Children to a Degree - Growing Up Under the Third Reich (9 page)

He was right. The KLV camp in Heringsdorf, a resort village, was the first camp of its kind. It was 1942 and there had been only a few voluntary camps in existence. They were mostly on working farms where the boys were required to assist the farmers with their daily chores. These KLV camps served actually a dual purpose. Most, if not all, of the farm workers had been drafted and the work was piling up for the farmer. The boys were a welcome help and at the same time they were safe from the air attacks.  In a sense Karl was a trial run for the KLV administration.

All of the activity plans Karl initiated had to be reported to the KLV and the HJ headquarters in Berlin. Many of his plans were later adopted as examples or became mandatory. Karl was keenly aware of the emphasis the HJ placed on physical education and activities and he was not about to let his personal preferences for academic studies interfere with his task.

But first he conferred with Frau Niehaus and Frau Seeger as to their school plan. He wanted to be mindful of the hours the boys were already occupied. He did not bother to consult with the third teacher who made a point of avoiding him. He did not even know her name. Besides, most of the time she seemed to be sleeping. Frau Niehaus was in charge of his facility and Frau Seeger was in charge of the other rooming house.

Karl’s first questions concerned Helmut. The little boy without friends and from a different school district was on Karl’s mind and he was kind of leaning on Frau Seeger to find out about it.

Then he started to develop his first activity plan with something obvious. At least it was obvious for him and became mandatory in all camps the moment he reported it to Berlin.

He initiated a ‘Letter to Home’ hour. Twice each week, for one hour at a time, he required that the boys write a letter home. He helped the boys by posting writing subjects on a blackboard. Topics ranged from the food they ate, descriptions of shells and other things they found on the beach, all the way to their physical activities. He also wrote on the blackboard a sample of the correct way to address an envelope. When he saw that a boy was struggling with the writing, he assigned one of his deputies to assist the ‘partner’. In the beginning he addressed every one of the boys as ‘partner’ because he was unable to remember all their names. During the hours the boys were writing home he wrote the articles for the Jungvolk periodical and the school paper.

Karl’s next activity item was also obvious. After all, the camp was on the Baltic Sea, so he initiated swimming instructions. He himself did not know how to swim and neither did any of the teachers. He solved this predicament by going to the HJ office and asking for help. Since the local boys were born by the sea, there was no shortage of instructors. Within a few weeks Karl knew how to swim. He liked it so much that he participated in all the water activities.

Two days after Karl had implored Frau Seeger to find out about Helmut, he had his answer. It turned out that on the day of their departure from Berlin there had been a second ship destined to the Baltic Sea. Both of the ships had the same name except that they were differentiated by the number 1 and the number 2.

Helmut, by some kind of error, had wound up on the wrong boat and his real destination was Ahlbeck. It was the village the boys had stayed overnight at on their march to Heringsdorf. Karl asked Gert-his strongest deputy- to assemble a team of six boys to walk Helmut to his real destination and also to carry his suitcases.

A little bit later Gert approached him in the dining hall. “I selected six boys, but two of them refuse to carry any suitcases. What do you want me to do?” Karl got up from his chair and blew the whistle. There were about 50 boys in the room from the second seating who now paid attention to him.

“I need six volunteers to carry two suitcases to Ahlbeck. You will leave early on Saturday morning. Before you return you are allowed one free hour to explore the village.”

Karl could see more than ten hands in the air. “Make your selection,” he said to Gert and sat down again. Frau Seeger showed up next to Karl.

“I think that I should go with them,” she said. “Just to make sure they go to the right place and don’t get lost.”

Karl shook his head. “There is only a single road connecting us to Ahlbeck and they will not get lost in the small village. But if you insist, you better ask again for volunteers. I think that the boys raised their hand in anticipation of being alone on an adventure.”

Frau Seeger seemed to mull this over in her mind. “I don’t know Karl, maybe you are right. It is a longer walk than I wish to make anyway.” She went back to her seat at the dining room table near the kitchen door.

