Hitler Youth Personal Account: Mischlinge--Frank A. Lojewski


Figure 1.--

After reading a few personal accounts, I thought I'd add something. It appears that the HJ differed somewhat from region to region. My maternal grandparents lived in W'haven. In first grade I lived with them. On my way to school - no busses!!! _ I walked with a girl with blonde braids, whom I met at her home. As a boy, I was not aware of being Jewish. In fact, I never felt or feel now as being Jewish, just as I do not feel Polish, in spite of my last name. I cannot remember in the three schools, two urban, one village school, of any anti-semitic lectures or remarks. Especially in the village one room school What would have been the point with no Jews about. Ditto in W'haven and Wesermuende (now Bremerhaven). All Mischlinge where induced in the last years to "save" the Aryan half from that "evil" Jewish portion in the "blood". In the autumn of 1944 it caught up with me, although I was barely past 7 years old but abnormally tall (and skinny). My elder borther and sister were already members. I was happy to donne the nice black unifor and be issued long trousers and a dagger. The uniform was made of sackcloth, the knive was dull enough to ride on and the bakalite handle was loose and rattled: war-time junk. The real propaganda emphasis in the HJ was focussed on the US/British Morgenthau Plan, ruralization and de-industrialization of post-war Germany. After the second big bombing of B'haven, when most of the town was burned out and about 50 percent of the population perished (about 55,000 persons), and after some "thinking" higher up, kids mwere moved, without mothers or other relatives, to farms. HJ members served as escorts until they reached their destination.

Northern Germany

It appears that the HJ differed somewhat from region to region. Well, what can I say to all this? Was there less anti-semitism in Northern Germany? I do not know. Certainly there were not many Jews in the cities I grew up in. Our shoe merchant was Jewish, of course with a non-Jewish wife, a big blonde woman.

Grandmother

My maternal grandparents lived in W'haven. In first grade I lived with them. On my way to school - no busses!!! _ I walked with a girl with blonde braids, whom I met at her home. That was a Wilhelminian (Victorian) brick house with wrought iron fence. I was totally in love. Long after the war I found our that my grandmother was a good friend of her fatherm the head of the W'haven Gestapo. Oma was a Hungarian jewess with a goy husband.

Family

As a boy, I was not aware of being Jewish. In fact, I never felt or feel now as being Jewish, just as I do not feel Polish, in spite of my last name. I am what I am, not what either I or others would wish me to be. My mother was classified non-Aryan, but as half-jewsih, she had to have her Aryan part "rescued" and was forced to join the Frauenschaft, whatever that outfit was. Oma ( maternal grandmother) was a fantastic linguist who spoke of course Magyar, Jiddish, German, Ukrainian, Russian, Plish, French and some English, worked during the war as translater at the naval shipyard. Having a "Aryan" husband who was member of Stahlhelm and Nazi sympathetic (anti Seminitism was not the centre-piece of sole ralying course of the Nazis by any stretch of the imagination), I never saw her wear a Star of David. At least I cannot remember it. During the early part of the war. right after the first bombing of W'haven in early September 1939, I moved with my elder brother, sister, and youngest uncle to Vienna to live with my Jewish relatives for over a year. I cannnot rember much of that except a strange dinner once with people in black cloths, men with tall black hats and beards at the finner table in candle light. It was probably at a Seder, and I rember my father picking us up. That was becasue he wore his naval winter uniform with all that gold trim and a dagger at the side. One relative sold her things and moved to Switzerland with her money, the others followed orders : Evacuation to Poland. Some survived, others not. I do not know of their fate.

Schools

I cannot remember in the three schools, two urban, one village school, of any anti-semitic lectures or remarks. Especially in the village one room school What would have been the point with no Jews about. Ditto in W'haven and Wesermuende (now Bremerhaven).

Hitler Youth

All Mischlinge where induced in the last years to "save" the Aryan half from that "evil" Jewish portion in the "blood". In the autumn of 1944 it caught up with me, although I was barely past 7 years old but abnormally tall (and skinny). My elder borther and sister were already members. I was happy to donne the nice black uniform and be issued long trousers and a dagger. The uniform was made of sackcloth, the knive was dull enough to ride on and the bakalite handle was loose and rattled: war-time junk. Overall, this being the far north of Germany, the fact that my maternal grandmother was Jewish never was raised and I believe few knew of it. Most of what we did was "Aufraeumungsarbeit". That is, we had to clear rubble of the bombed out sections, search the cellars and basements - flooded and ready to collapse.- for survivors and dead. It was not fun by any imagination. However, in the entertainment section of the city where the hotels and restaurants used to be, there were all kinds of canned goodies and bottles of fun stuff on shelves, which I burnt into my memory for later visits. Taking items from bombed out building was "plundering" and was threatened with execution or KZ. Hence, I went at night and then stashed the loot in areas not likely to be searched.

