Parallel Journeys

Helen and Siegfried are supposed to go to a housewarming party for a friend on May 11, but on May 10, the radio broadcasts the invasion of the Nazis. Hitler claims he is only invading the Low Countries to stop France from invading Germany.

The day the Nazis invade Holland, Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, resigns, and Winston Churchill takes his place. Churchill says England won’t survive without victory, and he promises to offer tears, sweat, blood, and hard work.

Helen and Siegfried have friends over, and they feel less helpless, though they realize they lack the power to stop the Nazis. They consider suicide and listen to the radio: All Germans citizens are under house arrest and not allowed outside. Helen and the others have two targets: first, as Jews, and second, as Germans.

They hear a rumor: A British ship is in the Dutch harbor city Ijmuiden and will bring people to England. Violating house arrest, Helen goes outside to find a taxi to take them, but none agree. Siegfried’s cousins try to call, but the phone lines are down. Half full, the ship leaves in the afternoon with Siegfried’s relatives on board.

Holland surrenders on May 14, and the Nazis invade Belgium and Luxembourg. They trap hundreds of thousands of French and England soldiers in Dunkirk, but Hitler waits too long to attack them, and England and France pull off a huge evacuation. Nevertheless, the Germans enter Paris on June 14.

Siegfried thinks the Nazis must attack England right away to win the war. He also believes they must hide and send Doris to a non-Jewish home. To make the inevitable separation less emotional, Helen and Siegfried stop kissing, holding, and hugging their daughter.

On July 2, 1940, the Nazis begin Operation Sealion, in which they attack England, but Britain doesn’t fold, and the Royal Air Force (RAF) shoots down German warplanes and bombs Berlin.

In Holland, the Nazis terrorize the Jews, and Helen and Siegfried make a deal with Ab Reusink. They “sell” everything they have to Ab, and he lets them use their things as long as they’re home. When they have to leave, he’ll store their things for them. When the Nazis come to take their belongings, Ab claims they’re his and shows the receipt. The Nazis have to pay the complete value for the items, and Ab keeps the money for Helen and Siegfried to use. The couple also makes a will for Doris’s future. They don’t want whoever raises her to impose a religion on her. When she’s 18, she can choose her religion.

The Nazis build concentration camps across Poland for alleged enemies. One camp, Auschwitz, is built to systematically kill thousands of people each day.

The Wittlich synagogue has become a prisoner-of-war camp, and there are rumors that the Nazis will deport the remaining Jews to Eastern Europe. Alfons doesn’t give much thought to how Nazis treat the Jews. In the newspaper, he reads how Jews try to adulterate good Germans, but he doesn’t think Jews threaten Germany.

Heinz Ermann’s mom is still in Wittlich, but Alfons avoids her. On a cold November night, Alfons’s grandma summons him to the farm’s milk house, and his grandma comforts the distraught Frau Ermann. As she begins to cry, his grandma tells Alfons to leave.

Later, Alfons tells his grandma the Jews go to Poland to work the land as punishment for their crimes. His grandma asks him if he’d like to work like a slave in Poland. She wonders what the Ermanns ever did to anyone. Alfons believes Auschwitz is a farm, and none of the Hitler Youth think the Final Solution is synonymous with genocide.

The code name for the Nazi invasion of Russia is Operation Barbarossa, and the attack links to the Final Solution: Hitler gives the SS the authority to murder Jews and other alleged enemies as they conquer the Soviet Union.

One morning, returning from a 6 a.m. Mass, Alfons sees the 80 Jews left in Wittlich going to the train station. They have heavy suitcases, and one SA man guards them. No one comes to say goodbye to them.

Though Hitler’s generals thought they should focus on England, not Russia, the attack on Russia starts on June 22, 1941. On July 3, General Franz Halder predicts victory against the unprepared Soviet Union within two weeks. The Hitler Youth believe the Nazis will conquer the Russians. They gather war materials, deliver call-ups, raise money to help people through the winter, and practice shooting.

Though Hitler’s generals want the army to go straight to Moscow (the capital), Hitler directs them toward Ukraine, disrupting the momentum and forcing the Germans soldiers, who weren’t ready to fight in horrendously cold temperatures, to do just that.

Over the radio, Alfons hears calls for winter clothes and furs, and the Hitler Youth gather skis. Three days before Christmas, the Nazis tell Aunt Maria her fiancé is missing in action on the Russian front. Alfons hears her crying and sees her when he serves at Mass.

