Alfons Heck (1928–2005)

This is a fascinating book and I think it needs to be a widely read book. If it is it not on high school and uni reading lists it should be.

Alfons Heck, the author of this book, was a teenager and member of the Hitler Youth in Germany during World War 2. War changes people and forces to them grow up fast and this is accurate for Alfons. Today, modern teenagers may spend their free time in packs of like minded school friends loitering in shopping centers or being car pooled to sporting events. In 1945, sixteen year old Heck had risen rapidly in the Hitler Youth to the rank of Gefolgschaftsfuhrer - an equal rank to an U.S Army or British Army Captain- and was in in command of nearly 2,800 boys and 80 girls in defensive duty on the Siegfried Line. This was unusual, not however for the reason that springs to mind. It was unusual because sixteen year old Gefolgschaftsfuhrers - which were not uncommon- usually were in command of only a measly unit of 800 boys. This mind boggling rank and command system was present because of two main reasons. Firstly, due to the horrendous loss of life suffered by the German army. The army was running out of men and determined not to surrender they dipped into the youth of Germany recruiting boys as young as twelve years old. The second reason is that the members of the Hitler Youth had been schooled and indoctrinated in the ideologies of Nazism from the age of five and six. This resulted in the Hitler Youth being one of the most fanatic groups in Nazi Germany and they were desperate to fight in the war, even as defeat grew near. Many choose suicide over the thought of living in a world were their leader and hero, Hitler was not in command.

Whether or not these child soldiers should be held accountable for their actions is one of the key themes of this book. Currently the age of criminal responsibility ranges in age between 10 to 12 in different western countries. The idea is that a child under 10 does not have the mature capability to commit a serious crime and they cannot be charged with one. The members of the Hitler Youth were older than 10 but was the weight of their tainted education and the national intoxication of Hitler too much for them realise the true consequences of their actions? Did they even know the whole picture? Heck writes about his horror and shock when at the end of the war he was finally convinced that concentration camps had actually existed. In this book Heck writes that he and the boys relished their power and supremacy and they had believed in the master race. However, as he learnt the truth of what had happened during the war he felt deep anger and resentment to his elders who he felt deceived and delivered their children into a lie.

If you want to read a book that will make you feel as if you were with the Hitler Youth on their rallies, during training and when they faced active war, this is the book for you. Heck paints a very vivid picture of his experiences and since they are his own experiences the truth of what really happened to thousands of German children and teenagers thuds home.… (meer)

A very personal work of autobiography. He does raise the caveat that as it is autobiography, these are his memories and in some cases his dialogue and dates are inaccurate. But less the non-personal dates because they could be checked against records. Heck was born in 1927, and was a farm boy close to a small city in western Germany. He later emigrated to the USA. He rose to considerable height in the Hitler youth and has revealing details of that organization. It touches me as he does now have an idea of how his personal life was directed and ordered by the Nazi state, and what was a strategy for dealing with such a circumstance.. .… (meer)