Chapter 3: Heinrich and Heidi

Chancellor Hitler kept making new laws until the end of the year 1933. Trade unions were outlawed. Trade union delegates had arrived in Berlin for the May Day celebrations. Their offices were occupied and leaders arrested. All other political parties were outlawed and property confiscated. New prison camps were built to house any opponent of Chancellor Hitler. German Labor Front was formed to represent all German workers. Sterilization programs for undesirables were begun in 1934. New public works projects were announced to put men to work and women to stay home to care for the family. A grand system of highways and railroads was planned, and the unemployed signed up to build them. Who knew many of those railroad tracks being laid down would be used to transport people to concentration camps. Almost immediately, the rearmament of the military began as if preparing for war. Friedrich Harz signed up to help build a highway through the Harz Mountains. Little Heinrich began Kindergarten in Drubeck. He rode on his cousin’s bicycle to school until he learned to ride his own bicycle. At school, Heinrich and his cousins had to do the “Heil Hitler” salute every time they began class or saw their teacher outside of school. Classes were separated by gender, except in the smallest schools that did not have enough children to separate the genders. Heinrich’s class had twenty boys, and most of them lived in town. He came home to announce all that he had learned that day. The Nazi officials came to the school to measure their heads and noses to establish who had Aryan features. Jews were kicked out of the Harz Mountains during the Middle Ages and have not moved back in since. None of the children had ever seen a Jew before and unlikely would recognize one hiding in their shed. In the winter, the children carried hot potatoes to keep warm for their mile-long walk when the bicycles did not ride well. Friedrich sent money home to Gertrude. Toward the end of the school year, Heinrich returned home to find a man in the living room.

“Guten Tag,” Heinrich said. “Mama, who is this?”

“Come sit, Heinrich, and help me pick a color to paint the house. Your papa sent money this week. This is Herr Herman, who is a traveling salesman with a catalog from his company in Berlin. Do you have swatches for the dress fabrics?” Gertrude answered, holding a book of paint samples.

“Ja, Frau Harz.” replied Herr Herman, pulling out a book of swatches from his briefcase. “These pages are fabrics for dresses, and these pages are for curtains with a stiffer weave. I have a book of wallpaper samples if that interests you.”

“I could look at them too. I like this sky-blue color for the house and eggshell for the window shutters. What do you think, Heinrich?” inquired Gertrude.

“It’s blue,” answered Heinrich to make Gertrude giggle.

“That is what your papa would say. I will take five gallons of the sky-blue paint and three gallons of the eggshell paint.” reacted Gertrude.

She looked through the fabric and wallpaper samples to make her selections to order. She was careful not to spend too much money. She ordered wallpaper for the living room and fabric for new dresses. Herr Herman took measurements of the walls to figure out the number of wallpaper rolls needed. Gertrude paid for the order and took a receipt. The order should arrive by the end of the month.

“You must visit my aunts. They live up the hill.” Heinrich said.

“Ja, you must. They will be heartbroken to miss looking at your catalog. Heinrich can show you the way. It is just up the hill.” responded Gertrude.

“Danke, Frau Harz und Heinrich.” replied Herr Herman.

Heinrich guided Herr Herman up the steep trail that was difficult to drive up and opened the gate to the dairy pastures. In winter, Grandfather Harz put chains on the wheels of his vehicles to move up the hill. Aunt Heidi came out on the porch to welcome her nephew, walking with a stranger with a large briefcase.

“Heil Hitler, I am Herr Herman of the Schaeffer General Store Company in Berlin. I have a catalog of our store offerings and books of samples for you to look through, if I may have a few minutes of your time."

“Heil Hitler, Herr Herman. Guten Tag, Heinrich. You are welcome to come inside. Heinrich, go fetch Frieda to meet this traveling salesman.” ordered Heidi.

“Ja, Heidi.” Heinrich answered.

He walked out to his Aunt Frieda’s house by the barn, and she followed him to the main house to meet the traveling salesman. Cousins Hilda and Elsa also came along to look at the fabric samples for a new dress. Heinrich was awestruck at meeting a traveling salesman for the first time. He looked at the catalog with his aunts chattering like birds about all the things they wanted to buy. Cousins Hilda and Elsa selected fabric for new dresses, and Aunt Frieda selected kitchen utensils. Heinrich saw a toy train he liked, and Heidi said maybe he would get a toy train for Christmas if he were a good boy. Herr Herman wrote out the orders and collected the payments. Heinrich walked the salesman down the hill to his car sitting in front of their porch. Gertrude was on the front porch snapping green beans for dinner with little Greta playing with her rag doll. Heinrich joined his family. Immense joy occurred when the packages from Berlin arrived in the following weeks. The mailman brought them to the porch, and Gertrude was delighted to open them. She got to work on her sewing machine, creating dresses for her and Greta. Frieda, Heidi, and Grandfather Harz came over to help put up the new wallpaper and paint the house.

