Chapter 33: “You’re in the Army Now!”
Chapter 35: Combat in Africa, Sicily, Italy and Normandy
Chapter 36: Attack on Aachen by the Allies
Chapter 37: Battle of the Bulge
‘DAS HAUS’ is a story spanning over six decades, two continents, many tears, jeers and almost as many years. It is a story based on some “true events” and some real characters. Although the names, some locations and events have been fictionalized at the request of our main character Erik Goldmann (fictitious name), a majority of the Goldmann story is based on events, incidents and memories of those who participated in its story. Additionally some of my direct family members are still living in Das Haus, and in the past were threatened by current day neo-Nazis and their sympathizers. Erik Goldmann wishes to protect his family and the memory of the survivors of that long ago HOLOCAUST, known as WWII. Erik expressed direct concern about revealing his true identity.
I have in fact changed some of the story line to protect Erik, his family, my family and confidential sources. It is a sad event in our history, that sixty-two years after the end of WWII we still must fear the Nazis or their cohorts. While researching this book, members of my family and myself were threatened with death. Das Haus was burglarized on several occasions, and many of us had our cars vandalized by neo-Nazis or their friends.
Their favorite method of intimidation was to carve large swastikas on the hoods of our cars, scratch our paint and or destroy the car lights. Additionally, we would also receive mysterious and threatening phone calls. Soon after any vandalism took place, these hateful messages were left on our answering machines. They threatened to kill or injure us, if I did not stop my research. The German authorities were unable or unwilling to do anything about it. Ironically, one of the German police officers investigating one of these complaints was the son of the former Chief of Police who so heroically stood up to the Nazis sixty-nine years earlier.
The son was not cut from the same mold as the father. The German powers to be did not even take it seriously enough to make an earnest attempt at trying to catch the perpetrators, nor to take a written report. They kissed it off with the following statement, “Ah, don’t worry about it, it’s just a bunch of hotheads, if they really wanted to harm you, you would be dead by now!” With that statement, I now understood the evil truth of what was really going on in modern Germany.
I was amazed at the amount of fear and apprehension still permeating throughout the village. I happened to be visiting my family in early November 2000, and I participated in a remembrance ceremony in front of the old burned down synagogue. I started taking pictures of the ceremony and was immediately asked to please stop taking photos by some of the older participants. Knowing that my presence there was not welcomed anyway, I stopped being so obvious, but still managed to get some good shots from a better and less obtrusive vantage point. I later spoke with one of the participants, and was told, “We don’t like to have our pictures taken in front of the memorial, it might lead to trouble for us?” Stated the somewhat offish resident of Niedergeyer (fictitious).
Not wanting to insult my intelligence any further, I quietly disappeared in to the shadows, and observed from afar. Unfortunately it seemed that a new generation of bigots and quasi-Nazi sympathizers grew up where none existed before. Research on this book later revealed that only one-one hundredth of the eligible voters in Niedergeyer cast their vote for Adolph Hitler in 1933, when he first came to power. The only known Nazi was the future mayor of the village. Yet it appeared today that many more were either flirting with the right wing or openly supporting them. When I say right wing, I don’t mean conservatives, I mean neofascists, fascists or their supporters.
I must quantify the word “many.” My estimation of right-wing supporters is in the neighborhood of 10 percent of the adult population. In the age range of 15-32 years old; as many as 12-15 percent of the younger generation, were involved. Supplementary research indicated that many young adults from the former East-Germany were heavily involved in “Skinhead, and neo-Nazi organizations.” It appears that those under the former communist regime were also willing to be Nazi sympathizers. This may not be a majority, but way too many for a country with Germany’s checkered past.
A recent news report in 2007 by Fox News stated, “That as many as twenty-five percent of German citizens praised Hitler for some of his accomplishments such as the Autobahn system, family values, no unemployment etc. Another 18% somewhat supported the Nazis, but no mention was made of the Holocaust! Can it be that 43% of the population still supported or admired Hitler? These figures are amazingly high in the year of 2007?
There was a famous incident in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s involving a large bomb attack on the famous festivities at the Oktoberfest in Munich. A neo-Nazi group claimed credit for it, and its leader was later apprehended and jailed. He confessed to the German authorities; informing them of a large stash of weapons and munitions on the border to East Germany. The authorities allowed this individual to show them this alleged cache. While the police were digging a giant hole near the East German fence, a slow moving train just happened to come down the tracks, right along the East German border. This neo-Nazi waited until the train was parallel to him and ran across the train tracks, through the minefield, through the hidden automatic machine-guns and through an opening in the fence and escaped into East Germany.
West German authorities filmed it, but the East German government denied any knowledge of this incident. It was later discovered through informants, that the Russian KGB and East German STASI had in fact knowingly assisted him to escape. They wanted to embarrass the West German intelligence community and perhaps cause a major political rift in the government. This participation between opposite political spectrums was similar in nature to Stalin and Hitler’s partition of Poland in 1939 and their alleged non-aggression pact.
However, I do strongly believe that many of the post WWII era inhabitants of this area have strong ties to the current wave of “Xenophobia” that permeates many European countries, particularly Germany and France. There have been horrible examples of anti-foreigner discrimination all over Europe, especially in Germany, Austria and France. This new form of Nazism is no less menacing than the old one. Many of today’s Germans refuse to admit to this inherent Germanic problem. Even though the Nazi party is officially forbidden in modern day Germany, the NPD is an auxiliary legal party that holds many of the same common beliefs as the former Nazi party. In some German states they have achieved as many as 10-12% of all the votes cast, in both local and national election results.
These recent barbaric acts seem to be in stark contrast to the many brave and heroic deeds performed by the villagers of the 30’s and 40’s. It is of these brave souls and the Goldmann’s that we will speak of. Although I am highly critical of many Germans of today’s generation, I do not wish to be as “Xenophobic” as they are. Many of the villagers were and are very brave and courageous citizens. It is important to note that I have many friends and relatives who do not fit this “Xenophobic” mold, and in fact were very sympathetic and tried to help those who were oppressed by the Nazis.
I often wonder how I would