My name is Vilhelm Schneider, and I am 15 years old. I live in Munich, Germany with my parents. My brother, Otto, who is 20, is a Nazi soldier fighting in France, but he said that he would try to meet up with us in Switzerland soon. My parents are afraid for him and for us. That is why we are going to Switzerland.
My story starts in 1925 when I was born. My brother was 5 years older than me, so he always looked after me. We were a very close family until I was 8 or 9. My brother started hanging around with older kids who wore uniforms and marched everywhere they went. He started talking like only the German people were the master race and things like that. My dad said that it was because of a man named Hitler. When my mother came walking home one day with our neighbor, Mrs. Weingard, my brother told her to stay away from Jews or he must turn her in as a sympathizer. My brother had joined the Nazi party and wanted to fight with the army to expand the Third Reich, and so he did.
Otto fought under General von Brauchitsch in the German Fourth Army, which was to continue the attack against the Allied forces at Dunkirk. They were ordered to "halt and close up" seeing the Allies were trapped. This allowed the Allies to build a defense to the approaches of Dunkirk, the main evacuation port.
They thought that at the most only 50,000 troops could be evacuated from Dunkirk, but miraculously over 380,000 troops were rescued. Otto was touched by the bravery and spirit of the French troops who chose to stay and fight with him. They would rather be captured than abandon their homeland. Otto was also touched by all the fishing boats and cargo ships who came to rescue the Allied troops. Otto had second thoughts.
After the French surrendered there was so much going on that Otto had his chance and ran away. He met us in Switzerland where we were all happy again.
He told us stories of the fall of France. When Belgian King Leopold III surrendered, the gap left by the Belgian army stretched from Ypres to Dixmude. The Luftwaffe did its best to prevent the evacuation, but failed. On June 14th Paris fell. Rommel and his 7th division headed west over the Seine River through Normandy and captured the port of Cherbourg. Otto headed north to meet us in Switzerland. He had enough of the war and blood and insanity of it all.
We all hoped and prayed that soon we could go back home to a Germany the way it was before the Nazis.
1 comment:
Hey Vilhelm. My name is Ruchel Izanhower. My brother did the same exact thing at the beginning of the reign of the Third Reich. He became a Nazi extremist and joined the war. I wanted to join the war but my mother wouldn't allow it. My brothers name was Igor, and he was a pilot in the Luftwaffe and died during a bombing mission over Britain in the early years of the war. If only Germany was never invaded by the Nazi party and it could once be a safe place full of pride.
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