When President Hindenburg died, Chancellor Hitler abolished the office, thus assuming complete power. Shortly after, stories over the radio spread of a series of deaths of SA leaders gathering for a meeting in Munich who were arrested and shot without trial. The victims were said to be former Chancellor General Kurt von Schleicher and his wife, who were murdered in their home; Schleicher’s close associate Ferdinand von Bredow; Hitler’s political opponent Gregor Strasser; August Schneidhuber, the chief of the Munich police; SA Leader Johannes Röhm with his deputy Edmund Heines; his deputy Wilhelm Schmid; and Röhm's personal adjutant, Karl von Spreti. Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen and his close associates were arrested. The associates were immediately shot while the Vice Chancellor claimed the SS and Gestapo could not legally arrest him. Chancellor Hitler released von Papen and sent him away to be Ambassador of Austria. A music critic, Willi Schmid, whose name was confused with the real Gestapo target, was accidentally killed. Several leaders of the disbanded Catholic Centre Party were also murdered. Newspapers in Germany were prevented from printing the news, but outside Hitler’s control, newspapers called it “The Night of the Long Knives,” though everyone was shot over three days. Chancellor Hitler enacted a law of self-defense of the state, claiming that Röhm was planning to overthrow the government, and legalized the murders. The world was horrified. The German army cheered for the murders as they were now required to pledge loyalty to Hitler personally instead of Germany. The offices of president and chancellor were combined into the title of Führer. Germany withdrew from the League of Nations and the World Disarmament Conference.

The new Nazi official opened an office in Drubeck and registered people to join the Nazi Party and youth groups. He grew suspicious of the local Lutheran pastor collecting vast amounts of food. Was he helping Jews or Gypsies/Roma fleeing the repressive new laws? He visited the pastor to go along with his food baskets for church members. He gladly took him in his car to the church members he visited. The sick, the old, and the group of people still living in the mines. The ones in the mines were women, children, and the elderly whose men were out working on the highway. He did a service for them on Sundays because they felt ashamed to come to church, being dirty and hungry. Discovering this, the Nazi official offered to take the group of people to their men working on the highway since they had no adequate shelter. The group was happy with the assistance. They gathered their belongings and waited for the trucks. A few children were looking for berries to take on the journey to witness the trucks arriving. They began to walk back to the mine to depart on the trucks. Then the soldiers who came off the trucks began shooting the group. The children ran into town to tell the Lutheran pastor what the soldiers just did. Then they heard explosions and then silence. The trucks returned to town. The soldiers bragged at the cabaret, watching the dancing girls, that they shot Jews escaping German laws, living among Gypsies/Roma in the mines like rats. The government was reopening the closed mines to convert them into forced labor factories and needed to clear out the rats. They stacked the bodies in the mine opening and tossed in grenades to collapse the mine opening. The whole town mourned the miners’ families in their own way, for the Nazi official refused any public mourning. They were forbidden to put up any memorial. The Lutheran pastor planted forget-me-not seeds where the mine opening collapsed. He wrote to the miners working on the highway that their families were slaughtered. The four children picking berries were living in his house now. Friedrich wrote how devastated the men were and decided not to return to Drubeck when they completed the highway. The fathers of the children came to pick them up to leave the area.

As winter approached and highway construction ceased, Friedrich returned home. He approved of the paint colors and wallpaper Gertrude selected, saying, “Whatever made her happy.” He joined the Nazi Party to receive a dagger with a number on it and a copy of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. He felt obligated to join since the great Führer gave them work after a long time of unemployment from the mines closing. He attended regular meetings in town. Gertrude was reluctant to join the Nazi Party because she knew a Jew once from Denmark who was a good friend on the vaudeville circuit and during her time in America. Friedrich praised Hitler for turning the country around and giving people jobs. Hitler promoted animal welfare, banning experiments on animals and the removal of organs while still alive. Nazis enacted laws that required livestock to be given an anesthetic before being slaughtered. Hitler greatly detested Kosher slaughter of livestock because the animal is conscious when cut into with a knife, and that was also banned. Bans on commercial animal trapping were enacted. The Eurasian wolf became protected. Hunting was severely restricted during hunting seasons, and conservation areas were established. Soon there was a ban on boiling live lobsters and crabs. Animals used in films were required to be unharmed, and their health could not be damaged. Though the Nazis encouraged whaling. Animal welfare was required to be taught in German schools. Yes, the massacre at the mine was terrible, but that was an overzealous Nazi official who thought they were Jews hiding among a gypsy/Roma camp of thieves.

