by F. M. Worden
“Yes, the concept is good, everyone should have an auto. The thing I like the best that he is doing is the strict pollution control and the numerous park and green areas he is developing.” All three men agreed the Fuhrer was doing some good things, but the Nazis treatment of the Jews overshadowed the good.
The men decided to meet again in a few weeks and we bid each other good night. This was a very enlightening evening for me. I went up to my room and wrote Mom and Uncle Bob a letter saying I was having a good time. If someone read my mail, they would get the idea I liked it here in Germany.
The next morning, I walked to school with Helga. She invited me to join her the next day, Saturday, November the ninth. A parade would be held in Munich to commemorate the martyred dead who gave their lives in the 1923 putsch. She said that the Fuhrer and all the head men of the Nazi party would march. I told her I would go just to see what it was all about.
That day it was quite a show. People lined the way with hands held high in the Nazi salute. A band played the Nazi marching song, {THE FLAGS HIGH}. All along the route, pylons bearing smoldering urns bore the names of those killed in the putsch. I thought Helga was going to wet her pants when Hitler walked by, smiled and waved at her. She held her right arm high in the Nazi salute. She was yelling, “SIG HEIL, SIG HEIL.”
I made pretty light of the whole thing. I told her I had met the man and he had the hand shake of a wet noodle. She didn’t take that very well, but I really didn’t care. I invited her for a ride on my motorcycle Sunday afternoon. She soon forgot all about Herr Hitler. She got all excited about a ride on my bike. Just like a woman.
After the parade, Helga and I stopped to see Rose’s father and asked for a pass like he had given me before. He seemed glad to do it. Across the street from police headquarters, there was a big commotion at the Gestapo. I asked what was going on. Her father said some people had been arrested for making trouble at the parade. “Most likely, those people will get a stiff jail sentence.”
“What did they do?” I asked.
“I heard they were hissing at the Fuhrer.” I just shook my head in disbelief. He said, “It’s a sad day in Munich today.” I agreed, then I asked about Rose. He said she was getting along fine, but didn’t know it was going to be so hard to be a Nun. I told him when he writes to give her my best. Then I bid him goodbye.
As we walked home, Helga wanted to know all about my relations with Rose. I could see she was worried about it. I passed it off the best I could. That evening, we had a wonderful meal and a good time playing cards, late into the evening. It started to rain hard around the time I went to bed. It sounded great beating a tattoo on the roof. It put me fast to sleep.
The next morning, Helga woke me up at six a.m. by knocking on my door. I invited her in. She came, sat on my bed and said she was excited to go for our ride. I asked if the streets were wet. She didn’t know. “Does it matter?” I told her it was a little scary to ride on wet pavement. All she said was, “I’ll chance it.” I told her to leave so I could get dressed. She did.
At breakfast, I asked if her mother had given her permission to go for the ride. Her Mom heard and said it was okay as long as I was careful. “I will be,” is all I could say.
We pushed the BMW out onto the drive and I fired her up. Helga hopped on the back, with her arms tight around my chest. I wanted her to ride in the sidecar. She said she wanted to ride on the seat with me. I gently rode the bike out onto the street. The streets were damp but not wet. The going was okay.
We went out the same road Rose and I had gone and stopped at the same lake. There we sat on the grass and had a long conversation about Germany and Hitler. She told me her father had taken the family to the 1936 Olympics. “We were there for the opening ceremonies. It was the most wonderful day. The sky was clear and blue, and all the people were having a good time. The Fuhrer lead a parade into the stadium and trumpets greeted his coming. A large chorus sang {Deutschland uber alles} and also sang “Horst Wessel Lied,” then they sang the Olympic Hymn. It was written by Richard Strauss. All the athletes from the different nations paraded around the stadium. Then the games began. We had to go home. I would have liked to stay and watch the Germans win the most medals. Germany won the whole thing,” she said so proudly.
“America won a few.” I was going to say something about Jesse Owens but she blabbed on so I gave up. We got back home just in time for supper.
