Fee-Christine Aks - Thoughts are Free

Paul wanted to know from his father, why the Führer and his Reich Minister of Propaganda chose the Jews to go after, out of all people? Is the weird Nazi’s Raciology the reason for all this? It states that Jews are inferior to the Arian Master Race.

That’s all rubbish, Father said, a pseudo-scientifically justification for the exclusion of one part of the population. The bad part about it is that the majority of all Reich citizens believe that explanation without ever questioning it, so there are not many people pro-Jewish.

Jews have been an expelled and hunted group of people for centuries and have always been outsiders in society. That’s probably why they were picked by the Nazis and the Führer to blame them for everything. Even Emperor Wilhelm back then didn’t really mean well. He just didn’t hate them as much as the Führer does.

Paul cannot understand at all what the Führer has against people like the Lipowetzkys, the Goldbergs or the Giesemanns. They are just normal people, human beings like him and Axel. Just like the Führer is. He is just a human being as well. He has red blood running through his veins like everybody else has.

“Still his people and the Führer think they are something better”, Father says.

Paul can’t really comprehend all that. He hopes though that he will one day. “Earlier today they picked up the old Silberstein woman”, Herr Behm continues. Frau Silberstein, the old lady from No. 38? Paul has a hard time believing it.

“She deserved it, that old witch”, Frau Behm rants.

Just last week Frau Silberstein took the last badge of dried vegetables at the store, right when Frau Behm wanted to get it. After that, Frau Behm told everyone, that Frau Silberstein is a witch.

Father just silently shook his head, when Paul told him about that. If he could imagine Frau Silberstein flying on a broom for Walpurgis Night, Father had asked him then. Paul couldn’t imagine. He still couldn’t, when Frau Behm told Frau Schulze she had seen Frau Silberstein cooking devilish potions in her kitchen.

Frau Silberstein knows about herbal remedies and has “healing hands”. She has helped Katja Lipowetzky to deliver Alina. Paul has to think about Frau Silberstein’s wrinkly face with those shiny, quick eyes, and about her silver hair. Back then, when there still was candy to be bought at the shops, she always gave him and the other children something sweet. That nice old lady was picked up? Paul doesn’t want to know, where she is taken and what they will do to her.

“The Führer is right”, Herr Behm carries on. “Those Jews are damaging the German nation’s reputation.”

“Yes, indeed”, nods Herr Braun. “That is why it’s so important to get rid of all public enemies.”

“I agree with you”, Herr Behm replies. “Heil Hitler!”

“Heil Hitler!” Herr Braun salutes and disappears in the stairway.

Herr and Frau Behm walk across the yard and through the adjacent house into the parallel street. They probably are going to Frau Steiner’s little shop, but she doesn’t have anything to sell anymore. She didn’t get any deliveries since last week. Mother was very upset, when she came from the store with nothing but some dried vegetables. There is nothing else to get.

Axel enters the yard. When he sees Paul sitting on the bar, he waves his hand. Paul waves back and jumps down. Axel is his best friend.

“Hey Paul!” Axel shouts now. “We were supposed to go looking for wood, remember?”

That is true, Paul remembers now. They need wood for heating. Furthermore they don’t know how long the charcoals will last; and when they are out, they will have to use the wood stove in the living room for cooking. So they need wood for that, too. The friends take a saw and sacks and head out.

Axel is in a good mood and talks the entire time. Paul walks silently next to his friend and keeps thinking. He won’t understand what Herr Braun has said earlier. Why is Frau Silberstein damaging the reputation of the German nation?

Or the Lipowetzkys? Or Liza Giesemann?

And why does Herr Braun call them ‘public enemies’? Those people don’t do anything to the nation or the Führer. More dangerous for the Führer are the people that tell the truth: Resistance groups, Red Hein, Father. He flinches a little scared. If anybody had heard, what he just thought!

“Hey Paul! Are you dreaming?”

Axel nudges him.

“Well? What?”

Paul slowly finds back to his senses. Kind of scary, what he just thought about…

“I just said that we could go to the zoo”, Axel repeats.

“There’s probably just some wood lying around waiting for us. And if not” he points at the saw, “we just cut the trees.”

Axel expects some applause or at least some appreciation for his great idea. But Paul’s thoughts have already wandered off. He still thinks about the conversation he overheard.

Father is right, the Behms and Herr Braun always cheer so much for the Führer and tell exactly the same rubbish. Paul remembers the summer well, when the Führer visited Hamburg and held a speech on the city hall’s balcony.

Father and Paul stood all the way in the back close to St. Peter’s church and could only make out a tiny brown haired man on the balcony, gesturing like a maniac while he was talking.

The excited crowd cheered, jumped around and applauded. Just in the back, where they were standing, people didn’t cheer. Those were all comrades and friends of Father’s: Communists and some Socialists.

The man on the balcony could be heard from the very last row. He shouted so everybody could hear him. Paul can remember the people in front of him that were all ears and hypnotised by everything that man said. He talked about German pride, German unity and the upcoming victory of the German troops. Back home Paul learned from his father that the Führer wasn’t even a German, he was born in Austria.

At school, Herr Wolf told them about the ‘German Ideal’ and the ‘Race Theory’ that puts the Arians on top; and the Jews rank at the bottom as they are the inferior race. A real German has to be tall, blonde and blue eyed. Moreover, a real German has to be slim, athletic, brave, earnest and faithfully. Back then Paul already doubted that this is really true. At last there are many honest people that have dark hair. They may not be athletic, but earnest and good.

He also believes that others could be just like this – the English, the French, the Russians, the Polish or the Jewish. Are you really able to use the hair- or eye colour of an individual as an indicator for personal qualities?

Paul knows many people that are blonde as well as blue-eyed and they are bad, mean and cowards. A good example would be boys like Gunnar Berger, he knows from school. They are swollen with pride, when they wear the black uniform of the Hitler Youth (HJ).

He knows the opposite, too. Father neither has blonde hair nor blue eyes. But you can always rely on him. In addition, he is righteous and truth-loving.

Maybe hazel brown curls are an advantage, when it comes to athleticism. At least, if someone has long legs and is skillful like Paul. Back then, he always was the best in class, when it came to running, jumping or tossing. Better than Axel or Kalle that are both blonde and blue-eyed. He can’t really tell, if he is particularly brave. But he is earnest and honest, something not many can say about themselves.

At least, he is more brave and honest than, for example, Herr Braun and Herr Wolf. They just parrot the Führer and don’t have their own opinion anymore. If they had one and would stick to it like Father, they could be considered brave.

“Here, bag this.”

Axel hands Paul some branches. They are in the zoo. The trees already lost all their leaves. And many didn’t just lose their leaves; most of them are cut down. Paul takes the pieces of wood Axel hands him and packs them in their bags.