In August of 1939, Germany and the USSR had signed a ten-year non-aggression agreement which included the division of Poland and the Baltic states. It assured Hitler that he would not have to divide the armed forces to fight on two fronts. On the first day of September, Hitler started the war he had been planning for years, the war he had written about in his book Mein Kampf back in 1923. His aim always had been to reverse the verdict of 1918 and to overthrow the peace settlement of 1919. He had signed a nonaggression pact with Poland on January 26, 1934, but now, having occupied Austria on March 12, 1938, the Sudentenland and Czechoslovakia in September of 1938, he was ready for his next move. When he invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, France and Great Britain gave an ultimatum to withdraw his armed forces immediately; when he did not respond, they declared war on Germany two days later, September 3, 1939.
There was much excitement in school, on the radio and even on the street about the successes of our military in Poland. People were convinced that the Poles had attacked us first, that they had started the war, and that they were defending our country. Listening to Dad and Uncle Ewald talking about current events, I heard again that Hitler had been planning this war since he first came to power and that the Poles would never have started a war they obviously could not win.
Every day, with much fanfare, announcements were made on the radio about battles won in Poland and how many British ships had been sunk by German submarines. Teachers reminded students every day about the successes of the German Armed Forces, explaining that “We Aryans need more living space; we need to destroy all undesirables and conquer and rule the world. This is our goal.” Dad kept reminding me of all the innocent lives being lost, including our own sailors, since it did not make sense that we never lost a ship in all the attacks against the British.
After the division and occupation of Poland and the Baltic states and France’s and Great Britain’s declaration of war against Germany, Hitler was ready to attack on the Western Front. His first moves were to take over Denmark and Norway, and after those victories, he occupied the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg; in May of 1940 Germany attacked France. My cousins had already been drafted into military service, but now the time had come for some of my uncles to have to go. My Dad’s work and his age kept him from having to leave us to become a soldier.
After an easy and quick victory over France, Hitler’s plan was to take over the Balkan states, and again he was successful. The German now occupied most of the European continent. In June of 1941, Hitler’s forces attacked the USSR. The Soviet leaders were caught by surprise; they had expected Germany to honor the nonaggression pact they had signed and had not prepared themselves for war. They did not realize that the only reason Hitler had signed the nonaggression pact was to avoid having to fight on two fronts. France had now been defeated, and the Western Front was quiet. Great Britain was bombed daily, and ships carrying supplies to the British were being attacked and sunk by German U-boats. It was expected that the British would eventually capitulate to end the death and damage Germany was causing them. The Nazis prepared us for war against Russia by continuing to tell us we needed more living space for our population, although millions of Jews, Slavs, and other “undesirables” were being put to death in concentration and labor camps.
Life had not changed much for me. The pressure from the Hitler Youth members had not stopped, but somehow, with much effort, Dad was able to keep me from going to their meetings except for the athletic events, which he attended with me. I remained an outsider to my fellow classmates, especially the dedicated Hitler Youth members. The hours I spent studying made me an excellent student who received the highest marks in most subjects, but in no way did my hard work ever make me a teacher’s favorite student. One had to be on the top of the ladder in the Hitler Youth to be praised and appreciated by the teachers.
Most important to me was time spent with Mom and Dad, with my grandmothers, and with my aunts, uncles, and cousins, along with practicing my piano lessons. When Dad accompanied me playing his violin and when Mom would sing, I was able to forget the names I was called by my classmates, the unfriendly treatment by my teachers, and the ongoing war.
Ever since I was a little girl, my best friend had been my teddy bear, and he was always there for me. He slept with me, and when I was eating, he sat beside my plate. As much as I kept telling him to help himself, especially to my least favorite foods, he was too well-mannered; I had to feed him. When I was doing my homework he would sit on the table and watch me, and he also sat beside the music sheets whenever I was playing the piano. Since I loved to read, I would usually read out loud so that he could listen. My first efforts at designing were the clothes I made for him. I knew he loved me as much as I loved him, since he did not call me bad names and never laughed at me, even when I shared my heartaches and hurt feelings with him.
Air raid shelters had been prepared, and each citizen was assigned to a particular one. Each shelter was taken care of by an air-raid warden. At times we would hear airplanes flying overhead during the night and then watch a display of searchlight beams in the sky. The sirens would blare, but no bombing would take place.
