Chapter 4: Gertrude and Heinrich

In the new year 1935, Hitler demanded military rearmament, and all eligible men were conscripted. Gertrude joined the Nazi Party out of obligation and had to prove she had no Jewish blood. She joined the Nazi Women’s League to attend meetings. Johannes and Friedrich left for basic training in the army in March. Nazi youth groups formed outside school with after-school activities and sporting events on the weekends. Heinrich failed to attend any. Concerned, the Nazi leader of Drubeck arrived with one of the high school teachers in charge of the youth group activities, and paid a visit to Gertrude, who was six months pregnant, after Heinrich was forced to write an essay to explain why he had not joined the Nazi Little Fellows Group yet. He answered that his parents believed he was too young to leave home by himself to join all their activities. She welcomed the gentlemen into her living room.

“You can understand why I refuse to allow my young son to walk home in the evening when many of these activities end. My sister-in-law will not allow her children to come home so late. I worry for their safety when they could be kidnapped by Gypsies or their bicycles hit by cars. Heinrich cannot attend any summer camp while my husband is away in basic training until July and has qualified for sniping training. I need Heinrich here to help me out until he comes home on leave. My husband also wants to take Heinrich to register for the Nazi Little Fellows Group when he returns. We live in the mountains, and it is very inconvenient to take these children to town for meetings, book burnings, and sporting events every week. Frieda drives the delivery truck now that Johannes is at basic training. She does not have time to drive them over. I had to stop attending meetings to protect my child from a possible car accident. My parents died in a car accident when I was a child while driving in the dark.” Gertrude explained.

“We are delighted to announce a new program where young men aged eighteen through twenty-five complete six months of charitable or manual labor before joining the military. Many chose civic or agricultural projects.” explained the Nazi leader.

“Really? That would be wonderful. One or two young men helping in the garden would be adequate.” Gertrude reacted. “We have cots they can sleep in.”

“The children may stay overnight in my house if you and Mrs. Johannes Harz would agree. The sporting events take place in the afternoons, and we would gladly come to pick them up and return them home.” offered the schoolteacher. “Then I will register your son for the summer camp to be with his friends.”

“I appreciate that, Herr Arnold. If either of you questions our loyalty to the Nazi Party, I will have you know my uncle in Munich has invited us to attend the Nuremberg Rally in September. He is an attorney with close ties to high party officials there. He has said he could get us tickets to the Olympic Games next year if we would like to go.”

“Ja, Frau Harz. I look forward to hearing everything about his Nuremberg adventures.” replied Herr Arnold.

The men left, and Heinrich came downstairs.

“Am I going to summer camp then?” asked Heinrich.

“It appears that way, even though I think you are too young to be away from home.” answered Gertrude.

“Papa is getting me registered for the Nazi youth group when he returns?” Heinrich inquired.

“I had to say something, or we could get arrested for disloyalty.” answered Gertrude. “We have to get Greta registered for kindergarten in the autumn. Thank goodness she is too young for the League of German Girls. We will have to register her when she turns six next year or get another visit from the school. Dear God, help us get through all this.” Gertrude whimpered, holding back tears.

“I will take care of you until Papa comes back. I am eight years old.” asserted Heinrich, to hear Gertrude laugh.

