The Boy Who Went to War by Giles Milton Page B

rebellion. On one occasion he helped himself to a rifle from the Hitler Youth, took it home with him and shot out all the windows of a nearby water tower, one by one. It could have landed him in serious trouble, but no one ever discovered that he was the culprit.
    It was fortunate that Peter and his siblings were extremely musical. They were soon co-opted into the orchestra of the local Hitler Youth, along with their church friends and the children of other cultured people from Pforzheim. This was in fact a useful escape route for those who abhorred Nazism, shielding them from the more militaristic elements of the organisation whilst allowing them to indulge their favourite pastime.
    On one occasion, the children were asked to give a concert to an assembled crowd of local Nazis, performing Haydn’s ‘Emperor’ Quartet – Opus 76. When they reached the famous adagio, whose music had been the setting for the German anthem ‘Deutschland über alles’, there was sudden pandemonium. All the Nazis rose to their feet, clipped their heels together and stood to attention for the duration of the adagio, leaving the young musicians perplexed and not a little amused.
    Although the Aïchele and Rodi children despised most elements of the Hitler Youth, many of Pforzheim’s youngsters thought it was terrific fun. Hannelore Schottgen had voluntarily joined her local branch of the League of German Girls and liked the feeling of belonging to a group. The leaders told the girls not to listen to their parents or even to let the old people have any say in their lives. ‘The future,’ they would say, ‘is yours.’
    Hannelore’s mother had initially resisted her daughter joining the League because she thought it unseemly for young girls to be marching through the streets, but eventually relented. The impressionable young Hannelore was taught that girls were to be involved in building the new Germany and should show their gratitude and love for the Führer.
    On one occasion, a group of Pforzheim children was chosen to go to Nuremberg in order to see Hitler addressing a mass rally. Hannelore was desperate to be selected because she had been told that when women met Hitler they often collapsed with joy. Her neighbour’s husband had been deeply moved by his own experience. He had shaken hands with the Führer and had not washed his right hand for weeks afterwards.
    Hannelore was to be disappointed. When the time came for the selection process, she was told that she was not tall enough to represent the typical German youth.
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    By the summer of 1937, even a little backwater like Eutingen had fallen prey to the Nazi revolution. One of the local functionaries, an enthusiastic Nazi named August Issel, was determined to impose discipline on his diminutive fiefdom. His tenure brought changes both great and small to the daily routine of village life, and it was often the small ones that caused the greatest annoyance.
    The rules on flags were among the more tiresome instances of state interference. On every public holiday and Nazi-inspired festivity, everyone in the country was required to hang out a swastika.
    It soon came to the attention of Herr Issel that there was one family in Eutingen who never displayed a flag. Wolfram’s parents had no desire to hoist one above their property; they had managed to flout the rules for several years by virtue of the fact that their villa lay at some distance from the centre of the village. Herr Issel was unimpressed by their lack of enthusiasm for the Nazi cause and ordered them to hang out a swastika flag like everyone else.
    Although extremely unhappy about this, Wolfram’s mother and father had little option but to comply. They erected an enormous wooden flagpole in the garden in order to show their goodwill, then painted it with tar to preserve the woodwork.
    As they suspected, the tar remained sticky for weeks, preventing them from hoisting any