, we wore brown shirts and black corduroy shorts held up by a black leather belt with a buckle designed for our organization. We also wore a short black tie tucked into a leather ring, along with red, white, and black armbands, with a black swastika on the white stripe. However, we only wore these uniforms at the Jugend events, never to school.

  In the games we played in the forest, we each had a team flag and wore additional armbands of different colors to distinguish the two teams, who were divided into the attackers and defenders of this flag. These flags were shaped like triangular banners with different insignias, such as a lion or monument of the ancient German tribes. The goal was to maintain possession of the team armband, as the attackers sought to capture an object, such as a bench, while the defenders sought to protect it. To this end, the attackers would approach the enemy as stealthily as possible to secretly create a perimeter around the bench to surround the defenders so they couldn’t escape. At the same time, both the attackers and defenders sought to remove, if possible, the other team’s armbands and protect their own. The Stamm Fuhrers, who were the referees, stopped the game when one team had lost all its armbands, and the team with the remaining armbands was the winner. As a reward, the winning team would take the opposing team’s flag.

  Once the game ended after a few hours, we marched home, singing a marching song, such as “Wir Lagen vor Madagascar und wir hatten die Pest an Board”—which means “We’re anchored in front of Madagascar and we have the plague on board,” a typical Hitler Youth song. The song was an old German sailors’ song but the Nazis adopted it as a marching song.

  Occasionally, we camped in tents in the woods at a campground near a river or stream, since we needed the water for cooking and washing. For all of us, these trips were very exciting, for we were thrilled to be away from our parents. Even though we had leaders, young men in their twenties, we felt a sense of freedom. The camping trips also offered us a chance to get close to nature, since most of us had been raised in towns. We had to provide our own tents and sleeping bags, and bring a backpack with a few belongings, which included our uniforms, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, and some food. Typically our parents drove us to the site where we began the hike, though some boys rode their bikes to the campground and then to the camping area for each team.

  After we set up our tents with our sleeping bags, where we slept two or three to a tent, we hiked around to explore the area. Meanwhile, with most of the camp off exploring, one boy acted as a guard to protect us from possible enemies, though in actuality we had no real enemies at the time. But it was part of the experience of being in the military to believe that enemies might lurk anywhere.

  For our meals, our leaders gave us food that we cooked over a fire, and we contributed a few items that we brought with us. Typically, we cooked sausages or soup from a can, and also had bread and jam. After dinner, we sat around the campfire telling stories and jokes. Many of these stories were our favorite Wild West tales, such as Karl May’s stories about the adventures of Winnetou the Indian brave, and other stories in which trappers tried to kill the Indians and drive them off the land. Sometimes we told scary German folktales, in which small children are horribly punished for being naughty.

  At the end of the day, when it began to grow dark, around eight p.m. during the summer, we usually washed in the nearby streams or rivers. Once in a while, the mayor of the nearest town came to our campsite, but not because he wanted to meet and talk to us, as we soon discovered. Rather, he came because he was worried about the fires. Beyond just telling us to be careful, he insisted that we immediately put out any fires we set up.

  While most of us went on these camping trips because we wanted to think about careers in the army, some boys wanted to join the navy or air force, and they got special training. The oldest boys who hoped to join the navy were trained in sailboats and motorboats, while those interested in joining the air force were trained in gliders. The future tank drivers were trained in driving cars.

  Because these camping trips were so popular, more and more boys wanted to join the Hitler Jugend, and they could readily enter by taking and passing a test at school. At first, the boys could choose whether to join or not, though most did because they heard so many good things about the group. But eventually, according to the 1939 law, all boys had to join, except for boys from groups out of favor with the organization’s national leaders, commonly groups they considered non-Aryans. Since most of my classmates were already eager to join, these restrictive policies made the group’s activities even more enticing.

  Over the next few weeks, things began to get serious, as we learned the importance of following the rules and discovered what the Nazi philosophy of life was all about. For example, one day after an afternoon playing war games, led by one of our leaders in his early twenties, we were having so much fun that we decided to stage one more battle, which ended with my side feeling victorious. We had successfully removed the other team’s armbands and chased them back to the banks of the Werra. But after our team returned home, singing and talking about how well we had done and savoring our victory, we arrived late to the meeting place for our lessons on the Nazi philosophy of life. As we walked in, we saw our parents waiting for us and they were very upset.

  “Why did you come back so late?” they yelled at our team leader. “You know it is very important to teach the boys what it means to be a Nazi and one important principle is following the rules. Now you have already broken this principle.”

  Our leader meekly replied, “I’m so sorry. This will never happen again.”

  Our parents seemed mollified. “That’s good,” one said. “You have learned your lesson.” We left the meeting place side by side with our parents, as we always did.

  Aside from these war games, we had to attend weekly lessons on the Nazi ideology, which sometimes took place after we returned from our forays into the forest. About thirty of us attended each of the meetings, which were led by the same young man who had taken us to the war games. He wore the same uniform we did, except for a red and white chain in his breast pocket that identified him as the leader.