They celebrated Christmas and went out skiing along the mountainside. Friedrich helped the children build a snow fort and toss snowballs at each other. They ice-skated along a pond for the cattle and sledded down the mountainside. The children performed in the Church Nativity Play and sang carols during a school music recital. Gertrude’s piano students performed Christmas carols for their families at the community center. Heinrich started piano lessons and showed his family how well he practiced. Spring came, and the highway was finished to arrange a celebration of the Nazi Public Works programs. The Führer and other high party officials came to celebrate the completed work on the highway. Herr Hitler and his photographer Eva Braun were admirers of Heidi Harz's artwork and enjoyed Harz Dairy cheese and butter in Berlin. Heidi made crackers to offer as refreshment for the visiting officials. Fräulein Eva Braun requested a visit to select paintings for her employer. She arrived to purchase eight paintings and then sat down for tea. She was surprised to discover that the notorious painter Heidi Harz was deaf. Heinrich disliked her. Herr Hitler praised women who refrained from smoking, did not wear cosmetics, dressed conservatively, were mild-mannered, and had lots of sons. This woman, so close to Hitler, broke all those standards. He thought her arrogant and demeaning towards his Aunt Heidi for refusing to speak to her because of her hearing aid, but she spoke to his mother, Aunt Freida, and his grandfather.

“She can understand you, Fräulein Braun.” Heinrich blurted out as she sipped her tea, giving him a blank stare without a response.

“We look forward to the Führer’s visit to celebrate the finished highway. Everyone in the Harz Mountains will surely be there.” Gertrude interrupted.

“Ja, I imagine so.” Eva Braun replied. “Thank you for the tea and pumpernickel. I must return to show the Führer his new paintings.”

Fräulein Eva Braun slipped on her mink stole and departed. On the day of the celebration, an orchestra played as the officials arrived to welcome them. The crowds were immense. It was a bright and sunny spring day in the valley of the Harz Mountains. The Harz Dairy owner provided cheese and cracker refreshments for the officials. Herr Hitler refused to eat anything, though the officials gobbled it up along with the offered beer from a local brewery. Herr Hitler gave a speech to absorb the cheers from those he gave jobs to. Heidi Harz stood in the audience without her hearing aid machine to read the lips of the speakers. Little Heinrich and Greta were sick with chickenpox, so Gertrude stayed home with the children. The rest of the family attended the celebrations. They returned late into the night, elated to see the Nazi Leaders of the country. Herr Hitler signed Friedrich’s Mein Kampf book. Once the children recovered and met with their friends at school, they received a different reception. The great leader of the German people gazed above their heads into the sky and did not look upon any of them. His speech was like all his others: Great Aryan Race made this highway, Undesirables need to go, Jews will pay for their greed, and the Third Reich will last a thousand years. Then the speech was over, and everyone cheered. Then they were ushered back into their cars to leave as quickly as they arrived. His friends were rather disappointed that our leaders were so distant, and the only hand any of them shook was that of the Mayor of Ilsenburg. People requested Hitler’s autographs in their “Mein Kampf” books, and only a dozen selected people were allowed to receive one. His schoolteacher was one of them, and he praised how amazing his speech was.

