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 better 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.
At the house, we sat in a porch swing to enjoy the cool evening air. She began to try to kiss me. I did my best to turn her off. Finally, I gave in a little and gave her a good kiss on the lips. Shouldn’t have done that. She was a heck of a good kisser. Thank goodness her Uncle came out and insisted we come in and listen to the Fuhrer making a radio speech.
Hitler was saying how good it was to have all his friends and old army buddies coming to the rally. He went on and on for two hours. Boring, boring. The three of them hung on his every word. I was ready to blow my stack and throw up. I was glad when he finished and everyone wanted to go to bed.
Up in my room, I took a long hot soaking bath. Hitler’s words rung in my head. I thought how anyone could fall for his bulls–t. I put on my pj’s and slipped into bed. Before I could turn off the light, Helga came thru the door, wearing the sheerest night-gown I had ever seen. I could see all she had and then some. God, she was a well built woman. I told her in my harshest words she should get the heck out of my room. “I promised your mother, don’t make me break it.” She paid no mind at all. The gown dropped to the floor. She slipped right into my bed stark naked. What a deal! It took all I had to resist. It was a hard time, if you know what I mean.
I asked, “What if your Uncle and Aunt found you in my bed?”
“They sleep downstairs and I don’t care what they think.” She sounded positive, so I jumped up, went into the bathroom and locked the door. I filled the tub with cold water and sat there for what seemed like hours, I will never know how long I sat there. It was the hardest time I had ever had, turning down this beautiful girl. It was a real challenge. When I peeked into the room, she was gone. Thank the Lord; I locked the door, fell into bed and fell asleep after awhile.
I didn’t hear a thing until she was knocking on my room, calling for me to come to breakfast. “Hurry,” she called, “We will miss our train to Nuremberg.” I could care less, but I did get dressed, went down and had a great meal. The four of us caught the train to the rally.
You should have been there. I never saw so many uniformed people, young and old alike. There were half a dozen bands playing as loud as they could. They played the Nazi marching song over and over. I thought I would lose my hearing. Flags were everywhere. All had a big black swastika in a white circle on a red background. There were Iron crosses on long poles carried by the Hitler youth, so Helga said.
This whole horde of people was marching around what seemed like hours. They sang the Horst Wessel marching song too loud, I thought I would go deaf, and then things got really bad, the speeches started. There were six speakers; Heir Hitler came to the podium. The whole place jumped up, gave the Nazi salute and yelled “Heil Hitler” over and over again. Finally, he made them stop, I was dumbfounded at this display.
The man talked for hours. When he wasn’t talking, he was yelling. He yelled and screamed like he did at the Dreesen Hotel, like he did when I met him before. He kept telling how much he loved the Fatherland and the German people. How he would never let them down and would always take care of them. By the time he finished, I was sick, sick of the whole thing. Wishing I had never come. The people went crazy when he finished. How they carried on, I could not believe.
We four walked back downtown and went to a café Uncle Ludwig said served good meals. Indeed it did, we had a most delicious sauerkraut and franks supper. It did take some time to get served as the place was a little overcrowded
After supper, we returned to the rally to see a night time exposition. I never had seen anything like it. All these people came marching in carrying flags, banners and torches. The marchers pranced around for over an hour. Again, there were more speeches. I want-a tell ya, I had had it by the time it was over.
It was well after midnight by the time we got back to Uncle Ludwig’s house. I was dead tired, so were the rest of my companions. We all said good night and off to bed. Helga stopped me and said in a sweet voice, “I’m not too tired to see you later.” Holy Cow, didn’t she ever give up.
“No,” I said, “I’m going to bed.” I locked my door, took a hot bath and hit the hay. I slept until Uncle Ludwig woke me calling me to breakfast.
At breakfast, Helga said nothing to me. She did say in a sharp voice, “Let’s go home.” On the train, she didn’t talk at all, at least not to me. At the station, she rushed off and called her mother to come for us. On the way home, Helga said nothing to me or her mother. I tried to make some conversation to no avail. Helga said nothing to me or her mother. At the house she jumped out of the car and into the back porch slamming the door as she went.
Bette knew Helga and I were not speaking. “What happened between you two?” she asked.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing,” I replied.
“Ha!” she said. “Helga tried something and you turned her down. Isn’t that right, Frank?”
I told her, “All I wanted was to be friends with her.”
Bette was one smart woman. She told me Helga would come around and we would be friends again.
That did not happen; Helga would not even talk or look at me. She kept bringing men home to introduce to her folks. One was an SS man. She told her folks she was going to live with him. Her Mother and Father took her news very sadly. Helga moved in with him in an apartment uptown.
Summer came. I looked for a job for the summer while school was out. I found one at Mrs. Dreesen’s hotel. She put me to work as a bellboy. I got to really like doing the job. Everybody said I was good at doing bellboy work.
I had worked there about a month when I got a letter directing me to come to Gestapo headquarters the following Monday. Wow! I wondered what the heck this was all about. I went on my bike to see Rose’s father to see if he could shed some light on the situation. He had no idea. “Frank,” he said, “Come see me just before you go over there. I’ll try to find out what they’re up to. I want to see how long they keep you.” What a good friend he was to worry about me.
“I guess they will ask a lot of questions about the people you have come in contact with while living here. If they ask about me, tell them all you know. I have nothing to hide.” I was really puzzled by his remarks.
I told him, “All the people I know are good Germans. Most of the Jews I know are leaving or are already gone.”
“They may be looking to see how your friends feel about the Nazi party and what they have told you.” I just stood there shaking my head. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. “If anyone has confided to you, try not to mention it to them.” I said I would keep a closed mouth.
I thanked him and rode my bike on home. I want-a tell ya, the next few days I had bad feelings of things to come. Doctor Wolfe and all the family gave me a cool time the next few days. I had told them all where I had to go. I guess they were worried I might say bad things about them. Heck, I would never do that. I hoped all would go well for me and my friends.
At Gestapo Headquarters, the whole thing did not amount to much. A big burley guy in a black uniform asked a lot of questions about my being in Germany. He said in a rather nasty tone, “We don’t want you Americans here. Why don’t you go home?”
I said nothing in return. He told me in no uncertain words to get out of his office. I obliged.
At the hotel, Mrs. Dreesen told me to get my money out of the bank and close my account. She also told me to write my Uncle not to send any more money. I took her advice.
At home, I found the Doctor and Bette in a sad situation; both their sons were taken to a Nazi youth camp. Doctor Wolfe said very sadly, “I have lost all my children.”
I’ve never felt so bad in my life for anyone before. It got a heck of a lot worse for me, more than I could ever imagine.