Frank was not yet a teenager in 1935, when his family arrived in Ostrau. In Czechoslovakia, he was not exposed to the Nazi propaganda taught to schoolchildren in Germany. But adult Germans in Czechoslovakia were well aware of the Nazis and their doctrines. There was even a branch of the party in German sections of Czechoslovakia. Despite Nazi violence against their adversaries, and their persecution of Jews and Communists, for some their support of autonomy for Sudeten Germans made them an appealing political option.
As the 1930s went on, the German government flouted clause after clause of the Treaty of Versailles, which had set restrictions on defeated Germany after the Great War. In 1935, the government implemented conscription into the armed forces. In 1936, the demilitarized Rhineland was occupied by German troops, and in March, 1938, they unified Germany and Austria in the “Anschluss,” or “joining up.” The Anschluss was part political union, part incorporation, and entirely forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. However, the Allied powers’ response was nothing more than disapproving public statements. German newspapers described cheering crowds greeting troops entering Austria. In Vienna, a quarter of a million Austrians gathered to hear Hitler speak from Emperor Franz-Josef’s Imperial Palace. Meanwhile, Jews, Communists, and Socialists were fleeing the country to escape persecution and imprisonment.
The Anschluss was watched enthusiastically by Sudeten Germans intent on gaining autonomy from the Czechs. Before the end of March, Hitler met the leader of the Sudeten German Party, Konrad Heinlein. Shortly after, Heinlein demanded the Czechs allow complete autonomy of the Sudetenland, and Hitler declared the urgent need to solve the “Czechoslovak problem.” Through the summer of 1938, tensions ran high, with the threat of war looming.
Some Czechs reacted to the threat of war from Germany by harassing Germans in Ostrau. Fourteen-year-old Frank heard about and witnessed the harassment. The names and addresses of leaders of the German community were collected by Czech authorities. Some Germans were forced from their houses and segregated in tenements. Czech police receiving calls for help from someone speaking German or with a German accent sometimes ignored the call. Army barricades were erected across streets, the men manning them asking those attempting to pass to use the Czech language, since most Germans could not pronounce certain Czech words without an accent. Frank’s parents were concerned for the family’s safety and looked for a way to keep Frank and Eva safe.
The plane twisted like a corkscrew as it slowly spiralled and plunged once again towards the ground. Straightening out at treetop level, it shot over a farmer’s field. Cows began running at the plane’s loud, sudden appearance. It dipped, passing just over their heads. In the cockpit, the pilot whooped like a cowboy at a rodeo, shouting back to Frank that the farmer would be surprised when his cows gave him sour milk the next day.
At the southern coast of Finland, he brought the plane to a normal cruising altitude and settled in for strictly routine flying. After landing at an airfield in northern Germany, the pilot disembarked and waited for Frank. When the boy emerged a moment later, the pilot asked his young passenger if he was still sorry he hadn’t been able to become a pilot.
Frank answered, “Of course, more than ever.”
The pilot smiled and vigorously shook the younger man’s hand. But when Frank grimaced, the pilot noticed the wound ribbon on Frank’s uniform.
The pilot apologized, telling Frank he hadn’t known he was injured, and hoped the in-air antics hadn’t hurt him. Frank replied that he shouldn’t worry. He wouldn’t have missed flying for anything, though it did feel good to be standing on solid ground.
Many Sudeten Germans felt Germany’s newfound strength was a great thing. Finally, they hoped, some of the wrongs done to them by the Allies after the Great War would be righted and their lot would improve. In September, 1938, Hitler issued the Czech government a series of ultimatums. First he threatened war unless Sudeten Germans were given autonomy. When this was agreed to, Hitler demanded the Sudetenland be put under German control. This too was granted. Finally, he threatened to invade unless German troops were allowed there. At the brink of war, the leaders of Britain and France met face-to-face with Hitler in Munich. In the end, Germany’s occupation of the Sudetenland was accepted, exchanged for a promise of peace. The outcome of the Munich meetings was presented as a fait accompli to Czechoslovakia. Most Sudeten Germans were glad to no longer be part of Czechoslovakia. But not all in the Sudetenland felt that way. For Jews and Communists, the Nazi takeover was cause for fear, and many fled in response, as had been happening in Germany and Austria almost from the moment the Nazis took power.
On the first day of the occupation, Frank and his friends rode their bikes, looking for German soldiers. They found them just outside of town, on the other side of the Oder River. They waved to the German tanks across the river, and the soldiers waved back. That night at dinner Frank talked excitedly to his family about the soldiers and tanks.
Frank’s parents were shocked to hear that the Germans had stopped short of Ostrau, and only then did they discover, to their horror, that the border Germany had negotiated did not include them. They were more concerned than ever that the Czechs would turn against Germans remaining in their territory. As if on cue, Franz was threatened with the loss of his job unless he moved Frank from his German primary school to a Czech one. It was only Frank’s mother’s refusal that stopped it. He wrote the Gymnasium entrance examination, which he passed allowing him to enter the German equivalent of high school.
There was scarcely a pause in the fast-moving events involving Germans in Europe. In Paris, two months after the occupation of the Sudetenland, a young Pole shot and killed a German diplomat in the German embassy. The assassin was distraught at the inhumane treatment of his family and other Polish Jews. His parents were expelled from Germany, where they had moved to work, but Poland refused to take them back. With neither country willing to take them, the refugees were trapped in a no-man’s land between the border posts. The diplomat’s death in Paris was followed by two nights of violence against Jews across Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland, which became known as Kristallnacht. German newspapers reported it as a popular response to the murder of the German diplomat.[3] In the violence, Jewish businesses were vandalized and synagogues destroyed. Thousands of Jews, even though they were the victims, were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The violence extended into some parts of Czechoslovakia where large numbers of Germans lived.
Fearing a backlash against Germans in Czechoslovakia for the loss of the Sudetenland, Frank’s parents decided their only recourse was to leave the country. They would move yet further west, into the area under German control. Their focus settled on the city of Leitmeritz, where Frank’s father interviewed for a job as court clerk. Returning from the interview, he told his family it would be perfect, a warm climate, fruit trees lining the river running through the city, and a high school for Frank. A mile south of the city sat the garrison town of Theresienstadt, used in 1939 as an army base for several thousand soldiers.[4] They would be safe from the violence that threatened Germans in Czechoslovakia.
The Sikoras’ relocation passed without fanfare. Frank and his sister said goodbye to their friends while their parents loaded their possessions. Frank felt no sadness at leaving Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was excited by the adventure of moving to a new city. His parents were relieved. Living in an area under German control, uncertain days would at last be behind them. Their relief was to be short-lived. Before the year was over, Hitler would push Europe into a new world war, and their son would be drawn into it.
The train for Leitmeritz left Czechoslovakia for the Sudetenland without having to pass through a border crossing. There were no Czech border guards restricting what they could take with them, and no German guards to inspect their papers. Their personal documents were the most important things they had brought with them. Those papers would be needed to prove they were pure Germans, their blood not mixed with that of Poles, Slovaks, and especially to the German authorities, not Jews. As Frank sat with his sister Eva and his parents on the train, he had no idea how worried his father was that someone might look closely into the family’s past.
Three
Hometown