In the meantime Karl read the books from Herr Groneberg to prepare himself for the Monday examination.

He had also learned from the local HJ office that there was some minor vandalism on the very old, nearly historical, entrance building to the old fishing pier. The local population blamed the newly arrived children for the damage, which consisted mainly of some scribbling on the wooden walls. Karl thought that this might have been possible during the few hours each day when the boys were free to roam along the beach. He also thought that this was a good enough reason to install some pre-Jungvolk training. He conferred with his team of deputies and initiated a guard detail.

The guard unit consisted of four boys who patrolled the entrance of the building. They were replaced every hour by another unit of four boys. There were no more reports of any misconduct and Karl speculated that the perpetrators might have been local boys who were not too fond of the newcomers. The former playground of a lonely beach was now pretty crowded with the boys from Berlin.

The transfer of Helmut to Ahlbeck went smooth without a hitch and without Frau Seeger.

***

Karl took the test in the local school and passed their graduation requirements without a glitch. Herr Groneberg, the principal of the school, invited Karl one afternoon to his home.

“I am sorry that our school is unable to provide any meaningful instructions for you. You exceeded our entire curriculum due to your studies for the Napola. I invited you to my house to tell you that I am glad that you did not get accepted.” Karl was confused.

“Did I hear this right, Herr Groneberg? You are glad that I did not get accepted?”

“Yes, I assume that you know that the Napola is primarily teaching the gospel of the Nazi party.”

Karl studied the face of the principal. He reminded him a little of his grandfather who had voiced a similar opinion. “No, Herr Groneberg. I applied because I was told that at least one of their schools teaches an advanced science program.”

Herr Groneberg agreed. “Yes, there are currently 33 Napolas in Germany and I know that one of them is dedicated to the sciences. However, I am given to understand that some of their professors refused to join the Nazi party and have been dismissed.” He looked at Karl. “Do you know what this means?”

Karl shook his head. “No, I don’t know what this means.”

The principal bent over his desk to make sure that Karl did not miss the meaning of his words. “It means that they will get arrested and placed into labor camps and the school will be taken over by members of the SS who will teach Nazi doctrines.”

Karl understood what the principal tried to tell him, but he still had the words from his grandfather in his mind.

“Herr Groneberg, I appreciate what you are telling me and I know now why you are glad that I did not get accepted.” Karl stopped for a moment unsure how to proceed. “But, do you think that this will happen or do you know it?”

The principal was taken aback by Karl’s question. He had thought that Karl was a bright boy and wondered if the kid was already brainwashed.

“No, Karl, nobody ever knows what will happen in the future. But based upon the current events, it is a given.”

Karl thought before he voiced his next question. “Please tell me Herr Groneberg, is it not possible for me to just study and ignore the Nazi doctrine?”

The principle breathed a little easier. There was still hope for the boy. “Listen to me, Karl, for your own sake, listen to me. And always remember our conversation. You can believe all you want but,” he looked deeply into Karl’s eyes, “if you are long enough in the rain, you will get good and wet.”

Karl was now sure that the principal was of the same mindset of his grandfather. He also liked that Herr Groneberg was using simple words. Words he could understand.

“Thank you Herr Groneberg, for inviting me to your home. I promise that I will remember what you told me.” He turned to leave but turned around once more. “Is it alright if I come back to ask you more questions, Herr Groneberg?” The white haired principal smiled.

“You are welcome to visit me anytime. Karl. You know now where I live.”  Karl thanked him and left the modest house overlooking the beach.  A few weeks later Karl learned that the principle had been arrested by the SS.  He inquired at the HJ office about his whereabouts and was advised by the squad leader that nobody knew any details. Herr Groneberg had been a widower and lived alone.

After the six-month KLV term had passed, Karl returned to Berlin.

Eight

When Karl got back to Berlin he was allowed to stay home for a week before he had to go back to school. In the meantime, he decided to report to Rudy.

The location of the local Jungvolk and HJ headquarters had changed from the Wilmersdorf police station to Halensee ( Burroughs in Berlin) but Rudy was still in charge of enrollment.