November passed so fast I couldn’t believe it was December already. We had lots of snow. It was a real white Christmas. We heard very little news in Germany now. The Doctor’s family was so good to me I hardly missed not being home that Christmas. The Doctor gave a big party for New Years. I had never drunk champagne before; I found it to my liking. I had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 1939!
Chapter 9
Helga – Nazis
Springtime in Munich was beautiful. The snow was gone, the birds and bees were singing and humming everywhere. All the flowers were in bloom, a sweet smell of new mown grass filled your nostrils. The sky was a beautiful blue, big puffy clouds drifted lazily across the heavens. Everything seemed alright in the world for me. My school was going great and my home life was looking up.
Helga and I were becoming good friends. So much so, her mother took me aside to have a friendly heart to heart. “Frank, our Helga is falling for you. All she talks about is you. Do you have any feelings for her?”
Holy Cow, what could I say? “I like her very much. She has quit talking about Hitler and the Nazi party. She asks a lot of questions about my home in America.”
Bette said that she was glad Helga had stopped talking about Hitler. She said she was afraid Helga had a crush on the Fuhrer like a lot of other young girls in Germany. “Now she never says a word about him anymore. I think she is putting her attention on you, Frank. Her father and I approve of that. You are a very nice boy. We’re proud to have you in our home.” Then she shook her finger in my face as she spoke, “We don’t want any funny business out of you two, if you know what I mean.”
“I get your drift.” What could I say to a girl’s mother? I’m not that kind of guy? She wouldn’t believe me anyway. You know all kids our age have a bee in their bonnet, or so I’ve heard. Sometimes my bee gets pretty big. Anyway, I told her I wouldn’t try anything with her daughter. That seemed to satisfy her.
It was funny to me; the very next day Helga invited me on a trip to Nuremberg to attend Nazi Party Day. It was the biggest day of the year for the Nazis. Helga told me that was where Lei Riefenstahl made the movie Triumph of the Will. She wanted to know if I had seen it. I said I had. Then she asked, “How did you like it?”
I said it was okay. What could I say? I didn’t want to make her mad by telling the truth, it was a sorry film. I turned the subject off as soon as I could. I asked if she would go for a ride on my bike. She jumped at the suggestion.
I rolled the baby out of the garage, fired her up. I gave her helmet and goggles. She put them on and jumped into the sidecar. We took off and cruised around town for a while. She was having a great time. She waved to her friends as we passed by. She really got a kick out of the ride.
When we went by the police station, I saw Rose’s daddy standing in the door. He waved and pointed to the Gestapo headquarters across the way.
I looked where he pointed and saw a group of black uniformed men giving us the once over. For some unknown reason, I felt uneasy over that. We circled around a while longer then went to Theresienwiese; it’s a park where a big Oktoberfest like celebration was being held. I guessed it is a new year’s party. I parked the bike and we walked around awhile.
Helga was a pure pleasure to be with. She liked me to tell her about America. Of course, I liked talking of my home. When she got off on Hitler and the new Germany, it was another story.
We found a bench and sat awhile talking. She really got to talking about the Fuhrer and the Nazi party. How wonderful it was that he had made living in Germany for German people bette
r than it had ever been. “Your President should take pointers from our leader.”
This made me mad. I told her, “We have the best type of government there is. Your Fuhrer is a dictator. I don’t want one man having life or death in his hands. I don’t want to live the rest of my life under a dictator. In America, we vote and have a little bit to say how the government is run.” Boy-o-boy did I hit a sore spot.
She answered curly saying, “Your country is a pot of discontent, all the papers in the world say so. Your government treats the minority badly. Your black people are going to revolt one of these days, they’re under the heel of bad people, and all our teachers say so. Why they can’t even drink at the same water fountain and use the same bathroom you do.”
“Yes, we do have some bad things going on, but I never saw a policeman beating or killing our citizens.”