The Bombing

As to bombing, it was not pleasant. German bombing of England accordiong to my London friends(all West Londoners, of course), was concentrated on East London with its factories, with the principal objectives war production The German bombers and equipment was anyhow too inefficient for carpet bombing and too small in numbers. Moreover, they used explosive bombs. One friend of mine, a physician who grew up in Kensington, loved to watch the airial fights over East London. That, in W'haven or B'haven, would have ment sure death. British bombing was - check British records - aimed at civilians as main target, at least since 1940. US target were initially industrial, but soon followed followed the British lead. Joan Robinson, when visiting prof, from whom I took a graduate seminar at UC, was in bombing strategy and planning and apologized to me personally. I shrugged the whole thing off, since war is beastly which ever way one looks at it. The fire bombing with phosphorus, the fore runner of napalm, was anything but pleasant.

HJ Prpaganda

The real propaganda emphasis in the HJ was focussed on the US/British Morgenthau Plan, ruralization and de-industrialization of post-war Germany, i.e. killing off at least 3/4 of the population. [HBC note: Henry Morgenthau was the Secretary of the Trasury and a confident of President Roosevelt. He was not deeply involved in ethnic politics, but he was shoicked when he learned of the mass killings of Jews. He drafted a plan for how the Allies should administer Germany after the War which is now known as the Morgenthau Plan. The Plan was never adopted as official U.S. policy. It did entail turning Germany into an agrarian nation. It never, however, entailed the killing of Germans.] We were told of it and that the bombing was given as a fore taste of things to come. Actually, I cannot remember Jews being memtioned during talks. In fact, I was unaware that Morgenthal was a predominantly Jewish name. When I arrived in the US in the later 1950's it sounded simply German. As late as 1958 I would have had real difficulties distinguishing "Jewsish" names from "German" names. In the US military I was in fact shocked by some of the virulent anti-Semitism and utterly brutal comments I was doused with because I was supposedly a sympathetic ear, being German. Anyhow, most of the meeting dealt with work assignments, relief of bombed out people and the steady stream of people from the East. We learned a few slogans, but there appeared to be relatively little time or enthusiasm to chew on matters as meaningless as Jews who few people knew. Among us boys most of the talk was ordinary boys talk. Politics was of no concern, defusing bombs, playing with unexploded fire bombs (real fun, we tossed them at the adge of the bombed out public swimming pool so the thermite would bubble and glow under the water), blow up walls in the ruined centre of town - completely illegal but fun, nevertheless. SUch were the Kafkaesque days of the waning of the 3rd Reich.

Evacuations

After the second big bombing of B'haven, when most of the town was burned out and about 50 percent of the population perished (about 55,000 persons), and after some "thinking" higher up, kids mwere moved, without mothers or other relatives, to farms. HJ members served as escorts until they reached their destination. Escorts functions to keep order and help smaller children during air attacks on trains and the strafing of running kids when the train stopped.

POWs

I saw a lot of POWs, since I grew up on and around military bases, and in the villag from autumn '44 to spring '45. Most were Russians. The farm on which I was qurtered had a bunch of Ruusian mem and women, one Belgian or Brit, I am not sure, and a very tall Frenchman. I got along splendidly with the Russian, can barely remember that Brit/Bel or whatever, but disliked that Frenchman. He was tall and always was wielding a big claspknife, slicing apples or pears to eat. He viewed me with suspicion, and I him. I because he had that knife and was imposing, he probably disliked me because I wore that black uniform (the only cloth I had). There was one elderly guard for all prisoners, armed with a bayonet. He would take the prisoners to the "camp", and brought them to their assigned farms to work, there not being any male Germans below 60 years of age except for the sole teacher and the Golden Pheasant (draft-dodging, fire-breathing party official). The camp was a big old barn, with naked toddlers and babies of the prisoners. The prisoners would eat with the farmer's women and children. At my farm, men had little tables along the wall, the women, including the Russians, ate with us at the big table. I heared - but that's rumour - that that cowardly party hack once in a while whipped prisoners. Since I despised the character, I might be making this up, who knows.

Final Weeks

When, in the last weeks of the war, we went to defend that last pocket in the north, we - not just I - knew we would be dead and wanted to sell our lives a dear as possible. Party, Hitler, fatherland, all that ment absolutely nothing to us little cynics. I recall once, in the last week or so of April, we were to salute with the usual" Fuer Fuehrer, Volk und Vaterland." Someone started (we were with a couple of exceptions like me, between 10 and 13 years old).to screame" fuer Scheissfuehrer", and the rest of us, as if rehersed, howled "Scheissvolk und Scheissvaterland".






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Created: 5:59 PM 12/1/2004
Last updates: 7:15 PM 11/9/2011