Children to a Degree - Growing Up Under the Third Reich (14 page)

“Yes,” answered Herbert, “I have seen him there too.” He looked at the rope dangling on Karl’s shirt. “How did you receive your promotions? You are the youngest Oberjungschaftsfuehrer I have ever met.”

“They were routine promotions due to my position as a sub leader of a KLV camp.” Karl answered truthfully. Herbert recoiled for a second.

“I know about you. Karl Veth, right? You are the guy who introduced kitchen duty in the camps.” He shook Karl’s hand again. “Everybody is talking about you. Let me know when you join another camp. I’d like to go with you.”

Karl could not help himself and smiled. “Why? You like to peel potatoes?”

“Not really,” laughed Herbert. “We heard that you always managed to reward the work units. I would not mind cleaning toilets or bathrooms as long as I don’t have to attend school hours.”

Karl joined his laugh. “Thanks for the ideas, Herbert. If you have excellent grades I might be able to arrange for you a position as a sub leader.”

“Excellent grades? No Karl, you are confusing me with someone who is ambitious. I like to avoid school because I hate it.”

Karl had to think what Harold had told him about choosing the correct words to communicate. This Herbert seemed to be a likable fellow, except that he had used the word ‘hate’ to describe his distaste for the school. Karl did not like the word. It was too extreme for his taste. He liked to use the time he was wasting by standing around and decided to experiment with some words.

“Hate?” He repeated to make sure that there was no misunderstanding. “Now this is a rather strong word. I venture that you strongly dislike schools, or is it the new female teachers which you don’t like?”

Herbert looked for a second as if he did not understand the question. Then it dawned on him and he smiled once more at Karl. “Come on Karl, I am sure that you won’t report what I am saying. You heard me alright. I hate learning and I hate school, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.”

Karl got the drift. Herbert hated school. So much for the experiment. “Alright, I get it. Then I take it that you like sports?” Karl wanted to keep the conversation going when he heard the boy on his left.

“I also hate the school,” the boy said.

Nice going
Karl
, he thought to himself. “What about soccer?” he prompted both boys and just as he expected, the mood instantly changed.

“Yeah, soccer,” exclaimed Herbert. “That’s where it’s at. I can manipulate the ball up and down the court. Once I have control of him nobody is able to take him away from me.” Herbert was obviously proud of himself.

The boy on Karl’s left was not to be outdone. “Yes, Herbert is good at it, but so am I. And I love the cheering of the classmates when we score a goal. You don’t get this kind of cheering when you recite the multiplication tables or spell a word correctly,” he informed Karl, who admitted that the boys were right on this point. He looked at the boy on his left and stuck out his hand. “I am Karl Veth.”

“Yes, I overheard your conversation.” He gave Karl’s hand a firm shake. “My name is also Herbert.”

Karl did not blink. “I take it that you two are brothers.”

Twelve

Karl enjoyed the stupid look he received from the boys. He was just about to start the conversation again when the order for Koppelschluss prompted the boys to firm up. He reached for the belts of the Herberts, determined not to let go.

He looked down the length of the boulevard where a group of Wehrmacht (army) motorcyclists came up. They were followed by several black Mercedes limousines which carried officers of the Wehrmacht and the SS.

All of them stopped for a moment between the HJ cordon and the grandstand to unload the military bigwigs. As each of the officers reached their designated seat, the loudspeakers announced their rank followed by their name.

Karl could clearly see Franz Halder from the General Staff and Wilhelm Keitel, the chief commander of the Wehrmacht. This was also the first time that he saw Admiral E.  Raeder, Chief of the German Navy.  The loudspeaker announced many names he did not recognize and he was surprised that apparently none of the well-known Panzer officers were present.

The dignitaries were barely seated when another motorcycle brigade announced the final two limousines. The first one stopped again in the same place and Karl heard that the dignitary was none other than the Chief of the German Intelligence Service, W.F. Canaris. He was accompanied by Dr. Josef Goebbels, the propaganda Minister of Germany.