Heinrich’s cousins Hilda, aged thirteen, Kort, almost eleven, Elsa, aged nine, and Hans, aged seven, walked down the trail to their house to wait for Herr Arnold to pick them up in his car to play football and rugby in town. The girls played field hockey and tennis. At one of the Youth meetings, they learned about archery. The Nazi official of the town, Major Gunther Koffman, was impressed that Kort, Hans, and Heinrich had great aim. Kort said they had to have great aim to shoot foxes digging into the chicken coop. Their grandfather took them out duck hunting in the autumn. If they miss, they have no ducks to eat during winter and no feathers for pillows. Major Koffman commented that this must be how their fathers qualified for sniper training. They spent the night with Herr Arnold, who taught mathematics at high school and had two sons with his wife, who made wonder schnitzel, and lived in a small house. They slept in bed rolls next to the living room fireplace. In July, Privates Johannes and Friedrich returned on leave before starting sniper training in the autumn. Private Friedrich took Heinrich to the Nazi office to register him for the German Little Fellows Group. In August, Heinrich went off to summer camp with his cousins Kort and Hans. Cousins Hilda and Elsa went to the girls' camp. They played sports, and aggressive play was encouraged. They did archery and rode horses. They rowed boats on the lake and went swimming. Summer camps were free, mixing rich and poor boys. Heinrich made friends with boys whom he would become pen pals with. When he returned home, he had a brother named Rolf. Private Friedrich was delighted he could be home for his son’s baptism before heading off to sniper training. The girls practiced sewing and cooking at their summer camp. Then they went swimming, boating, played volleyball, and field hockey.

Heinrich sat in the living room with Greta and Rolf while the radio played Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” while his parents washed up after supper in the kitchen. He heard his father ask:

“Do you ever regret marrying me, my love? You could have been a rich and famous actress in America by now. Could be living in a mansion in Hollywood or New York City at this very moment.” Gertrude paused.

“Never. I believe our three children are proof that I never regretted marrying you, my dear. I did have rich men admire me as an actress. Buy me flowers, chocolates, jewels, perfumes, fancy dinners, ballet and opera tickets, and even fur coats. But when my grandfather died, and I returned to Munich, none of them accompanied me to his funeral. I came with my assistant, who went to visit her family in Copenhagen. I was alone returning to my family. You took a train to see me in Paris with an engagement ring that belonged to your mother in your pocket. And thus far, you have given me a comfortable home and freedom to perform whenever I choose. I do not need a mansion, silk gowns, and servants to be happy. I can clean my own house. I could never regret marrying you. I love you.”

Heinrich smirked, watching his father kiss his mother. He got up and asked if he could have another cookie from the cookie jar.

“You need some milk too,” Gertrude said, getting the milk bottle from the icebox.

Then school began again. One day, his family picked him up from school in the car with his grandfather driving. He took them to the train station in Ilsenburg to board the train going to Nuremberg. They met Gertrude’s uncle at the train station and took them to a hotel. He brought them to a party in a private room before the rally. He introduced the family to his Munich friends. They met the Mayor of Munich, Karl Fiehler, who offered them beer. Next were the Governor of Bavaria, Franz Epp; Brigade Commander, Paul Giesler; Major in the SS, Ulrich Graf; Gestapo Chief Franz Huber; and Gestapo Director Reinhard Heydrich. Heinrich went into the next room where the children were playing with checkers and board games promoting the Third Reich. Heinrich joined the other boys to enjoy punch and apple strudel. He lost the games of checkers against the older boys. As the evening wore on, the Führer made an appearance to enjoy a mug of beer and refreshments. The children were guided out to meet the important guest at the party. Heinrich asked if he could have Herr Hitler’s autograph. Some paper was brought to the room, and he signed autographs for all the children. When Heinrich approached for his autograph, he asked:

“Where are your children? I would like to play with them.”

“I do not have a wife or children. Maybe someday, little one.” Herr Hitler replied to the smirks of the adults.