The government opened its own summer camps for the Nazi children’s groups that were the only ones allowed. Clubs like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Catholic Youth Federation Groups, Freemason Eastern Star and Rainbow Girls groups were outlawed. Gertrude thought Heinrich was a bit young to join any Nazi youth club and preferred he stayed home instead of attending after-school meetings. On Christmas Day, Heinrich received a toy train from Aunt Heidi. The family was happy when Gertrude announced she was pregnant, due in the late summer of 1935. The economy was getting better, and Heinrich was doing well in school. On certain days, the children wore their Hitler Youth uniforms, like on Hitler’s birthday. The government even gave them funds to take holidays. Then Heidi received a letter to report to a hospital to be sterilized. Women and girls in mental institutions, as well as in deaf and blind schools, were being required to go through sterilization to prevent hereditary undesirable traits from being passed on to future generations to create the German Master Race. But Heidi was born normal, and only after having the mumps as a child did she become mostly deaf. Gertrude thought the order came from Eva Braun, who was disturbed to learn that a renowned artist was deaf with a hearing aid. Friedrich was concerned about his sister being labeled as undesirable. They had planned a trip to Munich to visit Gertrude’s family with their government holiday funds. They decided to take the whole family with them. They replied to the notice stating they were going on paid holiday so Heidi could paint the forests of Munich and would arrange Heidi’s sterilization when they returned. A notice of an appointment at a Munich hospital was arranged for Heidi’s sterilization. To refuse this procedure meant arrest and being tossed into a concentration camp where they tortured people before releasing them, or they shot them dead. As they were packing for their journey, Friedrich came home after a Nazi meeting to present papers to Gertrude in the kitchen. They contained blank German passports and Swiss visa application forms signed by a friend of his. Gertrude was unsure about the fake passports and visas and whether they might be arrested if Heidi failed to appear for her surgery.

“Have you read Hitler’s Mein Kampf? That book is passed out to practically everyone, especially new party members, and newlyweds.” inquired Friedrich.

“I have not, my dear.” Gertrude answered.

“In Mein Kampf, Hitler declared that the state should prevent the reproduction of hereditarily unfit people and praised harsh measures of racial improvement, even with violence to remove them from society. What kind of violence do you think that means? Furthermore, he plans to create living space in Eastern Europe for the Aryan Race. What do you think he plans to do to all these people when he starts invading all these countries to create living space?” Friedrich questioned.

“Remove the people?” Gertrude inquired.

“Exactly. That is why Hitler wants war. I hear this implied at Nazi meetings: If they start killing Jews and undesirables today, people will rebel. But if we are at war, nobody will care because people are supposed to die during war. That is why Hitler is building up the military, and every soldier must swear allegiance to Hitler, not Germany. We will eventually be going to war, and it will get ugly for the civilians.” Friedrich explained.

“Oh, dear God,” Gertrude gasped.

“In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that if Jews were gassed in the Great War, none of our problems after the war would have happened. Czarist Russia had pogroms massacring Jews; you think that cannot happen here with all this hate? You heard what he did to his own SA officers and Vice Chancellor when he came to power. You think he will stop at political opponents thrown in concentration camps and shot. Mental patients, the blind, and the deaf are locked away from people; nobody will notice if they suddenly die. I fear for Heidi’s safety. She needs to leave for Switzerland. She is not a Jew, so it will be easier for her to get across the border as a holiday guest there to ski the mountains. A friend at the passport office printed the forms with his spirit duplicator. He got a copy of the Swiss visa application. He printed several copies for me to use if the whole family needs to leave. I can easily reproduce the form attached to the back of the diplomat’s notes approving the visas from our visas when we went skiing with your uncle and aunt.” explained Friedrich.

“He will not have you arrested for that?” asked Gertrude.

“He is a very corrupt official, getting lots of requests for passports and visas. I paid for his silence. Believe me, a hundred people have paid for his silence before me.” explained Friedrich.

“Papa? Is Aunt Heidi going to Switzerland?” Heinrich asked, listening to the radio in the living room and entering the kitchen.

“How much did you hear?” Friedrich inquired.

“I heard you say something about Mein Kampf, pogroms in Russia, and Heidi going to Switzerland. You said you fear for her safety after her sterilization.” Heinrich answered.

“Come, sit.” Friedrich instructed. “Do you love Aunt Heidi?”

“Yes, I love Aunt Heidi.” Heinrich replied, sitting next to his father.

“Then we need to protect her. When she goes, you must not tell anyone where she is. You must not mention her or say you miss her to anyone. If you speak about her, she, and us for helping her will be arrested and die in a concentration camp. Do you understand me?” Friedrich ordered. “Mama?” Heinrich said, gazing at his mother.

“Obey your Papa,” Gertrude reacted. “We will not speak about Heidi after she leaves.”

“Why would the Führer want to hurt a nice lady like Aunt Heidi? She is a good person. His photographer bought her paintings for him. Why would he hurt her now? I do not understand.” Heinrich replied.

