Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

"Is the Bannführer there?" Günter asked, "He wanted to see us." "Just wait here a moment," and the girl disappeared through another door.

"He is down the corridor, the last office on your right," she said when she came back.

As we entered, we both stood at attention, greeting him with "Heil Hitler", as we had learnt.

The man was in his late twenties, rather mature from our point of view. He was in uniform, wearing the black cord from his epaulet to his side pocket, the symbol of Bannführer, in charge of the Hitler Youth in the whole province of Posen.

As we made ourselves as comfortable as we could on the hard chairs in front of his desk, he came straight to the point: "I have heard from your group leader, that you have been missing a lot of meetings recently. Can you tell me why?"

I looked at Günter, he looked at me. Then he said: "We always go home for the weekends, we are never here. We actually live in Schönsee, we only go to school here in Posen."

"I see," he said, looking straight at Günter first, then at me. "And why don't you join a group in Schönsee then?"

"There is none," I said quickly, hoping that that would end our interrogation.

"Well, why don't you start one there, if there is none?" came his unexpected reply.

"There are not enough Germans there," said Günter. "Didn't your village get some new settlers from Besarabia, and the Germans from the Volga, who have been recently liberated by our victorious German army from Soviet oppression?"

"Yes, some." "Then you can recruit them and start a new group in Schönsee, is that understood?"

"But there are only three or four families in our village, that wouldn't be enough for a group."

I had to give full credit for persistency to Günter, but I didn't know, how persistent the Bannführer could be. Looking at the map of the Province of Posen, he said: "Then you join up with another village nearby, and get all the young boys together there."

"That could only be in Strykowo," Günter said quickly. Neither of us wanted to go anywhere else.

"Okay. I order you then to start a group in Strykowo. I'll appoint you to be the leader of your region, and Dieter, you can be your brother's assistant. Later I'll make you the group leader, once one has been established. Good luck to you, and report back to me, as soon as you've got the group going."

Back in our room, we looked at each other with mixed feelings.

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