Everyone posed for photographs taken by Eva Braun’s camera. The families returned to their rooms and got ready for the grand rally. Heinrich had never seen anything like it. Military-style parades in a stadium, human swastika formations, bonfires with books being burned, speeches, and fireworks. Greta did not like the loud booms of the fireworks and covered her ears. Cameras were everywhere and filmed newsreels of Herr Hitler’s speech. The cheers were deafening. The rally was for several days, but they only had tickets for one day. At the rally, Hitler spoke about new laws for the Reichstag to pass, including the denial of citizenship to Jews and other undesirables, then banning German and Jewish relationships. Their Third Reich, creating a superior German race that would win Olympic medals next year, would last a thousand years. Uncle Schrader gave Heinrich a model U-boat and Greta a doll. Friedrich and Gertrude received copies of photos taken at the private party. The family returned home on the train and grandfather picked them up at the station. Heinrich was full of stories for his cousins and classmates. He showed a group photograph and Hitler’s autograph, which someone stole from his desk. The schoolteacher, Herr Schmidt, demanded it be returned, and when nobody returned it, he searched all the desks until it was found in his friend Konrad’s schoolbook. Konrad was forced to apologize, and his hands were struck with a ruler as punishment. Afterwards, Heinrich kept the autograph inside his Mein Kampf book in his room. Soon enough, Privates Friedrich and Johannes left for sniper training. While they were away, a storm blew in, and a tree fell on the Harz home. Heinrich, sound asleep, was woken up to tree branches crashing through the roof, and he was unable to move. The eighteen-year-old helpers Ludwig and Karl, sleeping downstairs on cots, woke up to the children screaming to help Gertrude pull out the children trapped under the branches. The tree trunk took out Heinrich’s and Gerta’s connected closets. Rain poured into the bedrooms. Ludwig and Karl followed Gertrude with the children into the barn that was unharmed. They slept in the hayloft until morning. They packed what they could and moved into Grandfather Harz’s house. The dairy workers helped clear the tree from the house. Many of the townspeople came to help repair the roof and rebuild the closets. Gertrude was grateful for their assistance.

They celebrated Christmas without Privates Friedrich and Johannes, who had finished their sniper training and were now training in a combat intelligence course. Grandfather Harz gave Heinrich wooden airplanes he whittled from the Great War planes he remembered. By spring 1936, they returned home on leave. When they returned, all Aryan children over the age of six were required to join a Nazi youth group. Boys were required by March of the year they turned six to join or face arrest for their parents. Gertrude took Greta to the Nazi office to join the Young Girls League after her sixth birthday. She had to complete challenges to be initiated as a full member. She had to attend one meeting, one day trip, one sports event, and one lecture within six months to be initiated on Herr Hitler's birthday on the 20th of April. They heard on the radio that Italy conquered Ethiopia. Heinrich and his classmates took tests to enter secondary school, and wealthy people sent their children to boarding school that charged tuition. Most of his classmates failed to have much money for tuition and would attend Drubeck secondary and high school for another eight years. Construction was underway to alter the closed mines into forced labor factories. A concentration camp was constructed, surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences, in the mountain valley between Ilsenburg and Drubeck. Cattle cars moved the prisoners in from other camps once new tracks were constructed from Ilsenburg to the camp. The guards of the camp came to town to enjoy the cabarets of Ilsenburg and Drubeck since the camp was between both towns. The townspeople despised the rude soldiers who got drunk and shot their guns off in the street. One boy was found shot dead on the road outside the town, and his bicycle was missing. His mother recognized his bicycle being ridden by a guard visiting the tavern. Young ladies flocked to the soldiers to flirt in the hope of protecting their families. One Drubeck Catholic priest gave a sermon criticizing the brutality of the Nazi government, and soon after the church was burned to the ground, the priests were arrested, and the Catholic school was closed.

The Drubeck Lutheran pastor drove over to the new concentration camp at the old silver mine. He was horrified looking at the prisoners who were starved and beaten, working inside the mine factory making who knows what. Some were men, and some were women, all in striped prisoner uniforms with triangle patches describing their crime by color. He was guided to the commandant of the camp.

“Guten Tag, Commandant.” the pastor greeted.

“Heil Hitler, Reverend.” replied the commandant with the Nazi Salute.

“Heil Hitler, Commandant.” he replied with the salute in return.

“I come by with an invitation for your guards to attend our worship service. I hear stories of guards getting drunk and shooting their guns in the streets to scare the townspeople. I heard a pregnant woman was shot in the arm standing across the street. Of course, I know many of your men are good, Christian men and just a few ill-mannered young men. Perhaps, if your men attended church on Sunday, they could get to know the townspeople and appear less frightening to them. You will always be welcome to worship God with us.” the pastor explained.