She came back with, “Your country will never be a world power. Germany will rule the world some day. You just wait and see.”
Now she made me real mad. “This man of yours, Mister pompous little Hitler, is just a wimp. He wouldn’t even congratulate Jesse Owens, the world’s greatest athlete, when he won at the Olympic Games in Berlin. What kind of man is like that?”
“Frank,” she said, “We can argue all day and neither of us can be proven right. I like you too much to go on with this conversation.”
I told her she was right. “I like you very much. You have all the things to make any man happy. A beautiful face, lovely hair, a desirable body and a great personality, I could fall for you.” That seemed to make her happy. I added, “You also have great looking legs.” We both laughed at what I had said.
“Thank you, Frank, for the kind words. Will you go with me to Nuremberg next week? The Nazi party has a big celebration every year. I think you would like to see it. Will you go? Please?”
What could I say? She asked so nicely, I said yes without thinking. My afterthought was why I had agreed to go. Holy Cow, I don’t give a rip about the Nazi party or the things they celebrate.
I told her we must get permission from her parents before we make any plans. I was hoping they would say no. We rode on home. She went straight to her mother. She told her mother I wanted to take her to the Nuremberg doings. I stopped her and said, “This is all Helga’s idea, I just agreed to go with her if you said it was okay.”
Bette gave us both a hard look. Then she asked, “How do you plan on going? Not on the motorbike I hope.”
Helga said “No mother, we can take the train and stay at Uncle Ludwig’s house. He lives in Ansback; we can take the train to the party celebration.”
Her Mom looked to me saying, “Frank, if I say okay, no funny business.”
“No funny business from me, I promise.”
Helga spoke up, “We’re going to watch the celebration. Don’t you trust us mother?”
Bette’s response was, “I was young once. I know how your hormones work. Helga, you leave Frank alone, I’m sure he’ll leave you alone.” She knew Helga, that woman was smart. She knew Helga pretty well. Bette gave us permission to go.
We started to make plans to go to Nuremberg. Holy Cow, I really didn’t want to see a bunch of Nazis parade around waving flags and listen to their propaganda. I’m into it now, I’ll have to go.
That evening, I had a long talk with Doctor Wolfe in private. It was about the Nazi party celebration. He said they do it every year at this time. He told me to go and see how bad the people are brainwashed about Hitler and his crowd. “Go, but say nothing. Talking bad about them can get you in trouble.” I said I wouldn’t say anything. Doctor Wolfe was one smart guy. He had my respect.
On March 11th, Nazi Germany troops crossed the frontier of Austria and occupied the country. I told Helga that America would never do such a thing to another country. She said nothing and just shrugged her shoulders. She made a funny face, I gave up.
As the weeks passed, I regretted telling Helga I would go to Nuremberg. I couldn’t think of a way to get out of going. Some girls can get a guy into something he doesn’t want to do. I wouldn’t go if I was paid. Oh well, I must go and make the best of it.
When Helga and I were preparing to go, Doctor Wolfe could see I wasn’t very happy about the whole thing. He took me aside and said, “Last year, the Nuremberg rally was rained out, maybe you’ll get lucky and it will rain again.”
I sure liked the Doctor. “I hope it will rain again. I hope there’s a flood at the rally,” I told him. We both had a good laugh.
When it was time to go, I packed a bag. Bette drove Helga and me to the train station in their Ford auto. It was a cloudy day and it was misting a little. Bette turned in the front seat to talk to the two of us. She shook a finger at us and said, “No funny business out of you two.”
I told her in loud and clear words, “Yes, ma’am.”
Helga got huffy and terribly mad. “Mother,” she said, “We are two adult people. We can make decisions on our own without advice from you. What we do is our business not yours. I’ve a good mind to join the army so you can’t tell me what I should do.”
I thought Bette was going to blow her top. She said in anger and very loudly, “You two behave yourselves.”
