Mother is mad. She is standing in front of the main gate and shouted loud: “Sophie! Come to eat!”
Where is Sophie? “Mom!” Where did that come from? There! In the tree!
“Sophie!”
Two minutes later Sophie is standing in front of her.
“Act your age! You’re not a toddler anymore, Sophie! Others are already commenting on you. Always with the boys! And your hair!”
Sophie’s hair is like a boy. Long in the front and short in the back.
Mom is concerned. They live in Ulm. That’s a provincial city. There, people talk a lot.
And now, most girls have braids and wear long skirts.
Other than that, Sophie is just like the others. She also wants to join the organization for girls. the League of German Girls (BDM), there she can meet everyone: they sing and do sports, they go to the countryside and have fun together. Of course, it is a bit military, but Sophie likes it.
“In BDM?” Sophie’s father is not excited.
“Yeah, dad. You don’t understand it! You are too old and can’t understand us youth!”
“With the Nazis!”
“Yes, dad, a new Germany! And we can sing and march together. Of course we don’t want to stay in all the time!”
The father didn’t say anything else. His sons are already in the Hitler Youth (HJ). He couldn’t do anything about that. And it’s also better for them: whoever not in this organization, can’t go through school easily.
“All for the Pied Piper of Hamelin! He’s a criminal!”
“Ah! Dad!”
On the weekend, the girls go to the countryside. 27 singing girls are on their bicycles.
The pedestrians all stopped walking and observed them for a bit.
They rode on, and after a few hours they are tired.
But they’re in a good mood. The countryside is beautiful and they continued to sing.
Finally, they stopped in the afternoon and put the bikes under the trees.
They built their tents together.
Then they lit a fire in the middle. They sat around it and ate together.
Two of them brought their guitars.
Slowly, the sky turned dark. They sang german folksmusic together.
It’s already late when they returned into their tents.
And obviously,they didn’t want to sleep just yet.
“Was that not a fantastic day?” Gisela asked.
“Wonderful!” others called out.
“It’s so good now BDM is formed! Do you guys still remember, how boring the last few years were?”
“Yeah, we weren’t together. The Catholics go together and the Evangelists go together…But now, we form a community together.” said Gerda, the group’s guider, “Since Hitler’s in charge, we’re actually becoming a nation!”
But one of the girls didn’t understand it. “But all those with the Jews…Why does he hate them so much?” Anna asked.
“Ah,” Gerda answered, “but that doesn’t mean he’s evil. That’s also not really important. Think about the bright side!”
Sophie didn’t say anything. She enjoyed it in BDM. And she liked the new Germany a lot.
Her brother Hans joined the Hitler Youth along with his boy group.
It’s been quite a bit of time since they’ve wandered around and sang together. They love their country. They love the free nature. They like to run and swim in ice-cold rivers and lakes. It seemed only reasonable of them to support the new Germany. Hans is now the guider of the group.
Soon, they met with the first challenge. The boys always sang french and russian songs. At Hitler Youth they could only sing german ones. They didn’t understand why.
The group had a really beautiful flag, on which a dragon can be seen. They made it by themselves. Now they can’t take it with them anymore. “Hitler Youth has a flag!” a guide said to them, “One nation, one empire, one headman! And one flag!” The boys are sad. But they still remained in Hitler Youth.
Then Hans could go to Nuremberg as a representative of the Ulm Hitler Youth.
He is very proud.
In Nuremberg, a big party congress is held. People from all parts of germany come. There is a big parade. Hitler will make a speech.
The boys on his group saw him to the train station. Sophie also came. She is so proud of her brother.
On the evening of Sunday, Hans came back home. Sophie ran to him. He looked tired. The trip?
“Did you see the headman?”
“Yeah, I did…” But Hans didn’t seem excited.
“What happened then? Was it not fun?”
“I don’t know. Everything uniformed. Everyone marched. Everyone shouted:’Hail!’. I always thought, Germans ought to have given it their best, everyone should’ve shown their imagination and intelligence. But the Nazis only knew discipline and ‘Hail’! That can’t be the new Germany.”
“The Nazis?” Sophie didn’t understand him. He never said anything of that kind. Is Hans also one of the olds? She went to bed sadly.
After a few weeks, Sophie’s teacher suddenly disappeared. Mr Brenzel, the nicest in the school… “Is he ill?”
“SA took him.” a classmate said, “It was twelve to one. They all stood in front of his apartment and spat at him. Then they brought him into the car.”
Sophie ran to her teacher’s apartment. His mother opened the door. Her eyes were red.
“Ah, my child, he is now in a concentration camp. He always said that Hitler is a criminal and wanted war. Why didn’t he just keep his mouth shut?” She cried.
Sophie knew: her teacher didn’t like the Nazis. He had always said that in class. But he was a good man and always listened to the girls in BDM.
“Yes, but when can he come back? Can we maybe help him?” Sophie wanted to know that.
“You definitely don’t know what you’re saying. Concentration camp! I’m never gonna see him again!” Then she shut the door.
Sophie ran home. Her father is sitting in the kitchen.
“Mr Brenzel is in a concentration camp!” Sophie said.
Her father nodded. “He always said what he had thought.”
“But what’s a concentration camp, dad?”
“It’s like a prison. But the prisoners live in wooden shacks and must work. They only have a little to eat and there are only a few doctors. The people, whom Nazis didn’t like, will come there. Without any sort of trial. And how long they have to stay, nobody knows. Many never returned home.”
“But that…he only…”
“Said something wrong, yes. This is what happens in Germany now.”