“Danke,” the commandant began. “I could offer the guards leave to attend church if they wish and instruct them to leave their weapons behind when off duty visiting the towns. Anything else concerning you?”

“Not at all. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you.” finished the pastor.

He was guided out of the camp and returned to the church. The following Sunday, Commandant Rudolf Klein arrived with his family along with some of his officers. Heinrich had Martin Klein in his Sunday School class. Klara Klein was in Greta’s Sunday School class. He also brought their toddler Helmut Klein, who was a year old. They did not attend the public school, but had a governess until they were old enough for boarding school. Heinrich thought they were sweet children compared to their brutal father, who was strict and violent. Martin worshipped his father, but was too timid to be much of a soldier his father dreamed he would be. He spoke of the large house they lived in and never entered the barracks or the factory that made rockets. They looked forward to summer camp and heard a civil war in Spain had broken out. Herr Hitler sent troops to support General Franco's overthrow of the Spanish Second Republic. When Privates Friedrich and Johannes returned home to await their first orders after completing their training, the family went to the Berlin Olympics in August. Gertrude’s uncle and aunt arrived on the train in Ilsenburg and spent the night in the guest room. The next morning, the whole family left for Berlin. Gertrude’s uncle had tickets for the opening ceremony, gymnastics, boxing, and wrestling. Johannes’s family wanted to visit museums and palaces while they were there. Friedrich and Gertrude remembered their first days together after they met on the train. They showed their children all the places they visited after meeting. At an art gallery, they saw Aunt Heidi’s works she painted in the 1920’s. Nazi Germany won the most medals, proving Hitler’s assertion of the German Superior Race. They found the events broadcast on television screens set up in rooms for the people in Berlin. The adults were amazed by this new invention, sending newsreels through the air like radio signals. The Berlin Olympics held the first new torch relay from Athens across Europe to Berlin. New sports competitions for basketball, canoeing, and field handball were introduced. Hitler presented the medals. Every German was required to give the Nazi salute during the German anthem. German gymnasts Konrad Frey and Alfred Schwarzmann won triple gold medals, and the Harz family celebrated. The German equestrian team won all six gold medals. Italy won the gold medal in football, and Heinrich knew that Mussolini would assert how the Fascist system worked well. Hitler met his hero Mussolini when he first came to power and was meek in his presence. Mussolini was said to call Hitler a mad little clown. The Harz family returned home with many photographs and stories to share with their friends.

Life continued while Privates Johannes and Friedrich waited for orders. They canned food for winter and smoked ham for Christmas. Heinrich joined the Hitler Youth Group when he turned ten. On special days, they wore their uniforms to school. He did well in the athletic competitions. Much preparation for the military was stressed. Marching, target practice, and writing speeches praising the Nazi government. Then military orders arrived. Private Johannes was to be stationed in Dresden to be part of the artillery units. Private Friedrich was to be stationed in Düsseldorf and join the Panzer tank and reconnaissance units. The family held a party to say farewell. Friedrich sat Heinrich down for a serious talk, as he would be the man of the house while he was absent, hopefully not forever.

“Heinrich, remember what I said once that my father told me from his war years in France?”

“Shoot fast, shoot first, shoot to kill because your enemy will do the same thing to you. And if you must lie, cheat, or steal to survive, then do what it takes to survive.” Heinrich replied.

“I am amazed you remember all that. Now, I do not know when Heil Hitler will send us to war or how long it will last, but I want you to remember this. Your mama is a strong woman, and I have no doubt she can manage this house without me. An actress must be strong to succeed in show business. But you will need to be strong and help her without her asking for it. That is most important in war; soldiers help each other, becoming like brothers, knowing our innermost secrets they do not share with anyone else. Do not ever disrespect your mama and always obey her. Understand?”

