WWII: Through the Eyes of a Child

By Monika Danhof

The following are true stories from children growing up in a strange and bizarre world under the notorious Nazi Regime during WWII, authentically telling them in their own words and as seen through the "eyes of a child."

They constantly feared and wondered about some horrible things they had seen and heard--people being forcefully dragged out of their homes, dreadful screams from someone being beaten to death, lifeless bodies hanging from trees, friends and people they knew disappearing overnight--and were desperate to find out the truth in their own courageous ways as their many curious questions were harshly brushed away with the words "Hush, hush! You have not seen anything, and you do not tell anyone!"

Bravely, they endured earth-shattering air raids in dark freezing-cold bunkers and shared the exhilarating joy expressed by every surviving soul. Amazingly, in the middle of chaos, they played happily in the rubble of war.

Read about the children's own ingenious humanitarian aid campaigns they created and how their accomplishments were able to bring much-needed relief to many elderly and sick citizens of their small town.

Lastly, learn about the children's curious and heart-warming relationships they formed with the soldiers of the Ninetieth Infantry Division of the United States Army in Germany in April 1945.

This book is written for the children of "today and tomorrow" to remember the children of "yesterday."

Monika Danhof

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889822325

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Introduction

What Do You Remember About WWII?

Prologue

Chapter 1: At König-Otto-Bad, A KLV Camp, Germany 1942

Chapter 2: At St. Peter's Lazarett, Germany

Chapter 3: Munich—Going Up in Flames

Chapter 4: Strange Things Happening in Our Town

Chapter 5: At Hitler's Kindergarten!

Chapter 6: Surviving Winter 1944/1945

Chapter 7: Unforgettable Joy of Christmas 1944

Chapter 8: Chaos in Town

Chapter 9: The Americans Are Coming

Chapter 10: Let's Follow Those American GIs

Chapter 11: The Big News—WWII Has Ended!

Chapter 12: Postwar Trends

Chapter 13: Big Bucks for Those Camel Buds!

Chapter 14: A Hearty Welcome Back

Chapter 15: A Dreadful Journey

Chapter 16: Surprise! I Am alive!

Chapter 17: They Are Coming by the Hundreds!

Chapter 18: Two Faithful Visitors

Chapter 19: Operation SOS

Chapter 20: The Stranger!

Afterword

About the Author

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WWII

Through the Eyes of a Child

Monika Danhof

Copyright © 2024 Monika Danhof

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2024

ISBN 979-8-88982-231-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88982-872-3 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88982-232-5 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

In memory of all the innocent victims of WWII

Acknowledgments

I'd like to thank my loyal lifelong comrade—my son, Jim—and my dear daughter-in-law, Jamie, for encouraging me to write a book about the many stories growing up in Nazi Germany, which I had been telling in bits and pieces over the years.

I am proud of my grandsons, Sebastian and Maverick, for their sincere interest in my childhood experiences during WWII in Germany so many years ago.

I love you all!

Introduction

What Do You Remember About WWII?

I have been asked this question so many times. Therefore, I like to share vivid memories of my early childhood years in Germany during WWII with you. I am telling my stories authentically, just as remembered from a child's point of view and witnessed as seen through the eyes of a child.

I have expressed my carefree happy times filled with the highest curiosity and often with the deepest doubts as so many of my simple questions remained unanswered and were harshly brushed away with the words Hush, hush, you have not seen anything, and you do not tell anyone!

My stories will take you on a journey starting with my first memories at a KLV camp in 1942, watching children sing and dance at a flag raising ceremony from a window with my teddy. Then spending time with my mother, a nurse, at St. Peter's Lazarett (a military hospital) in 1943. I am telling you about all my soldier friends and how I loved to help them during their difficult time recuperating from many life-changing war injuries like having lost their eyesight, an arm, or a leg. Everyone loved me in the fracture ward because I could pick up things for people who could not move.

Later, in the city of Munich, during its destruction in 1944, I am revealing my extreme fears and anxieties bravely endured while hiding in various bunkers and listening to the earth-shattering explosions caused by the many vicious air raids conducted over the city of Munich during the height of WWII. At the same time, I also experienced the greatest joy expressed in so many ways by every surviving soul. While heavy bombers were encircling the city above, down below in the bunkers, I heard people reciting the encouraging words of Germany's beloved poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who wrote, Live each day as if your life had just begun! Then trying to add a little humor, everyone began singing lively, Let's eat and drink, sing and dance, because it may not last very long! As far back as I can remember, the word death was mentioned so frequently during my early childhood years that, in my young mind, it became just something that could happen at any time. It did not frighten me. My young brain had accepted death as a normality of its time.