  At these meetings, our team leader was joined by party officials, who indoctrinated us with the Nazi Party line and the history of the Nazi Party. We learned about the Führer, Adolf Hitler, his upbringing, his birthday, and how he rose to power as the party leader and soon took total control of the German government. One way he did this, as the officials explained, is that when he was running for office, he sent his brown-shirted troops out to make sure the people voted in his favor—an example of using his growing army of thugs to intimidate and make people comply. The official line was that Hitler was doing what he did to make Germany strong and protect the fatherland. We were not taught how, once elected, Hitler began his reign of terror, imprisoning or killing people who could threaten his total control.

  We also learned about Hitler’s powerful speeches that mesmerized the audience and brought everyone to a pitch of excitement, as they raised their hands to salute him and cheered the Nazi Party’s growing power. We learned of his promises to restore Germany to its former glory and prosperity by purging from the country everyone who did not conform to his vision of a Master Race. As the officials told us, Hitler vowed never again to comply with the dictates of the Treaty of Versailles, which disarmed and partitioned Germany. Moreover, under the Treaty, Germany could not have a military and had to cede part of its territory, which became parts of Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, and Belgium. Germany even had had to confess to starting World War I. No wonder the treaty left Germany totally humiliated, and the people eager to embrace Hitler’s message of becoming strong and proud again.

  As the Party officials explained, the humiliation Germany had suffered at the hands of the Americans, French, and British in World War I was so great that Hitler built up the Wehrmacht to have the most powerful military in the world. Even more, he wanted to create the most powerful country, which tur
ned out to be an irresistible notion to hundreds of thousands of German people. In fact, at the time, I and the other boys thought this was a noble idea, so imbued were we by the excitement of our victories on the field in our war games.

  The officials also described how Hitler was the first candidate to use an airplane to fly from place to place to spread his message to the people. “Hitler wants to use the latest in new inventions and methods to help make Germany strong again,” they told us.

  The officials’ message about supporting Hitler was especially persuasive, as they explained why we needed to follow him and embrace his vision for Germany. As they taught us,

  You must love Hitler and obey his orders, because he will be the savior of the German people. Our people have been defeated and impoverished by our battles in World War I, when the British, French, and their American allies fought against us. But now Hitler seeks to restore the people of our nation to their former glory, which was so badly diminished by our losses in World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war and deprived Germany of its power. Germany had to pay reparations to the countries it fought against, and as a result, it was plunged into poverty and then experienced rampant inflation. It was a terrible defeat. But Hitler will bring back the days of German power.

  At the time, on hearing this message, we cheered, whooped, and raised our arms enthusiastically in the Nazi salute—the right arm extended with the palm down, to show our pledge of allegiance to Hitler and the Nazi cause and to show we were truly committed.

  Later, the officials tested us on all we had learned. They gave us an oral test, and to take it, we walked one by one to a long table where the officials were seated, and they asked us to respond to a series of questions. They asked such questions as “What is Hitler’s birthdate? How did the inflation take place? How has Hitler helped Germany’s economy? Which were some of the lands lost to Germany? What were some of the promises Hitler made as part of his Nazi platform?” They also asked us about Goerring’s Five-Year Plan, which stated, “Cannons come before butter,” which meant we would have to sacrifice personal pleasures to build up the military. Later, though, it turned out this plan reduced Germany to greater poverty than any other European country at the time. They additionally asked questions about how Hitler was returning Germany to military strength and, ultimately, prosperity.

  We answered as best we could, and if we passed the test by answering most of the questions correctly, the head official handed us an eight-inch-long knife in a leather sheath. The words “Blood and Honor,” the Hitler Jugend’s motto, were written on the blade. After getting the knife, we each hung it on the side of our belts; we were extremely proud of these knives. However, we could only use them in a certain way. As the officials told us, “You cannot use these knives in your war games. They are a symbol of your commitment to the Nazi Party and are not for play. Besides, they are too dangerous, and someone could get hurt.” As a result, aside from carrying these knives proudly, as a symbol of acceptance into the Hitler Jugend, we only used the knives to cut rolls and spread them with butter and jam on the way home from our trips and war games.

  The Growing Nazi Power

  The idea of restoring Germany’s power was a potent argument that helped to convince many people to support the Nazis. Yet, as I realized in retrospect, the teachers at the Friedrich Wilhelm Schule were not necessarily Nazi sympathizers, since many did not wear a swastika pin in their lapels indicating they were party members. Moreover, in their lectures they did not say that the Nazi doctrine was right; they simply explained what it was. But when Kristallnacht, or The Night of Broken Glass, occurred on November 9–10, 1938, which began the nationwide pogrom against Jews in Germany, the teachers did not dare to talk about the propaganda and violence unleashed against the Jews. They knew they couldn’t risk saying anything that was openly critical of the regime. While many were tacitly against the Nazis, they could not openly oppose the regime. To do so could mean imprisonment and possibly death.

  Still, since we were living in one of the villages subjected to the Nazi atrocities, we were aware of many of the horrible acts against the Jews on Kristallnacht. People saw things or talked about them. So we knew that the windows of Jewish shops were shattered, that people were beaten, and that some were killed. “Why did this happen?” I and some other students asked our teacher.

