Children to a Degree - Growing Up Under the Third Reich by Horst Christian

turned to face principal Nordweg. “How dare you declare openly that the evacuation of students will become mandatory? This is outright inflammatory. Have you not read and studied Herr Hitler’s proclamation that we will employ wonder weapons? Even our beloved leader of the German air force, Hermann Goehring, has declared that the Berlin airspace cannot and will not be penetrated by enemy aircraft.”
    He walked to open the door and four more SS men entered the room. “I could arrest all of you. But for now, I only take this stinking weasel Nordweg with me. But I promise that I will be back.” The four SS men formed a circle around the helpless principal and pushed him out of the room.
    Before he left, the lieutenant turned to look at Karl. “Good writing, Jungschaftfuehrer. I read every one of your articles in the ‘Jugendburg’. Keep it up, but beware of the traitors, they are all around you.” He snapped a salute in Karl’s direction which Karl did not return. He was too stunned that his principal had been arrested.
    The school administrator got up from his chair and walked towards Herr Weinert, a member of his school board and now a disclosed Nazi member. “I would have never suspected that you informed on us. We are not conspirators. We are supposed to serve as an example for our students and we are supposed to protect them from harm. The arrest of principal Nordweg is a direct result of your ill-advised reports to the SS.  Whatever happens to him is on your conscience. You are dismissed from the school board. Get out!”
    Herr Veth wanted to leave the meeting but the school administrator needed his signature on a prepared document. It was in essence, consent from him as a parent to allow his son to undergo an elementary school graduation test. After Herr Veth signed the document, he asked when this test would be conducted.
    The school administrator smiled. “Don’t worry, Herr Veth. There will be no more tests for your son. He demonstrated to our satisfaction that he is capable to assist us with the school evacuation program. You should be proud of him.”
    He wanted to shake hands but Karl’s father was confused. “If there are no more tests for Karl, why did you need my consent?” he asked.
    “Just a formality, Herr Veth. We don’t want you to come after us for interrupting your son’s schooling. Believe me; he will learn more during the next two years than we could possibly teach him.”
    The old school official had no clue at that time how true his comments would turn out to be. Herr Veth wanted to finally leave but was still forced to wait for Karl, who could not get away. Every one of the teachers and officials had questions and suggestions for him and it took over another hour until Karl and his father were back on the street.
    “What do you think, Pappa?” Karl asked.
    “Think about what, Karl?”
    “About the arrest of Herr Nordweg and of the meeting.”
    Herr Veth shook his head. “I don’t allow myself to think about something until I have all the pertinent facts in front of me. But I surely learned something and I hope that you learned it too.” He turned to Karl. “Guess what it is.”
    “Not to trust the teachers who might be Nazi members?’’ he ventured a guess.
    “No, Karl, much too complicated. We should learn from this incident to keep our mouth shut. Let’s see what will happen to the administrator. I hope that he did not make a mistake by throwing Herr Weinert out of the room.”
    Herr Veth was right. It was a mistake. The administrator should have kept his mouth shut.
    Two months later the administrator was arrested. Nobody ever heard of any charges being leveled against him. All the school board heard was that he was awaiting trial in a concentration camp. He was temporarily replaced by Herr Weinert, who was shortly thereafter drafted into military service.
     
     

Nine
    A few days later, when Karl attended the weekly Jungvolk meeting he saw Harold again.
    “What