[The following is taken from a memoir of Irmgard A. Hunt, who grew up in the mountains under Hitler’s Eagles Nest during the Second World War.]
On October 17, 1946, the day after eleven of the accused twenty-two top Nazi leaders were hanged in Nuremberg, Frau Dr. Imma Krumm, our new German teacher, entered the classroom and, before her usual “Guten Morgen, bitte setzen,”[German: Good morning, please be seated] said, “You probably all know that, thanks to God, justice was done in Nuremberg yesterday and the Nazi criminals met with their deserved death.” I nodded and then suddenly saw that Bernhard Sauckel, who sat a few benches ahead of mine, had fainted.
Berndie was the son of the notorious Gauleiter Berhard Sauckel, head of slave labor, and he had returned from Nuremberg the day before, where, unbeknownst to us, he had said good-bye to his father. Dr. Krumm saw him sink under his seat, and, realizing why, went to help him up.
Most of us liked Berndie Sauckel, a funny little guy with very small eyes and a heavy Saxonian accent. An awful silence followed the incident, and in utter confusion we tried in our minds to separate the Berndie we knew from what his father had done. We were kind to Berndie, and in return he was stoical and brave. No other teacher touched on the topic of Nuremberg and what it meant.
Source:
Hunt, Irmgard A. “Survival Under the Star-Spangled Banner.” On Hitler’s Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2005. 220. Print.
Further Reading:
No comments, yet...