  “Because,” the teacher told us, “the Nazis believe the Jews have been hurting the German economy and people. They believe the Jews have been stealing money from the people when they act as merchants.” The teacher simply presented this information as an explanation, with no judgment, pro or con. To outwardly disagree with the party line was not safe. Only later did I realize this teacher, like many others, was merely stating the Nazis’ rationale for what they did, not that he believed in these reasons or policies.

  These policies had a major impact on the Jewish population of Eschwege, as it did in other towns and cities in Germany. Back in 1933, when the Nazis came to power, around four hundred of Eschwege’s Jews left because they saw the dangers ahead, since the Nazi philosophy portrayed the Jews as criminals and pariahs who should be eliminated.

  Yet in 1938, when I first went to the Friedrich Wilhelm Schule, about a dozen Jewish students still remained, and most people in Eschwege still considered the Jews to be their neighbors and friends, not the evil enemies of the state as many Nazis described in their writings and speeches. Among the most virulent tirades were the writings of Julius Streicher, whose strident anti-Semitism, as expressed in his newspaper, Der Sturmer, was too much for many students. As a result, when five students at the Schule saw a half dozen Nazi Party members beat up local Jews during Kristallnacht, they went over to them and said, “A German man doesn’t do something like that.” But the Nazi Party members glared at the students and beat them up too.

  I did not personally see any of this violence, since my parents would not let us out of the house at night for our protection. But the next morning I saw the damage on the street due to this pogrom against the Jews. I saw chairs, tables, and other items of furniture scattered all over the street, even a piano lying with its legs facing up, like a dead cockroach. Also, I saw shards of broken glass everywhere, which is where this attack got its name: Kristallnacht. Ironically, though, many people were more disturbed by the disorder caused by the violence than by the fate of the Jews.

  But the Jews who remained in Eschwege realized that this night was a turning point, which would lead to even further persecution at the hands of a state now committed to their total annihilation. As a result, after Kirstallnacht most of the remaining Jewish students at the school disappeared, along with their families. Nobody saw them leave. They snuck out at night with whatever clothing and other possessions they could carry in suitcases. Some had cars, and drove; others took trains. But however the Jews departed, they left all their furniture behind, and the Nazis soon took over their apartments, as well as whatever the Jews left when they fled. Perhaps one hundred Jews remained, and they lived quietly, not seeking to attract any attention to themselves. I’m not sure how they survived; perhaps good neighbors or friends helped them by giving them food and hiding them in their homes. However they managed, they must have taught their children themselves, as Jewish students were no longer permitted in the schools. But their holdout proved their undoing, since in 1941 the last one hundred Jews of Eschwege were deported to the death camps.

  After the unrest of Kristallnacht, school resumed as usual. We studied German language, literature, history, mathematics, science, chemistry, and foreign languages, such as English, French, and Latin. School ended with the Abitur, an exam that is required for attendance at the university. But before I could begin my Abitur preparations, my parents sent me away to boarding school.

  Notes

  * In the German education system, a gymnasium covers grades 5 through 13 and focuses on preparation for college.

  Chapter 3

  The Adolf Hitler Schule
/>   My parents decided to send me to boarding school when I was thirteen, in 1941, to toughen me up, as I had grown very quiet and introspective since my early years. I was a studious child who excelled at my classes, while my brother Hansi was a bit of a wild man. Even when we were small he was the one who instigated the mischief, such as dreaming up the egg-throwing incident in my grandparents’ pantry, to the horror of the women guests at the kaffeeklatsch. Consequently, my father probably thought I was too tied to my mother’s apron strings and felt some time in a boarding school that emphasized athleticism would be good for me. It would, he thought, “make a man of me,” whereas Hansi didn’t need such a separation, since he was already very outgoing and adventurous.

  At the time, though, my father didn’t explain why he was sending me to boarding school. He just told me, “I think it will be best for you to have a broader experience.” But looking back, he probably decided to send me there because he believed a boarding school’s rough-and-tumble culture emphasizing strength and power in athletics would be good for me. Also, he was probably thinking of my future. Perhaps, he thought, being in this school would give me an edge later, due to the exclusivity of the school.

  Thus I was selected, along with other boys from the Friedrich Wilhelm Schule, to attend the Adolf Hitler Schule (called AHS for short), which was one of four elite schools in Hitler’s Germany. It was considered an honor to attend. The intent of these schools was to improve the students’ characters by strengthening our physical skills, since the Nazi ideology stressed the intimate connection of body and mind. Therefore, building a strong physical culture would build a strong character, based on the Nazi cultural ideal.

  To this end, the school’s mission was to turn out a cadre of students who would be superior to all other students in the same age group throughout the country. The students should be exemplars of how the youth of Germany, and even the world, could be changed for the better. The goal was to provide the students with exercises and discipline to make them stronger and to mold powerful leaders. In this way, they would become a new type of youth who would be model human beings and creators of a new world order called the Thousand-Year Reich, as Hitler called his regime. Importantly, they would be racially pure boys of Aryan stock, as well as men of strength and character, who would join the superior Nazi elite that would leave the old world order behind.