Appeasing a friend, Helen visits a fortune teller. She predicts Helen will be a widow, a man named Max will change their lives, there’ll be a death in the family, and she’ll have to confront the police. Helen laughs at the fortune teller and doesn’t tell Siegfried she went.

After a while, curiosity triumphs, and Helen asks Siegfried if he knows a person named Max. Siegfried works for a company run by Jews, and the man who takes it over is Max. As he’s Jewish, Siegfried loses his job. He’s upset that Helen saw the fortune teller, and he worries about how they’ll support Doris and his mom, who lives with them.

The Nazi takeover of Holland scares Siegfried’s mom. His brother tries to get her and other relatives visas for Cuba, but Mrs. Wohlfarth doesn’t want to adjust to a new country. She swallows sleeping pills and dies. In a letter, she says Helen and Siegfried can use the money and visas. The police arrive to investigate the death. The fortune teller was right about everything.

Mrs. Wohlfarth’s funeral is on December 7, 1941, when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, a formidable U.S. naval base in Hawaii. They kill over 2,300 people and wreck four battleships. The next morning, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares war against the Axis (Germany, Japan, and Italy), and it becomes an overt member of the Allies (England, Russia, and France, among other countries).

The Nazis retaliate against America’s official entry into the war with stricter measures against Helen and the other Jews in Holland. The Nazis take their phones, bicycles, and radios, and they force them to put their money in a bank. They make every Jew over six wear a yellow star on their clothes.

Across Eastern Europe, the Nazis shoot and gas thousands of Jews a day. The murders are part of a plan top Nazis discuss at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. Using euphemisms like “evacuation” and “emigration,” the Nazis intend to systematically kill Jews and other “undesirables” in concentration camps. This is the Final Solution.

Adolf Eichmann takes notes about the conference. He’s the Nazi official in charge of coordinating the trains that will take the Jews to the death camps. After the war, Israeli agents capture him in Argentina and take him to Israel to stand trial for his role in the Final Solution. In 1962, Israel executes Eichmann.

Alfons thinks of 1942 to early 1944 as the greatest time of his life. Germany is at the height of its power. Only a “glorious death” will stop him from celebrating a World War II victory. The Hitler Youth think that Germany will overcome the Russian setbacks. They have unwavering faith in Hitler and his war machine.

At 14, Alfons leaves the Jungvolk and has the chance to join the elite Flieger Hitlerjugend, the junior air force. Unsure, Alfons asks a teacher. Heights scare him, but the teacher tells him not to be “dumb.” He should accept the opportunity and eventually join the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force.

Air power is the dominant weapon in World War II, and thousands of Germans want to train for the prestigious Luftwaffe. It’s led by Hermann Göring—a sharp fighter pilot in World War I. To honor Göring, Hitler created the title of Reich Marshall, arguably making him the second most important Nazi. Despite his excessive private life, Göring maintains a disciplined Luftwaffe.

Three days before Easter vacation, the Hitler Youth sends Alfons a letter. He must go to the glider camp in Wengerohr to start training. His grandma doesn’t think a teen boy should be flying because it’s dangerous.

In April, Alfons makes his first flight, and he’s entranced. He won’t be a priest but a Luftwaffe pilot. It’s his dream, and his promotions in the Flieger Hitlerjugend cement his loyalty to Hitler and belief in the Master Race. Every Sunday in the spring, he bikes to Wengerohr to try and get more practice, cleaning pans and peeling potatoes in exchange for an extra flight at dusk.

There are different grading certificates, and Alfons and Rabbit (a boy on his flight team), take their B test on the same day. They get perfect marks on the first part, but Rabbit outshines Alfons. Rabbit is the sole glider pilot who never has to retake a flight test.

The Nazis continue to flounder in Russia. They’re battling Soviet troops during the freezing winter near Stalingrad. Lacking supplies and losing soldiers, the German army surrenders on February 3, 1943. In North Africa, the Allies also overwhelm German troops.

Alfons and the Hitler Youth remain confident Nazi Germany can pull out a victory, and the boys ramp up their military training. They go from practicing with rifles to throwing live hand grenades and using machine guns. Alfons becomes a Scharführer (troop leader) and commands 50 boys.