The last car was a black Mercedes convertible. It carried Adolf Hitler and stopped about fifty feet short of the grandstand. As usual on these occasions, Herr Hitler got out and walked over to the cordon of the Jungvolk and started to shake hands with some of the boys. As he slowly walked towards Karl’s position the pressure of the throng of people behind the human barrier became nearly too much to bear.  The crowd roared constantly their
hail, hail
,
hail
and pushed forward to get a better look at their beloved Fuehrer.

Karl noted that Herr Hitler walked alone; no body guards or secret service agents were needed to protect him because the population loved him. Karl counted that the Fuehrer shook hands with every fifth or so boy from the barrier detail. He started to figure in his head what the chances were that the Fuehrer would shake hands with him or at least lock eyes with him. But about 15 feet from Karl the Fuehrer turned away from the cordon and crossed the street towards his place on the grandstand.

Karl was more than disappointed but his mood changed when the first Panzerjaeger (panzer hunter) vehicles rolled slowly by. They were followed by all terrain troop carriers and the only difference seemed to be the thickness of the armor protecting the wheels.

The most impressive thing was the exact distance the vehicles kept between each other. It was as if they were all connected by invisible steel rods. After they passed, the air started to fill with the deep roar of the approaching heavy Tiger I engines.

The 101
^st
SS Tiger I Panzer Battalion was grinding slowly but steadily toward them. The tank commanders in their black double- breasted jackets were standing straight in the turret. Their faces were turned towards the stand and their fingertips seemed to be glued to their black berets until they were directly opposite from the Fuehrer. Only then did they stretch their arm to the Nazi salute.

Thirty-six rows of panzers, six deep, made the asphalt reverberate and Karl thought that he could actually feel the power and mighty force projected by the parade. It was planned to be an impressive sight and it was. Karl was sure that any one of the spectators would remember this afternoon for the rest of his or her life.

In all this excitement it was no wonder that Karl had somehow missed the arrival of the military band. Maybe they had assembled or arrived when he was still talking with the boys. But now they were impossible to miss. To Karl’s astonishment they were accompanied by the fanfares from his 4/6/1/37 unit. As they played the national anthem, the last unit of motorcycles passed by.

The parade was over and Hitler started to address the crowd. The public communication system worked flawlessly and Hitler’s voice could be heard in the last corner of the Tiergarten.

Hitler’s address was constantly interrupted by the thundering cheer of the crowd.  After Hitler stopped, Karl could not remember what the speech was about. But he would never forget the intensity delivered by one of the greatest orators the world had ever seen.

“Man,” exclaimed Harold several hours later on their way home, ”Hitler does not hesitate to calls his enemies by name and when he does, he leaves no doubt of what he thinks about them or what he means.”

“Yes,” agreed Karl, “and when he asked for help and sacrifices of the ‘civilians’ you felt compelled to comply.”

“And, did you feel the excitement of the masses? How can it be that thousands of people love him and are prepared to die for him, when other intelligent people, like your grandpa despise him?” Harold was not so much asking his friend as he was wondering aloud about the event they had witnessed.

Karl was still agitated when he arrived home and told his parents about his impressions. His father was more interested in the details of the Tiger Panzers than in Hitler’s personality and he mentioned that he would not cross the street to see him up close. His mother, on the other hand wanted to know everything about him.

“Was he really impressive?” she asked of Karl.

“I don’t know what you mean by impressive, Mutti. He is not very tall, not like grandpa. But he walked with energy and confidence, if that is what you want to know.”

“What about his eyes? I know that they are dark. But, are they hard as some people claim or are they warm?”

Karl did not have to think because he had also wanted to see the eyes of the Fuehrer. “I am sorry Mutti, Herr Hitler walked away from where I was standing. I never saw his eyes”.

His mother looked toward the picture of Hitler hanging on the wall. “I think we need a leader like this man,” she said.

Karl’s father said nothing. He did not even like the picture, but in 1942 every German family had a picture of the Fuehrer displayed in their home. When Karl’s mother bought it, it stood for weeks in a corner of the hallway until his father found the time to hang it up. Karl could feel some tension between his parents whenever the conversation shifted towards politics. Since there was nothing he could do about it, he always started to play with his brother and his little sister until his parents’ conversation drifted to other subjects.

