When Frank’s family arrived in Leitmeritz in 1938, he found Germans from many different backgrounds. They were from Germany, from the Sudetenland, from Czechoslovakia, and from Austria. But they were all Germans. Back in his home in Freistadt, Frank’s friends were not only ethnic German, but also Czech, Polish, and Jewish. In Leitmeritz, such friendships were frowned upon, especially if one’s friends were Jewish. However, anti-Semitism was not restricted to Germany; it was also far from a uniquely Nazi characteristic. But the extreme anti-Semitic environment Frank was plunged into at the age of fifteen was far more pervasive and violent than anything he could have imagined, and it was now demonstrably a part of government policy.
In school, he learned about the German Reich of Bismarck, reborn under Adolf Hitler. However, it was not long before Frank realized that in the German Reich, this “pan-Germanic nation,” there were two types of Germans: those from the homeland and those ethnic Germans from outside the nation’s boundaries. He could see that Germans born in Germany viewed those from outside the homeland as somehow lesser.
This was made even clearer when he listened to those who had come from Germany to Leitmeritz to instruct the Sudeten Germans in what it meant to be a German. Frank knew what his German heritage meant and resented the idea he needed instruction to understand it. He and his family were just as legitimately German in their own way.
What was really being taught was what it meant to be part of Nazi Germany. This concept Frank and other younger people did not understand. The teachers talked about the superior Aryan race of which they were a part, and how it needed to be kept pure. They were told the Nazi Party was necessary to protect the German Reich from its enemies, especially threats from Socialists, Communists, and Jews. And they also talked about Hitler in a manner that elevated him from a regular man and political leader to the personification of the German nation. Such an idea was not only foreign to Sudeten Germans, but for Frank at fifteen, was impossible to conceive.
Frank’s parents, however, were being drawn more deeply into Nazism. The first Christmas in the Sikora home in Leitmeritz began as any other. The Christmas tree was decorated and the special Yule-time dinner prepared. The Sikoras were a Catholic family, and after dinner, as was their custom, Frank, as the oldest son was expected to read a passage from the Bible. He prepared for that special time and privilege. But when it came time for the Bible reading, Frank’s father announced, “This year we are going to do things differently.
“Now that we are in the German Reich,” he told his wife and children, “we will do things as the Germans do. Tonight, Frank will read from Mein Kampf instead of from the Bible.”
Frank was shocked. “Why should we change what we normally do?” he asked. “There’s no reason we have to do this.”
“Things are different here,” his father insisted. “Here is the book, now read.” Franz placed the book with Hitler’s photograph on the cover on the table in front of Frank.
“Where should I start?” Frank asked angrily, not knowing what to say. He hesitated, hoping his mother would intervene. But she said nothing.
“It doesn’t matter, just open it anywhere and read,” said his father.
Frank reluctantly opened to the beginning of the book and began reading. But he read only a few sentences before pushing the book away. Scowling at the book on the table, then at his father he said, “This is so stupid!”
Now that he was in German territory, Frank was required to attend meetings of the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend, or HJ). Meetings were held once or twice a week for about two hours, with boys fourteen to seventeen required to attend. Adults who had come to Leitmeritz from Germany were in charge of the HJ, and children of these Reich Germans were appointed the junior officers in the troops of local boys. On April 20, Hitler’s birthday, a ceremony was held for new inductees, who took an oath of allegiance: “I promise to be faithful to my Führer, Adolf Hitler,” they were required to recite in unison. “I promise obedience and respect to him and to the leaders he shall appoint over me.”
Much of the time at HJ meetings was spent playing sports and in physical training, with an eye to preparing the boys for eventual military service. The training might involve throwing practice grenades or using small arms. The children also were taught the history of the Nazi party, its important people, places, and events. The story of the Felderrnhalle, the site of the unsuccessful Nazi coup attempt in 1923, was told. This occurred in Munich, where the Bavarian State Police confronted a Nazi march to overthrow the government. When Hitler, with Great War heroes Hermann Göring and Erich Ludendorff, led their supporters forward after being ordered to halt, the police fired on them, killing sixteen. After Hitler seized power in 1933, the Nazis who died there were declared heroes, and a memorial was erected at the Felderrnhalle.
The volunteers from Germany found the boys of Leitmeritz full of youthful enthusiasm. That summer in 1939, Frank was excited when his HJ troop leader, only a few years older than the rest, received permission from the Bannführer (the city’s senior HJ leader) for a group from Leitmeritz to visit Munich. He decided they would go by “Autostopp” (hitchhiking, in German), a new method of travel in the Reich. The boys’ parents had reservations about them travelling so far away without an adult, but none of the parents were openly critical of the idea. Even Frank’s parents, who were Nazi party members, were afraid to express their concerns, lest it be taken as criticism of the Bannführer or the party.
During a Hitler Youth meeting in Odenwald, Germany, a young instructor describes how to use a rifle. He stands in front of a map of Europe with the inscription “Das Deutsche Reich Adolf Hitler’s.”
(German Federal Archive [Bundesarchiv], Bild 146-1973-060-53, photographer: o.Ang)
When Frank’s mother, Josephina, did speak with the Bannführer about the trip, it was to insist the boys wear their Hitler Youth uniforms while travelling: the brown shirt, red and white armband with swastika, black scarf with a leather thong to hold it in place, grey shorts, and the Hitler Youth knife with its inscription “Blut und Ehre” (Blood and Honour) at their side. The Bannführer agreed with Frank’s mother, and all the boys were instructed to arrive the morning of the trip dressed in their uniforms.
On the day of their departure in the summer of 1939, Josephina gave Frank a postcard with their home address on it. She made him promise to mail it as soon as he reached Munich. He put the postcard in his jacket and left with his friend, Rudy Hoch. They met the other boys and went to the outskirts of Leitmeritz, divided into pairs, and stood in their uniforms waiting for a car to come. After a few minutes one approached. The boys watched expectantly, but the driver passed without even slowing. Soon another came, but it also passed, the dust it stirred stinging their eyes. One car after another left them standing there. After an hour, not one group was picked up. Their HJ leader decided they’d take the train to the town of Eger to try their luck, about 165 kilometres away, nearer the German border.
They wondered if their Hitler Youth uniforms might be causing motorists to be apprehensive, so they decided to change into their street clothes. When they went to the roadside at Eger, uniforms in their knapsacks, the first pair of boys was picked up within minutes. Soon they were all on their way. Frank and Rudy, who were travelling together, made great progress, but with little knowledge of the roads or the geography, they became lost, and rather than arriving in Munich they instead came to Vienna. It was a wonderful mistake. They spent the rest of the day exploring the old city. It was the largest Frank had ever been in, with ornate architecture and palaces, but what he marvelled at most was for the first time in his life hearing nothing spoken but German.
The next day, Frank and Rudy made their way back to the highway and reached Munich that evening. There they found the rest of the boys, who had been waiting impatiently. When Frank and Rudy excitedly told the others about Vienna, the rest of