Later that day they decided to go downtown, wearing their uniforms as military protocol required. They split up, agreeing to meet for coffee in an hour.
However, Russ and Perry were not the only Foresters in Owen Sound. Russ was just across the 10th Street Bridge when he heard someone shout, “There’s one of ’em!”
Russ heard the sound of army boots striking the pavement. Looking behind, he saw two provosts running towards him. He instinctively began running and people stopped to watch the humorous sight of three soldiers in a footrace through downtown. Someone called out encouragement to Russ, while others laughed.
Russ raced towards a phone booth. Close behind came the provosts, and Russ barely closed the phone booth door before they arrived. Inside, he put his legs up, holding the door closed with his feet, his back braced against the phone booth wall. One of the provosts put his shoulder to the door to force his way in, while the other yelled at Russ to come out. Russ’s legs barely budged. Coolly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins, from which he took a nickel. Lifting the receiver while the provosts continued hammering at the door, Russ reached behind his head, inserted the coin and dialled.
The phone rang. “This is Russ,” he said to his mother.
“Sweet … what is that noise?” she asked.
“It’s a couple of friends from the army,” he said. “It looks like I’m going back to Camp sooner than I’d thought.” Russ tried to talk calmly.
“When will you be leaving?”
“I doubt I’ll be able to get back to the house. So I’ll say goodbye now.” He hung up and lowered his legs. The provosts, who had stopped trying to force their way into the phone booth, waited for him to emerge. Each took Russ by an arm, down the street, past the restaurant where Russ and Perry were to meet. Russ saw Perry laughing through the restaurant’s curtain.
The provosts escorted Russ to a nearby parking lot, where several other Foresters were in the back of an army truck. “Climb in, we’re leaving,” one said. As the truck turned the corner heading towards the hill out of Owen Sound, they heard someone yelling and saw a soldier running after them. He slowly gained on the accelerating truck. He leapt, and those in the back pulled him the rest of the way in. The soldier came to his feet. It was Perry, and he was still laughing.
Once at camp, Russ, Perry, and the other AWOL soldiers received punishment — normally a day confined to barracks and loss of pay for each day’s absence. For this extended absence Russ may have been given additional punishment — perhaps this was the time he was told to report to the drill hall with his toothbrush, where he was instructed to get down on his hands and knees and use it to scrub the floor of the cavernous room. If Russ’s long absence was surprising, what followed in a few months surpassed it. In April 1941, he was appointed batman to the regiment’s commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford.
Becoming batman to the commanding officer was an honour. It would not have been given lightly, and must have reflected in some measure Russ’s achievements in training. The appointment would help shape the remainder of his military service.
Being a commanding officer’s batman is an appointment that is highly sought after. It can lead to quick promotion, but in the Foresters, it meant much more. Colonel Rutherford was greatly respected by his men, who had affectionately dubbed him “Uncle Tom.” One of the Colonel’s sons said his father felt towards the Foresters the way a father does towards flesh-and-blood sons,[13] and the affection was widely returned. Russ’s choice as the Colonel’s batman was no small matter.
Russ took charge of the Colonel’s personal and professional needs, cleaning and pressing his uniforms, straightening his quarters, delivering messages, and anything else the Colonel needed. At the same time, Russ was required to perform well in all the training and exercises. Not doing so would have been an embarrassment to the Colonel.
On December 21, 1941, the Foresters were granted a two-week Christmas furlough. Most of the camp emptied. For Canadian families with soldiers home on leave, this Christmas was tinged with thoughts of the war. The Luftwaffe filled the air over Britain, and German submarine Wolfpacks roamed the North Atlantic, hunting Canadian ships carrying aid vital to the beleaguered island nation. The threat of an invasion remained high, and in the back of every Forester’s mind was the knowledge that the regiment might soon be sent to England, and this could be their last Christmas at home for years to come.
Four
Auf der Suche nach einer Heimat
In Search of a Country
Frank was fifteen and had been in the Sudetenland only a few months when what was left of Czechoslovakia began to disintegrate. One after another, ethnic regions either declared their independence from the Czechs or were occupied by neighbouring countries. From Leitmeritz, Frank followed with interest any news from his old hometown, now part of the German Reich. He was happy his family and friends in Freistadt and Ostrau were finally safe. Whether those who had threatened Germans faced any consequences for their actions, either from civilians or the new German authorities, he had no way of knowing.
Although the Sudetenland had been annexed by Germany less than a year earlier, the Nazi Party already had a strong presence. It affected Frank’s father’s position as a court official in the prosecutor’s office in Leitmeritz, which could only be confirmed after Franz produced documents proving he had no Jewish ancestry for at least two generations. The Nazis also made their presence felt through social clubs, which had a long tradition among Germans. Nazi clubs arose to compete with those run by social organizations or church groups. Franz joined one of those run by the Nazi Party, a car club, for those interested in driving. To join, he had become a member of the party.
Frank was angry when he learned his father had joined the car club. He believed his father joined the club only because he wanted to learn how to drive a car or motorcycle, something he had hoped to do for some time. Frank felt it was insincere, and if his father was going to join the Nazi party, it should not be to take advantage of the opportunity to learn how to drive or to gain an advantage at work. Later that summer, Frank’s mother Josephina also took the pledge of allegiance and volunteered for a position with the local branch. For many, joining the National Socialists was a means of advancement, not a passion or a cause. For German emigrant Sebastian Haffner, who fled Germany with his Jewish fiancée to Great Britain (intermarriage was by then punishable by law in Germany), the “true” Nazis could be distinguished, as he wrote in 1940.[1]
German troops assembled in parade formation on the main square of Leitmeritz, October 12, 1938, shortly after the occupation of the Sudetenland.
(German Federal Archive [Bundesarchiv], Bild 146-2006-0017, photographer: o.Ang)
Who is a Nazi? How can he be recognized? Certainly not by his hanging a swastika flag out of his window; everyone does that in Germany today. It means nothing. Nor by his being a member of some Nazi organization or of the Party itself. Everyone who has a family to care for and cannot afford to lose his job is in one or another Nazi organization, and if he had the bad luck to pursue a calling in which membership of the Party is demanded, he joins the Party.
In Haffner’s view,
The real Nazis, therefore, are not to be easily identified. There exist, however, a number of signs by which a man may know, until he has proof to the contrary, that he is dealing with a Nazi. Roughly speaking, the Nazis are found among the older SA or Storm Troop formations…. the lower Party functionaries, “leaders” of the Hitler Youth, and, above all, the SS or Black Guards.… But the Party badge … is no sure proof — even if acquired before (the Nazi’s seized power) in 1933.
But if it is not easy to recognize the Nazis from external signs and badges, there are some … touchstones from which it is possible in every single case to establish whether a particular individual is a Nazi. Of