The next day there was a letter from the KLV administration announcing that the mandatory evacuation of school children was imminent. The administration strongly encouraged the parents to send their children to relatives in the country before the evacuation regulations would take effect. Karl remembered that just a few days ago his former school principal had been arrested by the SS when he made the ‘inflammatory’ remark that the schools in Berlin were soon to be evacuated.

He could not help recognizing that the SS and the Gestapo were the overriding authority. He wondered how this would affect his upcoming position as a sub leader in the KLV camps and decided not to invent or install any new programs.

He had always looked to his father and grandfather for guidance and to the school teachers as role models. Was he now to look at the SS or to the Gestapo for shining examples? He thought of principal Groneberg from Usedom as a nice stand-out teacher.

There was no doubt that the Gestapo who arrested principal Groneberg was the agency in power and in charge, but he could not equate them as being equal to the man they had arrested. And still his friend Harold had told him that the Nazis with their newly installed authorities like the Secret State Police were in essence, the constructors of the new 1,000-year Reich.

***

“Grandpa, I am confused and need your advice,” he asked when he went with Harold to see the old cavalry officer.

“Don’t think that you are the only one who is confused. You are only 12 years old and I know many adults who don’t know what time it is. Exactly now, Karl, what kind of advice do you need?”

Karl deliberated how he could frame his question and then decided on the direct approach.

“Opa, the SS arrested my school principal and I am supposed to visit various KLV camps and write essays about their conditions for the HJ periodicals. I am also to write reports to the KLV authorities. Should I submit all my essays and reports to the SS or to the Secret State Police for their approval? I mean, before I send them to the KLV authorities or the HJ? What would you do?”

“This is hard to answer, Karl. When I was your age we knew who was in charge and acted accordingly. Now it seems that there are conflicting agendas even within our armed forces.” The old man reached for a newspaper, looking at a story describing the retreat of the German army in Russia.

“Here, read this. It is very evident that the SS is competing with the Wehrmacht. Except that the SS has the backing of Adolf Hitler. All evidence points towards Herr Hitler wanting to restrain the officer corps of the Army. He condemned the action of General Paulus who was surrendering in Stalingrad after he lost more than 90 % of his men. If I were a military reporter, I would cover my behind and run my writings by the SS for approval.”

He looked at Karl who did not even glimpse at the newspaper. He read all about the retreats of the German forces. He would have liked a more direct answer to his predicament.

“So, are you saying that I should send my reports to the SS for approval?”

“No, Karl. If I were you, I would send all the essays and reports to the HJ headquarters in Berlin, with the request to forward them to the pertinent offices. Finish. You did what you were tasked to do and shifted the responsibility to the HJ which is the ‘darling’ of Herr Hitler anyway.”

Karl like the answer from his grandpa. It seemed to be very good advice and very easy to follow.

Harold placed the sheet of paper with all the numbers and dots in front of grandpa. “Sorry, Herr Veth. We are giving up. I have only a few days left in Berlin and we would like to know what this means.”

Karl nodded his agreement.

“This is essentially the same as the other ones.” The grandfather pulled a pencil out of the kitchen drawer and began connecting numbers which followed each other. He ignored all the hooks and dots and other symbols. Some of his connecting lines were only between two numbers and others were connecting several numbers.

When he was done the boys saw to their astonishment the perfect image of a peacock. All of the hooks were part of feathers and the little circles and dots were part of the plume. The upside down and sideway numbers were not really numbers anymore but part of the beak and eyes. In all reality, there were just a few numbers which had been upside down but they had been enough of a diversion to mislead the onlooker.

“It is not as complicated as you think,” said Karl’s grandpa, “You will hardly ever see through a mess of information. What you need to do, to get a true picture of what you are looking at, you need to connect the dots. In this case you needed to connect the numbers which you recognized as being related. The remainder will more or less fall into place as the picture evolves.”