My cousin Pauline was never released from the institute in Berlin, and though we tried many times to visit her, we were not allowed to see her. The building had been painted all over with Red Cross signs so that British bombers would know that it was a hospital. During one of the earliest air raids two institutions were totally destroyed. One was an asylum in a suburb of Berlin, and the other was the one where Pauline had been confined. There were no survivors. The Nazis tried and succeeded in convincing the Germans that the British had singled out two hospitals for total destruction since no other bombs had been dropped. All the propaganda increased the hatred most felt toward the English, but my dad, Uncle Ewald, and Uncle Max did not believe the Nazi’s accusation against the British. The bombing had eliminated many of the citizens the Nazis considered to “undesirable” or unwanted; only the Nazis had benefited from the bombing. Why would the British bombers single out only two well-marked hospitals for destruction? It did not make sense.
My Aunt Agnes had unexpectedly died from a heart attack, leaving my Uncle Willi devastated. In order to get away from his home and his shoemaker’s shop, the spot were he had found her body, he enlisted in the Army for officer training. After he joined the Army, we saw him more often since the base was located nearer to our home.
Vacation time was upon us and, as we had hoped, we were able to return to Weissbach. This time Oma Salzmann came with us and Uncle Willi was able to join us when he was on furlough. Mr. and Mrs. Zimmermann were happy to see us and arranged for more space for us, and we were delighted to be back and enjoy the beauty of the area.
Oma’s open ulcers on the front of her right leg rarely healed. It was impossible for her to walk up the trails to the higher mountains, but on good days, she was able to enjoy the view and the peace found on the lower hills. The Zimmermanns’ daughter, Eva, had moved into a house which had been owned by a Czech family who had to leave when Hitler annexed the Sudetenland. It was a lovely house, beautifully furnished and very close to her parents’ house. Her husband, being a strong Nazi along with Eva, had volunteered and joined the German Air Force. He was trained as a pilot and was now stationed in France piloting one of the bombers which attacked Great Britain relentlessly. They had a two-year-old son, Dietrich, and Eva and Dietrich spent most of their time with her parents.
When Oma was unable to walk, she played with Dietrich and spent hours sitting outside reading her Bible. On those days we were able to take Uncle Willi to the tops of some of the high mountains. Sometimes Eva went with us and showed us areas we had not yet discovered. Her parents and my Oma were delighted when she was gone for the day. It gave them the opportunity to spoil Dietrich without interference from his mom. Many times Uncle Willi would look off into the distance from the top of a mountain or admire a special sight and say, “I wish Agnes could be here with us to see all this,” and we all cried with him. It was a vacation of joy and sadness, but all of us, including Uncle Willi, were thankful to have the chance to spend time together in such beautiful surroundings. There was only one reason for my anxiety to return home. I had missed my piano teacher, my lessons, and my practice times.
On September 27, 1940, we heard on the radio and read in the daily newspapers that representatives of the Japanese and Italian government had met with Hitler and his staff in Berlin. They had reached agreement and signed a Tripartite Pact in which Japan recognized the “leadership of Germany and Italy in the establishment of a new order in Europe;” in return, Germany and Italy recognized Japan’s leadership for establishing a Great East Asia.
It was difficult for my dad to explain to me why the Japanese had attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Why would a little country like Japan attack a big country like the USA? I had seen the size difference on a map. Hitler was planning to take over the whole world, wasn’t he? The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, and on December 11, Germany and Italy honored their pact with Japan and declared war on the United States; the European conflict became a global war.
Great Britain continued bombing Germany at night, but now the U.S. bombers flew over us during the day. We spent a lot of time in the air raid shelter while bombs fell on strategic areas. Often Dad was at work, so that Mutti and I were home alone, but Dad experienced his share of air raids while in the train, or in Dresden, or in Leipzig, or in Hamburg, or whatever city the mail car had as its destination. When it was time for him to return home, Mutti and I went to the railroad station if it was possible and waited anxiously for him to alight. We would exchange hugs and kisses and our happiness was great; we were together again, and we had survived the air raids which had taken place while we were separated.
The pressure on my dad by the Hitler Youth leaders had not stopped. Officials brought him a copy of Hitler’s decree which read: “German youth must be educated physically, intellectually and morally in the spirit of National Socialism through the Hitler Youth.” They reminded him that I had been absent from the long marches on weekends which served to teach Nazi ideology to girls age ten to fourteen. They explained that my attendance at some of the athletic events was not satisfactory. They also told him that at age fourteen I would automatically be upgraded into the B.D.M., the Bund Deutscher Madel or German Girl’s Organization, and I would be required to work on a farm for one year, the equivalent of the labor service required by boys between age fourteen to eighteen. Officials continued to threaten my dad, stating repeatedly that I could be taken away from my parents and put into a state orphanage run by the Nazis if he did not obey these orders from Hitler.
My Father's Legacy 