Children to a Degree - Growing Up Under the Third Reich (13 page)

“Do you think that we will be close enough to hear the speech of our Fuehrer?” asked Harold as he watched a team of radio technicians setting up a row of microphones in the center of the grandstand. Karl looked around before he answered and then pointed at the huge drums of cables being unrolled along “Unter den Linden” the main thoroughfare through the park.

“These could be cables of a public address system. Let’s see if we can locate the loudspeakers.” A short time later the boys witnessed the installation of dozens and dozens of loudspeakers all throughout the park and up and down the main avenue.

Judging by all the preparations, it promised to be a spectacular event.

Eleven

The boys had decided to visit grandpa Veth early in the day because their Jungvolk practice started in the afternoon.

“Ever seen something like that?” he asked the boys as he handed each one an almost identical piece of paper. It was a regular sheet of writing paper with small numbers all over the place.

“No,” said Karl. He looked at it from all sides because he could not decipher what it could be. Since he was very fast in arithmetic, he added the figures in his head and then divided the summation of the left side of the paper with the summation of the right side, but the result made no sense to him.

“Please explain, Herr Veth,” said Harold, turning the paper upside down. “We have training and practice duty this afternoon. I could stand here all day and I would still don’t know what it means.”

“I hoped that you did not know what it was. It is a very simple game and called connect the numbers.”

He handed each of the boys a colored pencil. “Now start at the lowest number you can find and connect to the next number and keep on connecting until you reach the last number. Go ahead, do it now. It only takes a few minutes and then you can go on your way.”

Karl had already detected that the lowest number on his paper was 15 and by the time his grandpa finished the instructions he was busy connecting. In nothing flat, the boys looked at a modest picture.

Harold was holding a picture of a dragon in his hand. Karl had drawn a galloping horse.

“I know that this is a simple children’s game, but the object of today’s lesson is to show you how simple it is to make sense of a mumble jumble from seemingly random figures, or events if you will, by simply connecting the dots.” The old man explained.

“That’s it?” wondered Karl. “For today’s lesson you had us draw a couple of animals?” He still did not get the full meaning. To his surprise Harold was clearly ahead of him because he thanked the grandpa for the excellent lesson.

“Connect the events, your grandpa said. We need to connect the unfolding events in order to get an understanding of the whole picture. What’s the matter with you, slow poke?” Harold enjoyed that he was outthinking his friend. Usually it was the other way around.

“I am not done. Do you have another ten minutes?” asked the grandfather as he placed another piece of paper on the table.

“Sure,” said Karl as he tried to steal a look at the new diagram. Both boys were keen to receive the remainder of the lesson.

“Just look at it this one and then look at these ones,” said the cavalry officer as he placed two more papers on the table. Karl was the first to recognize that the two additional papers were merely duplicates of the numbered papers they had just completed. However, the third single paper was a puzzle for sure.

There were little circles and hooks, dots and seemingly random numbers. Some of the numbers were even upside down or sideways. He tried to look for the lowest number and the second lowest but all he could discern was a low upside down single digit number 4 and the next highest number was a 14. To make it even more confusing, these two numbers were right next to each other. There was no obvious reason to connect them.

Harold shrugged his shoulders and laid his picture of the dragon next to the likewise numbered picture. “These two belong together, and so does Karl’s two papers. But the third one has nothing to do with the other ones.”

“What is your take on these depictions?” the old warrior asked his grandson.

“I am with Harold that this one has no relationship with the other ones.” He pointed at the picture with the hooks and circles, holding on to his drawing and the likewise numbered paper.

“What makes you believe that the two pictures in your hand are connected?” His grandpa asked, pronouncing the word ‘believe”.

Karl’s face lit up. “I understand what you are trying to say, Grandpa. I don’t need to ‘
believe’
that these two belong together because I ‘know
’
that they are the same. I recognize the numbers and the patterns.”

“Very well, then what about the third one? Other from the fact that it is not connected to either one of your previously drawn images?”

Karl turned to his friend. “What do you make of it?”