Most of all, I love to tell you about my friends and the children in my hometown and how we became important citizens by contributing our sometimes very ingenious help to our town in chaos. We children were encouraged to get involved in various humanitarian rescue missions by our town council, and we loved our important role and were being recognized and rewarded by experiencing the enormous joy and happiness that some of our smallest contributions were able to bring.

At last, you will enjoy reading about the relationships formed by us children with the American soldiers and how the people of one small town, like so many others, had found the strength through ingenious ways to overcome these horrendous times of WWII and are forever grateful to the Ninetieth Infantry Division of the United States Army who liberated us on April 23, 1945!

Prologue

Adolf Hitler's own words (Germany, 1939):

I will create a new youth!

They must be trained to become strong, brutal, domineering, fearless and must be able to bear pain, weakness must be hammered away—a new youth, before which the world will tremble!

Chapter 1

At König-Otto-Bad, A KLV Camp, Germany 1942

I was born in Germany in January 1938 and surprised my mother when telling her at a much later time about my first memories which, she concluded, were going back as far as the year 1942. The following are still clear and well-preserved pictures in my mind.

I see myself lying in my bed, pointing up to the ceiling and explaining to my teddy bear that we will be going along this road today, imagining the strange-looking markings on the ceiling to be many roads leading to a big pond. I was intrigued by the many lines and circles of that ceiling and occupied myself with creating an artistic scenery putting my imaginary young mind at work. In actuality, the ceiling had been shattered through earlier bombings, and my pond was a big hole, having been patched from the outside but still appeared as a hole inside the building on the ceiling in that room. My mother was stunned when I described to her that room in such detail. I remembered the location of a table and two chairs, a wooden counter along a wall, and a large bowl and a pitcher filled with water standing next to it. I called it the goose because of its long spout. I also remembered the long periods of time when she would leave the room and say I will be back soon with a gentle smile, and then I heard the door being closed and locked. I was not worried because I knew she would return, and until then, I had my teddy to talk to. I also had a little footstool to step on so I could look out from the large window. One day, I observed a large group of children gathered around a flagpole while a flag displaying a big black sign called a swastika was being raised. Then on command, the children all raised their right arm and sang the then national anthem (Deutschland, Deutschland Üeber Alles). And again, on command, all children lowered their right arm and marched off while singing a lively melody. I was overjoyed seeing all these children singing.

When my mother came back, I told her what I saw and begged her to let me go down and sing with the children. My mother explained to me that I had to be a little older to join this selected group our führer had created for young German girls—in short, called BDM. When Mama noticed tears in my eyes out of deepest disappointment, she promised me that she would ask one of the girls if, maybe one morning, they would let me join them at a flag raising ceremony and let me sing with them.

From this time on, I waited faithfully and kept watching with my teddy every morning when the BDM girls formed a ring, danced, and sang around the pole until the flag was hoisted and this black evil-looking swastika kept staring down at everyone.

Where was I at that time? Starting in 1941, by 1942, in the midst of WWII, many cities located in heavily industrialized areas, mostly in the northern part of Germany like Berlin (the capital of Nazi Germany), Hamburg (an important port city located on the river Elbe leading to the North Sea), and cities like Essen and Dortmund (located in the highly industrialized area in Northwest Germany), just to name a few, were being bombed by Allied forces merciless to stop Hitler's aggression. Thousands of civilian lives were lost due to continuing air raids carried out by the British and French Air Forces who were joined later by the United States. Under the command of Germany's führer, Adolf Hitler, the regime created an organization called KLV (in German, Kinderlandsverschickung). This would mean the relocation of children to the countryside to save them from the escalating aerial bombings. By the beginning of 1941, documentation shows that already close to 383,000 children and young people had been sent to safer areas, mostly to Southern Germany. By April 1942, around 850,000 had been evacuated. KLV camps were established in hotels, hostels, monasteries, and even in converted warehouses.

