The Boy Who Went to War by Giles Milton Page A

I don’t know him.’
    The man was thunderstruck. ‘Hitler!’ he exclaimed. ‘Surely you must know Hitler?’
    â€˜No,’ replied Walter. ‘Can’t say I do. No one called Hitler has ever come round to my house.’
    The man persisted. ‘But you are German?’
    â€˜I guess I must be,’ said Walter. ‘That’s what it says in my passport.’
    The man looked away in bewilderment, not wishing to pursue a conversation with someone so obviously deranged. Walter let out a sigh of relief: he had once more managed not to compromise his values and opinions. But the incident served as a stark warning that he lived in a land where freedom of expression was increasingly a thing of the past.
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    As the Nazi grip over daily life tightened, it became ever more difficult to avoid the strong arm of the state. The Hitler Youth was one of the most unwelcome intrusions into the lives of both the Aïchele and the Rodi families.
    At the time of Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, the Hitler Youth was just one among scores of organisations, with a membership of a mere 55,000. Within twelve months, virtually all other youth groups had been ‘co-ordinated’ as children across Germany were automatically co-opted into the Hitler Youth.
    There were still many who did not join and Wolfram was one of them. However, it soon became clear that the nonconformists would be dragged forcibly into line. Shortly before Christmas 1936, Hitler signed a decree that made the Hitler Youth an official educational institution. ‘All German young people,’ he declared, ‘apart from being educated at home and at school, will be educated in the Hitler Youth, physically, intellectually and morally, in the spirit of National Socialism to serve the nation and the community.’
    Wolfram was dreading his first Saturday morning at the Hitler Youth, for he loathed being told what to do. To his great surprise, the experience proved far more enjoyable than he had expected. His age group was led by a sympathetic young theology student who got the children building camps in the woods and cooking around open fires.
    That first outing was also the last that he led. On the following week he was replaced by an enthusiastic apparatchik of the Nazi Party who dutifully implemented all the new directives issued by his seniors. Henceforth, Wolfram and his friends would spend their time marching, drilling and learning how to pitch and strike tents.
    What particularly upset Wolfram was the fact that he no longer had time to head into the countryside on his bicycle in order to draw and paint. He complained to his father, who was so angered by these impositions that he asked his friend Dr Vögtle to write a letter excusing Wolfram from attendance on grounds of ill health.
    The doctor was more than willing to oblige. Considered a crank by some in the local community, he, like Wolfram’s parents, had designed his own house. He had built it with a flat roof, for which he was roundly condemned by his neighbours, who claimed that true Germanic houses never had flat roofs and attacked him for his ‘un-German’ behaviour.
    Dr Vögtle had a soft spot for Wolfram and celebrated the fact that he was so different from his peers. He duly wrote a letter excusing both Wolfram and his brother from the Hitler Youth on the grounds that they had weak constitutions. For the next thirty-six months, Wolfram managed to avoid going to a single meeting.
    His case was far from usual. For most youngsters, opting out was not so easy. Peter Rodi, two years younger than Wolfram, was forced to join in 1936, when he was ten years old. He went twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and found it a complete waste of time. He disliked the war games and sporting activities, as well as the fact that he had to wear a uniform.
    From an early age Peter had displayed a defiant streak that now developed into outright adolescent