“Nothing. There is obviously a lot more information on this diagram. But I don’t know what to do with it,” his friend assured him.

Both boys looked at the grandfather for some explanation.

“Take the picture along and figure it out while you are thinking about it. I’ll give you a hint. Use your mind.” He looked at his grandson and Harold. Both boys were wearing their uniforms as they wanted to go from him to the Jungvolk office. He noted a red and white small rope on Karl’s shirt. It was leading from the button of the breast pocket to a higher button on the center of the shirt.

“What is this rope you are wearing? I don’t see it on Harold’s shirt,” he asked.

“This identifies me as an Oberjungschaftsfuehrer, it’s the second lowest designation of a leader in the Jungvolk. I earned this promotion last week for completing my six-month stint as a sub leader in the KLV camp.”

Karl’s grandfather nodded his approval. “Yes, I heard from your father that your elementary schooling is coming to an end. Congratulations on your test results. I am proud of you.” He shook hands with both of the boys as they left the apartment.

“I could see that I was drawing a horse before I finished the picture,” Karl remarked on their way to the meeting place.

“I guess you could,” said Harold, “but I could not. I have never seen a dragon, except in some drawings of Siegfried in his fights with a dragon in the Teutoburger Woods.”

“You are right,” said Karl, “as often as we went to a zoo, I never saw a dragon either.”

“You know why? Don’t you?” Harold had a disgusted expression in his face. “Fire spitting dragons are inventions of a very sick mind,” he proclaimed.

Karl was not so eager to agree with his friend. “Come on, Harold. We have both seen the little lizards and salamanders. They are just miniature dragons. It could very well be that in ancient times they were a lot larger.”

“Maybe so and maybe not,” allowed Harold. “However, they never spit fire. This depiction alone is sick, sick, sick.” He was almost spitting the words.

“Now, now, Harold, what you consider sick, some other people may declare artistic. Remember, even Herr Halama told us that artists may enjoy from time to time a certain freedom in expressing themselves.”

Harold stopped in his tracks and looked at Karl in disgust. “If you were not my friend I would no longer talk to you. But, I have to tell you that I don’t understand you. There was an SS speaker in our school who warned us of people like you. He described it as a liberal attitude and told us that in time the Nazi system will get rid of all liberal elements. If I were you I would keep my mouth shut.”

He started walking again and Karl ambled to keep up with him. He did not like the direction their discussion was going.

“You know what, Harold? We are ambitious to learn as much as we can because we both know that we are just beginning to understand the adult world. I think in our dialogue there is a lesson for both of us.” He almost had to run to keep up with the long steps of his taller friend.

Harold slowed down a bit and looked at him. “Tell me the lesson, Karl. But please without any liberal garbage, if you can.” 

“I can do that in one sentence. Provided that you slow down enough so I can talk to you face-to-face.”

Harold stopped and locked eyes with Karl. “Go ahead, tell me.”

Karl did not blink. “We should not criticize or put things down we don’t understand,” he said firmly and then added, “I for one don’t even know what liberal means and I doubt that you do. But at the very least we should agree to keep an open mind.”

Harold laughed. “Agreed. If all people could talk to each other like we just did and then agree to keep an open mind,” he interrupted himself to think, “I think it would be beneficial to all of us.”

“There you go, Harold, I agree with you too, but what is beneficial?”

Harold was still laughing. “Your granddad is right. You can’t speak three sentences without asking a question. But, earnestly, Karl, you should also learn to keep your mouth shut.”

Karl was taking his friend’s advice seriously but he could not help thinking that if he should be careful in saying what was on his mind, then his grandpa should really watch out.

***

When the boys arrived at the assembly point they were surprised to see some trucks waiting to transport them to the venue in the Tiergarten.

There were literally thousands of members of the HJ and the Jungvolk lined up as far as the eye could see. The boy’s unit was called 4/6/1/37.

The number 4 stood for Jungzug 4 (a unit of about 60 boys).