A further benefit to the Nazi Regime in establishing KLV camps was to free mothers who desperately needed to work in the rapidly increasing armaments industries. With most men away fighting on so many fronts, women had taken over working men's jobs under the most difficult circumstances in the production of armaments in a wide range. To be able to accomplish these goals, women needed to be free and be able to devote their complete time and energy to the Reich. Therefore, having their children sent to a KLV camp was recognized by the regime as a great solution, also considering the opportunity for increased ideological training of these young minds. It was known that children away from their families and with proper training under the direction of a fanatic Hitler Youth leader are easier ideologically influenced.

All these benefits to the Nazis were carefully studied and taken into consideration along with the safety of the children during the increased Allied bombings when deciding to establish up to one million KLV camps by the year 1943.

The place called König-Otto-Bad was a health resort filled with many medicinal mineral springs and was established by King Otto many years ago. Its location in Northeastern Bavaria, close to the border of Czechoslovakia, away from heavy industry, surrounded by large open countrysides and the Bavarian Forest, was ideal for establishing a KLV camp. The prominent health spa was being closed, and the several buildings on site that were originally designed to be used by the spa guests were set up to house about 150 children. One smaller building called the clinic was converted into a hospital-like setting with a chief surgeon, two other doctors, and several nurses and nursing assistants on duty. My mother, having had extensive training as a Red Cross nurse on the front in her younger years, was being put in charge of the nursing staff. To be available in emergencies, a room was assigned to her where she could bring her small child along since there was nobody else who was able to take care of her at that time. Nurses and other staff members took turns looking after me while my mother was on duty. I remember very well the beautiful park with large lush green meadows filled with wildflowers like yellow buttercups and white daisies surrounding the buildings. I enjoyed playing with some of the children and learning to sing the many songs taught by the Hitler Youth team leader. One song remains stuck in my mind forever. Accompanied by the vigorous sounds of the big band, everyone started singing loudly while marching through the many trails of the park with enthusiasm following their Hitler Youth Leader's strong voice:

We love our führer,

We honor our führer,

We follow our führer,

We believe in our führer,

We die for our führer

Until heroes we are!

While I thought as a young child, this was a lot of fun, actually chaos was looming over our country. Since March 1933, Germany's leader, Adolf Hitler, had turned into the most powerful, ruthless dictator of the twentieth century. He believed in the necessity of force as the means of solving international problems. He was obsessed with turning Germany into a world power with territorial magnitude. He ruled through totalitarian means and the local government was taken over by his regime. Censorship was rampant throughout Germany to ensure that the German people could only see and hear what the Nazi hierarchy wanted people to see and hear and read only what the Nazis deemed acceptable. He created and surrounded himself with a specially selected security force who first served as bodyguards but later grew into the most powerful and feared organization in all of Nazi Germany, the SS (Schutzstaffel). Together with his secret police called the Gestapo, everyone was afraid to be caught just making a remark against the führer and his party. Even just a joke about them could land you to be executed on the spot.

Already, by the year 1939, when I was one year old and was happily sitting on Grandfather's lap, playing with his long white beard (as he told me later), and Aunt Marie smiling at me, the world seemed to be a happy place for me while, at the same time, Nazi forces invaded Poland, and WWII had just begun. Britain and France had declared war on Germany. Hitler's achievements at that time were colossal: During the year 1939, Nazi forces invaded and occupied part of Czechoslovakia; annexed Austria to the German Reich; then continued to invade and occupied France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway. In 1940, the Nazi Regime started the battle with Britain to gain British airspace. Still, Hitler's notorious war machine kept pounding away and sent three million German soldiers into Russia. And after the United States had declared war on Japan, following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Hitler, under the terms of the Anti-Comintern Pact, was bound to declare war on the United States of America. All this was going on in the real world around me while I was happy and content, just with my teddy in my arm.

But then, the time for retaliation had come. Allied forces, as explained earlier, had begun using strategic bombing, wiping out city blocks by city blocks of many towns all over Germany. Hitler's big concern was that the children, the new generation of the Third Reich, must be protected. The following are Hitler's own words:

I will create a new youth! They must be trained to become strong, brutal, domineering, and fearless and must be able to bear pain—weakness must be hammered away—a youth before which the world will tremble.

