Dads stories

As a child in the 3rd Reich

Now to continue on from my previous letter: How was it in the 3rd Reich?
To answer this would require writing a very thick book. But your question was more specific such as: how was school in the 3rd Reich.
Maybe surprisingly, but I believe there was no difference between then and later on. I was at Primary school until 1944 and then into the Trade school from 1945. Everything went its usual and orderly way. Today you have to wonder that it did go in an ordery fashion, considering at least half of the teachers were taken into the military. In other words, we didn’t have any young teachers.
Schooltime was between 8am and 1pm, Mondays to Saturdays, with a big break at 10am. The lesson material was generally the same. In the older classes (7, 8) political subjects were added. Most likely because the headmaster held a high position in the leadership of the NSDAP. He was a knowledgeable teacher. I say that despite the fact that I didn’t like him. He gave voluntary afternoon classes in subjects that were outside of the normal curriculum. Especially in Physics. These were very popular and the classes were well attended.
His hobby horse was racial studies, which were taught using rabbits and flowers. One of my jobs at home was to get the food for our many rabbits. But we didn’t have white and black rabbits amongst them so I didn’t have any practical experience as to what would happen if you lock a white rabbit together with a black rabbit for a night into the same cage. And I didn’t really give a damn what would happen, as long as they became nice and fat.
Unfortunately this nonsense stemmed from very circumstances, which in those days we would not have understood. But the reason for the crossing of red and white flowers was to explain to us that we belonged to the superior arian race! All other races were considered inferior. It was very important to teach us that mixing our high race with an inferior race would have dire consequences for the german people. Well, being 13-14 in those days, I had as yet no thoughts of mixing with one or another race. All this never interested me!
But this was a very serious and tragic situation. Couples who wanted to get married had to bring proof that they were both of arian background. This could lead to dreadful consequences, should it be discovered that one or the other had an ancestor who was Jewish or one of the other persecuted races.
Any trespasses against the laws of the Nazi regime were often dealt with terrible punishments. Theft from fieldpostpackets was punished with execution by firearms, also desertion from military duties and listening to enemy broadcasts. Speaking against the regime resulted in immediate transportation to concentration camps, from which there was no return. There was the case of our pastor, who preached in the Neuss Muenster cathedral, that germany’s winning of the war was not as important as personal salvation. As one could expect, the pastor was immediately convicted. And the only way he could escape being sent to the concentration camp was to volunteer for the SS. Later on as a Russion prisoner of war, his health was totally ruined, like the health of most of those taken prisoner in Russia. Twenty years after the war he gave in to alcoholism and took his own life.
The many air raids had an impact on our ability to learn. There was hardly a night we didn’t need to head to the air raid shelter. Air raids during the day were seldom. If the air raid siren went we had to go into the cellar at our school.
One pleasant outcome of all the air raids was that we were regularly sent into the country, south and east germany, usually for half a year. That is how Hedwig spent 1 year in Schlesien, and later on ½ year in Mecklenburg. I myself spent half a year in Marienbad, half a year in Sachsen and another half year in Mecklenburg.
For us children life didn’t seem all that bad. We were healthy, had our games just like children in normal times. We had to behave and stick to the laws. At 10 years one would enter the “young folk” or the girls the “club of german girls”. These we had to attend for a week. We would exercise, just like in the military, wore a uniform, played sport and took part in competition games. We learned all military and nazi songs. Singing was very important. Whereever we marched, we sang. And we marched a lot. The leader would yell out “a song” and the first person in the front on the right (usually me because I was the tallest) would start a song, whatever came into his head, and the marching throng behind him joined, one, two, three four…just the same as with the military.
There were also giant parades where the entire young people from Neuss would march through the city, with tambour choir, fan fares and standards, and decorated streets where each house would display a flag bearing the swastika. Quite a todo. I have forgotten what the reason for these parades were.
We left school at 14, except those attending high school, which was in those days the priviledge of the rich. You would then start your trade/career, usually as apprentice. And you would move from the Young Folk to the Hitler Youth (abbreviated HJ)
The Hitler Youth was preparation for the military. There were various troups, eg. Flier HJ, marine HJ, newscorps HJ, fire brigade HJ and the normal army HJ. The firebrigade HJ would be commissioned after air raids, to assist the normal fire brigade. I volunteered to the newscorps HJ. There you were trained in radio as well as laying and maintaining emergency transmission lines. Because of the many air raids we were extremely busy. In the last few months of the war we could volunteer to be trained in weapons. I was stopped from volunteering by my father. Which meant that I was spared quite a few traumas.
Fourteen year old girls had to spend a year in service – either with a large family or on the land.
Hedwig was at a camp in Leichtlingen and stayed there until the end of the war. During the day she worked for a hunters family, and at night she had to go back to the camp. Here too you didn’t get the feeling that you were forced into work. At night times they sang, told stories, and played games. If it wasn’t for the war, one could have called it pleasant. But the war could be experienced everywhere. There were the low flying air raids, which Hedwig on one occasion only barely survived. There were everywhere people on the move, with hand carts who fled from the west to the middle of germany. Nobody owned a car. These were requisitioned and confiscated at the beginning of the war. The trail was one giant train of humanity, kilometer upon kilometre, all intent on fleeing from the unavoidable. In the radio and newspapers there was a lot of propaganda against the Allies. People were very scared, which in the end proved to be quite unneccesary.

posted by Inge @ 11:51 pm