Helga pushed me out of the car and headed to the station waiting room. I told Bette we would be on our best behavior. She told me, “I’m not worried about you Frank, it’s my daughter that’s the problem, I can tell what that girl’s thinking, I don’t like it one bit. She has sex on her mind all the time, I can tell.”
I tried to console her. “It will be okay, please don’t worry.” She nodded yes to me.
I went into the station waiting room. There sat Helga with her legs crossed, so anyone looking could see up her dress, I pulled her leg down, that made her even madder. She said so loud everyone in the room could hear, “My mother made me so mad. If we want to have sex, we can, without her permission.”
Holy Cow, I was so embarrassed, I covered my face with my hands. When I looked around, all the people in the room were looking at us and smiling. One old fart gave me a big wink. I said loud so everyone could hear, “Helga, you and I will not do any such thing.”
Thank God the train pulled in about that time. We got on board and into a compartment with just the two of us there. I told her how bad she had made her mother feel. I told her we were not having sex now or maybe never.
This was some girl; she proceeded to move next to me, put her arms around my neck and said while tearing up in a little girl’s voice, “All our teachers say we women should have children for our Fuhrer. I don’t see a thing wrong with that.”
“Helga, I’m not having a child for your Fuhrer, now or ever. I won’t live under a wimp like him.” Boy did the S— hit the fan. She got all curled up in a corner and started to cry. I told her, “Helga, if you’re going to act like a little cry baby, I’m getting off at the next stop.” She turned it around in a second, sat up and dried her tears and acted as if nothing had happened.
She said, “Everything is fine.” She really turned on the charm. “We’ll have a good time at the rally.” In her sweetest voice she said, “I love being with you.”
I said to myself {this girl is not for me, if she can act this way.}
She came over and put her head on my chest, arms around me and told me how much she liked me. “Wouldn’t you like to make love to me?”
“Helga, get off that stuff. If I want a woman, I’ll make the moves. The way you act, you just turn me off.”
She looked me in the eyes and said, “We will see.”
Holy Cow, this girl was not easy to discourage.
The train stopped at the village of Ansback. Only two other people got off besides us. Helga told me her Uncle Ludwig owned a beer hall. It was not far from the station. In a few minutes we were in the hall. She introduced me as her friend Frank, “Our American boarder.” He was Bette’s older brother, a man of immense stature. He was a jolly and friendly man and almost shook my arm off.
He said
he was happy to have us in his home and hoped we would enjoy our stay with him and his wife. We then walked a few blocks to his home. The house was in an upper class neighborhood, a beautiful red brick two story structure. I thought to myself {the beer hall must be a good business.} I found out later he also had two new autos in his garage.
Inside, he introduced me to his wife, a rather heavy set woman with short blond hair, a ready smile and a pretty face. She told us to make ourselves at home. Right away, she showed us pictures of their children, two daughters and a son. Both daughters were married to German soldiers. Both girls had children of their own. We got to see loads of pictures of grandchildren. Their son had just turned twenty-one. He was in training to be a Luftwaffe pilot. I could see the parents were proud of their offspring.
Helga and I were shown separate bedrooms on the second floor. I was told my room was their son’s. I could see the boy was an airplane enthusiast as there were pictures of German military planes on all four walls. It was a beautiful room, overlooking the front yard. It even had its own bathroom. It would be a comfortable and pleasant room to be in.
That evening, we were treated to a wonderful meal. The wife was a great cook. After supper, Helga and I took a walk downtown. This was a really nice clean small town. She took my arm as soon as we started to walk. There were many small shops, reminding me of my home town. We window shopped awhile. The girl was really hanging on me as we walked. I tried not to pay much attention to her.
At a coffee house we went in to have some. The place was full of young people having fun and talking silly. There were quite a few soldiers and their girlfriends. No one paid any attention to us.
Helga and I found a small two person table. We had several cups. We then headed for Uncle Ludwig’s. On the way, this girl got all over me, I mean all over me. I did my best to discourage her. No go. She kept running her hands over me, if you know what I mean.