His youth cannot be destroyed and must be protected. This was the main reason for the Nazi Regime having established sufficient KVL camps by 1943 to house almost three million children to preserve Hitler's newly created youth of pure Aryan descent, the precious future generation of his Third Reich.

This is the story of why I ended up at König-Otto-Bad, King Otto's spa converted into a KLV camp in 1942, with my mother, a trained Red Cross nurse ordered by the regime to join the medical team at the KLV camp König-Otto-Bad. I remember the times when announcements were made over loudspeakers at the camp that children were arriving at 0330 hours this afternoon from Berlin and Bremen at the train station Wiesau, a small town with train connections to the north, south, east, and west, only about twenty minutes away.

This was always an exciting event at the camp. The BDM girls rushed to the windows of their housing complex, anxiously awaiting the new arrivals. Extra tables and benches were being set up in the yard, and the kitchen staff was cooking large kettles of vegetable soups and baking apple strudels for this special occasion. Then from the large window of our room, I watched buses leave and waited patiently until my mother came to take me along in the KLV ambulance shared with other nurses to greet the newcomers. Great care was given to have the necessary equipment, medication, extra clothing, some bedding, etc., ready to assist sick children upon arrival. At the train station, everyone was staring only in one direction, waiting for the train to arrive. When the train finally came rolling into the station, it created an emotional moment seeing many children happily waving through the open windows of the train slowly moving into the station, indicating the cities they were coming from under the black sign of the swastika. In an orderly manner, as told by their guardians, usually trained Hitler Youth leaders, they left the train carrying their small suitcases and backpacks and were welcomed by a very caring staff of the camp. Everyone arriving at König-Otto-Bad was considered to be very lucky for many reasons. It was run by a retired general who had served in WWI. He had been retrained under the Hitler Regime to enforce their intrusive political indoctrination upon all new arrivals. He sounded like a lion at first but gained the trust and love of most of the children as his grandfatherly side became known after a few weeks. He played ball with the boys and rolled around in the green grass with them after making sure some of these young Hitler Youth leaders assigned under him were not around. Most of the children's ages ranged between five and ten years. Caretakers, including a few older women who were exceptionally kind and caring, always ready to help some of the children who sometimes were becoming overshadowed by homesickness. Compared with other KLV camps where young boys received harsh military training, self-defense training to fight guerillas, and so much more, the children at Camp King O (as they called it) were indeed the lucky ones.

One day I noticed a tall blonde girl pulling a little boy who was very shy behind her. My mother had also noticed them, so we approached them slowly with a gentle smile. The girl seemed relieved and told my mother that her little brother was afraid of all the new people and did not want to go on the bus. My mother bowed down to him and said, Oh, there is no need to go on the bus because you and your sister will ride with us in a big car, the ambulance! I only need you to tell me your name! He looked at both of us, and with a little shaky voice, he said, Uwe. This name was very strange-sounding to me since it was a typical North German name, which was not common, almost never even heard of in Bavaria, in the south of Germany. Sitting next to me in the back seat of the car on one side and his sister, Helga, on the other, he felt more confident. After some time, he started telling us about many interesting things he saw while riding on the train. Helga told us about some of the horrible air raids they endured in the city of Bremen. She also told us that her little brother, due to his young age of five, was supposed to have been sent to some unknown host family; but she pledged that she would take care of him so that they would not be separated. She stroked gently over his head while telling us that Uwe had been sick from sitting long hours in dark and cold bunkers filled with smoky, dusty air. We have a big park with many trees and large green meadows with beautiful flowers at the camp. I will show them to you Uwe if you let me! You will feel much better soon! I told him with enthusiasm and excitement. Everyone laughed, and Uwe gave me a shy, agreeing smile.

By now the three buses and the ambulance had arrived at the camp. Eagerly, children started throwing down their backpacks, taking off their woolen caps, hats, and warm coats and some started rolling around on the still-lush green grass on a beautiful sunny autumn day. Even the guardians, young women and men who had served and had been trained by the Hitler Youth organization to follow their strict guidelines, let everyone enjoy the fresh air and wide-open space after a long ride on the train and enjoyed the hearty welcome everyone received from a caring staff of this camp. After a while, all the children gathered up their belongings and were asked to form a single line, raise a hand and step forward when their names were being called. When counting, each child was also observed by a member of the nursing staff. This was to ensure that everyone was accounted for and remained in a healthy condition during their long