“Because she is deaf, she has the label of undesirable. You heard his speeches on the radio about hating Jews and undesirables to create a Master Aryan Race. Hate gives him power over people. You do not hate, so you do not understand that. Now we will try to survive all this hate in this country. When Grandpa was in the Great War, he said battles were terrible. He watched his friends and good people die. He had to kill good people because they would have killed him. That is what war is. He starved and ate rats to survive. He saved many of his wounded soldiers too. Understand this. You cannot save anyone from hell if you are not in the muddy hell with them. If you must lie, cheat, or steal to survive, then I beg you to do what you must to survive. A day may come when you need to remember that. War is coming, and I am certain I will be drafted to fight it like your grandpa. Now go back to listening to the radio.” Friedrich finished.

“Yes, Papa.” Heinrich answered.

After Christmas, the whole family went to Munich to enjoy the snowy plains and views of the Alps nearby. Heidi painted furiously and sold several works to the local art gallery. The day of her sterilization appointment arrived. Friedrich drove Heidi and Johannes to the hospital to drop them off. Johannes and Heidi walked away with her suitcase towards the train station. Aunt Freida drove to the train station with the children from their hotel to accompany them as a group with their fake visas and passports. They made it through the Gestapo border patrol, portraying a family on holiday with their relative to ski the Swiss Alps and a hotel reservation near Lake Constance where Gertrude’s family often stayed. They wore Nazi pins on their coats, and the agent passed them through. Next was the Swiss border patrol, and they gave the same story to be passed through. Heidi, able to read lips and could hear a little, was able to answer their questions. Two days later, Friedrich went to the hospital to supposedly collect his sister Heidi from her sterilization surgery. The admitting nurse had no record of her checking in for her surgery. He asserted he had dropped her off and now she is gone. The hospital alerted the authorities to file a missing person report. Nobody at the hospital remembered seeing a deaf person around the hospital.

“Dear God, she had to be taken by the Gestapo. They keep doing roundups of beggars and thieves in the streets. She would not be able to communicate.” Friedrich cried to the staff.

A Gestapo agent and police officer investigated his missing person report. They questioned the family at her uncle’s house and neighbors. Heinrich cried that he missed his aunt and was upset she was missing. Neighbors never saw Johannes’s family staying at a hotel and then leave for Switzerland on the train. A week later, Johannes returned with his family to enjoy a hotel on the outskirts of Munich. The Gestapo agent came by to report that they could not find Heidi. He even checked the border patrol to see that her name did not appear crossing the border, and nobody at the train station recognized her photo. Gertrude did her makeup to alter her face, giving her freckles on her nose and a mole above her lip. Then contoured her cheeks, nose, and chin to make her face appear different, with her plucked eyebrows compared to her family photographs. Her makeup made her look like a natural German woman who did not stand out. Gertrude’s uncle inquired of his Nazi contacts if Heidi was kidnapped by the Gestapo during their street roundups. They replied that there was no record of her arrest.

After viewing the museums and palaces of Munich, the family returned home. Gertrude confessed to Friedrich that her uncle bribed one of his Nazi friends to cease looking for Heidi. He agreed to do favors for his friend to keep Heidi safe. Despite hating Jews, her uncle also gave Jews a lot of money for their jewelry and connected them with art dealers to sell their artwork to keep them out of Nazi hands and obtain funds to flee the country. Few people noticed or cared about Heidi going missing. The Lutheran pastor said he would pray for her safety. Heidi’s father told the dairy workers that they believed she had been rounded up by the Gestapo when arresting beggars and thieves in the streets, and that, being deaf, she would not be able to communicate well. The family never mentioned going to Switzerland and opening a bank account for Heidi. They could all be arrested for helping Heidi flee the country if the wrong person turned them in. Heidi applied for a temporary residence permit with the Swiss authorities as a persecuted person who was forced into a sterilization surgery appointment for being undesirable, then threatened with arrest and death in a concentration camp if she refused. A judge granted a temporary residence permit as long as her life was in danger from the Nazi government. Heidi was relieved after witnessing German Jews being turned away at the border by the Swiss border patrol and arrested by the Gestapo border patrol for trying to flee the country. She took a job in the hotel laundry and lived in a hotel room as a special protected person. She met a few Jews, Catholics, and Communists at the hotel who also fled the Nazi government. Often the Swiss authorities refused to believe the persecuted Jews' lives were in danger and forbade special protection for them. She painted as much as she could to console her homesickness, but she dared not sell them out of fear of being found, and her family still in Germany would be arrested.