The number 6 stood for Faehnlein 6 (a larger unit of about 180 boys)

The number 1 stood for Stamm 1 (a unit of about 1000 boys).

The number 37 stood for Bann 37 (a specific area of Berlin).

Karl’s particular unit was ordered to stand directly across from Hitler’s grandstand. To Karl’s enjoyment, this was the first time that his small size was of an advantage. Their ‘Stamm’ was ordered to stand six lines deep alongside the avenue. Because of his short stature Karl was standing in the very front row. He was facing the grandstand a little bit left off the center. The boys were instructed to stand close to each other and on the command of ‘Koppelschluss’  they had to grip into the side of the belt of the boys standing next to them. Since everyone did this they were forming a human chain six rows deep. The next command was ‘Zwischenman,” meaning that the boys were not supposed to stand directly behind each other but were facing the small vacant spot between the boys standing in front of them.

It was a fairly simple and extremely fast exercise. It was repeated over and over until everyone understood the commands.

Two days later, on the day of the event, a Saturday, the boys had to assemble at their office at 6 AM. The trucks were again waiting and when their unit 4/6/1/37 was dropped off in the Tiergarten, the boys were overwhelmed to see the masses of people. In spite of the early morning hour, there were thousands waiting to get a glimpse of their beloved Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler. They were kept inbound and away from the street by huge trucks which were lined bumper to bumper on the avenue. Karl’s unit was getting into formation, six boys deep, about a mile away from the grandstand and started to march. In front of their Jungvolk Stamm was a unit of 200 HJ drummers and in front of them were 50 HJ flag carriers.

When they were about half a mile away from the grandstand, orders penetrated the early morning air and the unit broke into running double time. The drummers started a staccato of high speed drumming, the flags got curled halfway around the mast and the carriers lowered them into a slanted position, pointing forward.

The Stamm #1/37 was the role model for all the HJ formations in Berlin and their exact and disciplined storm commando of the combined HJ and Jungvolk was indeed a sight to behold.

The unit stormed down the avenue and stopped when it reached the area by the grandstand. The crowd behind the trucks roared their approval and Karl was so proud of himself that tears came to his eyes.

While the drummers slowed down to a precise beat, the flag-carrying unit marched across the avenue and took up positions besides the stand. Karl’s unit stopped at exactly at the same spot they had trained on two days ago. Upon the command ‘left turn’ Karl stood again in the first line. “Koppelschluss,” came the next order and Karl gripped the belts of the boys on his right and on his left and the boys in return got a hold of his belt.  “Zwischenman,” yelled the Stamm leader and while Karl and his comrades on his right and left did not move, the boys behind him stepped half a step to the sides.

As soon as they stood still the trucks began to move out and the mass of people who had waited behind the trucks moved like a wave towards the human barrier of the boys. Everyone wanted to be close to the road. In spite of the fact that the cordon was six boys deep it swayed back and forth until the pressure of the mob subsided. The Jungvolk did their assigned job and was holding the avenue free of the waiting masses. A short time later the boys were ordered to stand at ease and they were also allowed to talk to each other.

It was 9:00 AM and the parade of the panzers was planned for 4:00 PM. Adolf Hitler was scheduled to speak at 6:00 PM and the crowd of thousands was waiting. The ones in front of the multitude had been here since the past night.

“I doubt that we will be able to keep the mob away from the street when our Fuehrer arrives,” the boy on the right of Karl opinioned.

“Maybe we will receive reinforcement,” Karl speculated.

“There never have been any reinforcements.” answered the boy. “My name is Herbert. You must be a newcomer. I have never seen you in barrier duty.” Herbert extended his hand to Karl. He was of about equal height with Karl and seemed to be of the same age.

“I have been in a KLV camp during the last few months. My name is Karl Veth,” Karl introduced himself. “Have you ever seen the Fuehrer up close?” he inquired.

“Yes,” answered Herbert, “sometimes he was within a few feet of me. How about you?”

“No, never that close. But I have seen him very often. Mostly on his birthday on the balcony of the Reich Chancellery.”