“Soldiers help each other. Be strong, respect and obey Mama, and help her without her asking.” replied Heinrich.

“That is close enough. I love you, Heinrich. Be a good boy.” Friedrich finished.

“I love you too, Papa. Come home soon.” Heinrich reacted.

At Christmas, Gertrude and Frieda announced to the family that they were pregnant and would give birth at the beginning of summer of 1937. Gertrude named her daughter Ingrid and sent a letter to Private Friedrich. Frieda named her daughter Emilia and sent a letter to Private Johannes. Heinrich helped his mama the best he could. He worked in the garden with Nazi young men helpers who changed every six months. When the Nazi official Major Gunther Koffman came by to check on how the helpers were working out, he was invited to stay for dinner, for she was preparing bratwurst and sauerkraut on the stove. Suddenly, Heinrich came into the living room to grab his father’s rifle. He said a fox was getting into the chicken coop. He fired the rifle from the back porch to impress Major Koffman. He then gathered the killed chickens covered in blood. He placed them in the cellar to pluck later. Major Koffman gladly accepted the dinner invitation. He enjoyed the pumpernickel bread and butter, cheese and crackers, and the bratwurst and sauerkraut. He inquired about the candle in the window. She explained how the ladies at church decided to honor their soldier husbands with candles in the front window as a light so they could find their way home, symbolically. He thought it was a nice honor. Gertrude took the family in October to Munich’s Oktoberfest and watched the infamous horse race. Before Christmas, Private Johannes came home on leave. They performed in the Nativity Play at church, and Johannes brought presents from Dresden. Private Friedrich sent gifts from Düsseldorf to the family in the mail. In October 1938, Private Friedrich came home on leave. He attended church and met the Klein family. The commandant was proud of his son attending a boarding school in Berlin and doing well on the swim team. He was learning to fence too. Private Friedrich replied that his son was skilled at gutting fish and plucking chickens. While discussing the new concentration camp mine factory making rockets and the unruly guards, Heinrich confessed to his father that he was giving the prisoners at the mine factory food through the barbed wire. He even ran into his friends at church and school in the dark woods, giving them food too.

“Be careful, Heinrich, or you will be buried in a mass grave at the camp instead of the church cemetery.”

“You be careful, Papa, or you will be buried in another country. Great Britain and France will not appease Hitler forever and declare war on us. Winston Churchill warned the British in a speech that European security is threatened if Czechoslovakia is partitioned, even though the Prime Minister Chamberlain said that he ‘Secured peace for our time’ with the Munich Agreement.” Henrich replied.

“Where did you hear that?” Friedrich asked.

“The BBC on the short-wave radio. Mama has me listen to radio broadcasts to practice my English and French lessons she gives me. The King of England gave Chamberlain a grand parade when he returned to London. I heard Mussolini demanded France give them Tunisia, Nice, Corsica, and French Somaliland. I do not think they will. They can agree to give away someone else’s country, but not their own territory.” Heinrich explained.

“Well, as it so happens, I also listened to radio broadcasts as part of my intelligence training, and I agree with you. You are a smart boy.” Friedrich finished.

Private Friedrich worked on shining his boots before returning to his base. Heinrich watched and helped him to impress him enough to suggest making a shoe-shining box to earn extra money during the weekends and school breaks. Heinrich asked his mama if he could do that. He got wood to hammer a shoe-shining box together and bought supplies to store inside it. He rode in a delivery truck from the dairy that Hilda learned to drive. She dropped him off at the train station, then dropped off cheese, butter, and cream to the general store, and came back for him when she returned with the night delivery of milk for the milkmen to deliver early in the morning. He was delighted to earn money to help the family. He worked hard all day shining shoes at the train station on Saturdays. The waiting room was quite warm and cozy. He earned coins to bring home to his mother. She saved the money to buy things at the general store. She made Heinrich a new suit to wear to church. A few times she took them to the Ilsenburg Cinema.