Herr Elsburch's Story
Life in Germany During the War
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Herr Elsburch is a teacher. He wished to tell his father's
story.
When Herr Elsburch was 17, the SA (Nazis) ordered him to join the group which was supported by Hitler. As bribery they gave him binoculars, a dagger, a uniform and a sash. There was much rivalry in between village groups. There were three groups in every village. The SA, the Eineme Front (Labour) and the Rotfrontkampferfront (Communist). Often the rivalry ended up in fighting on a Sunday afternoon after heavy drinking from 10am until the afternoon. The fights started with shouting abuse, this was followed by stone throwing across the river separating the villages. Then, one by one, men would wade into the river to fight. No-one was killed but many sustained serious injuries.
Herr Elsburch stated that had the Great Depression not affected Germany in the way it did then Hitler would not have risen to power. Hitler provided work for the masses making tanks etc... thereby getting support for his party.
Until 1939, Herr Elsburch was in charge of the local Hitler Youth group. Then he became a soldier. Luckily he was not sent to Russia, but went to southern France. He was not involved in the fighting; just looking out for enemy ships on the Mediterranean. When Herr Elsburch got married he was given a copy of 'Mein Kampf' as a gift from Hitler. It had been signed by Hitler and the Mayor of the village.
Herr Elsburch was arrested in the last few days of the war and sent to an Allied Forces detention camp, he managed to escape with some colleagues through one of the many holes in the perimeter fence. He walked for four weeks and eventually reached his home town (central Germany). He was hiding on a farm because he heard that the Americans were looking for him. After several weeks he returned home and then the same thing happened again.
After a while his wife (who knew he was home) got sick of not seeing her husband and went to the American leader and asked him why they wanted her husband so badly. She was told that they wanted him because he was a leader of the Hitler Youth and the Americans thought that he could still influence children. Eventually an agreement was reached that stated that an independent eye witness from the village would give a character reference to prove his innocence. A court hearing followed and Herr Elsburch had to pay some money to get a testimony saying he had been 'denazified'. Herr Elsburch was fortunate because only the Americans classified people as 'denazified', the Russians had no such system.
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Page last updated: 25th February 2014