“I don’t think that you will like what you see when you get back to your school,” Rudy opinionated when Karl showed up.

“What has changed?"asked Karl.

“For one thing, all of the classes have been combined with a girl school from Wilmersdorf. For another, to prevent class sizes larger than 100 students, the school authorities decided to conduct the classes in two shifts which will alternate every week.” Rudy reported.

“Two shifts? How will this work?” Karl asked, a bit bewildered.

“One week you will have classes from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM and the next week your class will start at 1:15 PM and last until 5:30 PM," Rudy explained.

“Uff,” answered Karl, “this does not sound too inviting.” He pulled up a chair. “Anything else?”

Rudy reached into a drawer of his desk and handed Karl a large envelope stuffed with all kind of papers.

“There is plenty more. Your school building in the Pfalzburger Strasse will be taken over by the military. The changes will be initiated at the Brandenburger school. You will find all the details among those papers.” Rudy pointed to the envelope in Karl’s hand. “This should add about 15 to 20 minutes to your school walk,” he guessed.

“Yeah, that’s about right,” agreed Karl.  “Now, let me have the good news. I can see it in your eyes that you have more for me.” He placed the envelope on the desk and readied himself for the next item on Rudy’s list. The squad leader grinned at him.

“You are right. The good news is that you might not have to join your former classmates in the girly class. Due to your reports about your KLV camp and the various activities you initiated, you achieved something of an expert status. The school authorities intend to send you to the different camps to look at their conditions and report back to Berlin. In addition they also want you to address the parents here in Berlin and tell them about your camp experience.” Rudy looked expectantly to Karl for his reaction. There was none. Karl sat bedazzled in his chair trying to comprehend what Rudy had told him.

“This should be the job of a teacher or at least an adult,” he finally answered.

“Well,” smiled Rudy, “that’s where you are wrong. The school authorities think that the parents would like to hear from a student who attended camp and furthermore they have no adult to spare for this kind of thing. Do you know of a school principal with the name of Groneberg?” Rudy asked.

“Yes,” said Karl, “he was the school principal on the Island of Usedom. Do you have any news about him? The last news I heard was not so good. I guess he has been arrested.” Karl was excited to hear about him.

“Arrested? That’s news for me,” said Rudy. “All I know is that he sent a glowing report about you to the Berlin KLV headquarter. Is it true that you initiated cleanup details to assist the local merchants by scrubbing their sidewalks?”

Karl had to laugh when he saw the incredulous expression on Rudy’s face. “What’s the big deal about that? The sidewalks were always filthy with all the dog droppings. You should have seen the amounts of dogs in that village. Besides, the kids had enough time on their hands.” Karl was proud of what he had done.

“But the kids,” Rudy tried to imagine himself on his hands and knees and scrubbing dog poop off the sidewalk, “did they like it?”

Karl was amused by Rudy’s expression on his face. “What is there not to like about it? The boys did not actually have to pick it up. The merchants gave them water buckets and hand brushes. The work detail consisted of five children and the camp had more than 200 boys. This meant that each boys turn was about six weeks apart. They were actually looking forward to it.”

Rudy’s face got even more disgusted. “They were looking forward to it?”

“Well, maybe that’s a stretch but they received merit points which entitled them to a day off from school.”

Rudy was still picturing himself scrubbing a sidewalk. “Karl, do me a favor and never, ever mention this work detail in one of our meetings here. Let this be just between you and boys from the camp and the school officials.” He looked at Karl’s uniform shirt. It was clean and freshly pressed.  There was not a wrinkle on the chest or the sleeves. “Aren’t you glad to be home again and have your mother washing your laundry and ironing your shirts?” he asked.

Karl grinned in return. “Yes, our laundry facility was not too great. But pressing my shirts? No, I learned to do this for myself and now my mother cannot do it well enough for me. I ironed this shirt myself last night.”

Rudy gave up. He liked Karl, but now he thought that he had a neat freak in front of him. He wanted to tell him to get out and stay away from him when he remembered something.