1503954692 Read Online Free

him as Tayte continued.
    ‘I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find out about Strobel—trying to understand why my mother might have been interested in him. I soon learned that researching a most-wanted war criminal, whom no one’s been able to find since the war ended, is no walk in the park. Coupled with the seemingly impossible task of trying to connect this man with a mother I know nothing about made the job of finding my family seem as impossible as ever.’
    ‘But something has given you hope?’ Langner said.
    ‘Possibly, which of course is why we’re here. I managed to identify a few people in Strobel’s family line, but no one wanted to talk to me about him. They all gave me the same answer—the answer I’m sure they’ve given to many Nazi hunters over the years. They said they knew nothing about him. They were ashamed of him and wanted to be left alone, and for the past to be left where they felt it belonged. So, after that avenue was closed to me, I returned to the archives and kept digging in the hope that I might turn something up. Then I found a reference to Volker Strobel that made it all the more imperative that I see you.’
    ‘Do you remember the magazines of the Hitler Youth?’ Jean asked. ‘One was called Will and Power . Issued bi-monthly.’
    ‘Yes, of course, the Wille und Macht ,’ Langner said. ‘It was familiar to most members of the Hitlerjugend . There may be many things wrong with me, my dear, but there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with my memory.’
    Tayte reached into his folder again and slid out another of the records he’d collected. ‘During my research I came across a digital copy of the magazine on the San Francisco based Internet Archive. It was filed under Baldur von Schirach, the magazine’s editor at the time. I had a translated copy made and this is a printout of the page that caught my attention as it appeared in Will and Power magazine in May 1937.’
    Langner took the copy and studied the page for several seconds before a gentle smile creased his lips. ‘So young,’ he said, his tone distant and melancholic. His smile dropped. ‘We had become perfect little soldiers—we sons of the Führer . I was nineteen years old when this picture was taken—a young man swept along by a wave so strong no one could have stopped it, let alone imagine the devastation it would ultimately cause.’
    Langner turned the copy of the magazine page around to face Tayte and Jean. Amidst the text, which was written in the Fraktur blackletter typeface so synonymous with Nazi Germany, were the portraits of two Hitler Youth members. The image was in black and white, but having seen so many photographs of similar Hitler Youth members during his research, it was not difficult for Tayte to imagine their blonde hair and blue eyes, their black trousers and brown shirts, with black ties and cross straps over their chests. With their strong jawlines and proud, authoritative stances, they looked the epitome of Nazi Germany’s perfect Aryan race.
    ‘We had grown out of our shorts by the time this picture was taken,’ Langner said. ‘We were being honoured for our conduct in the Hitlerjugend , and for becoming two of the youngest members to make the rank of Bannführer at the time, although when the war began and the majority of adult leaders were conscripted into the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, the minimum age was reduced to as young as sixteen to make up for the sudden deficit in leadership.’
    ‘The article tells of your friendship with Strobel,’ Tayte said.
    ‘Yes, and of course the HJ, as we commonly referred to it, encouraged such comradeship.’ He gazed down at the image again. ‘Look at us,’ he added, offering the image closer to Jean. ‘We were the very best of friends when this picture was taken. But how quickly the war, among other things, changed all that.’
    ‘You fell out?’ Tayte asked.
    ‘What about?’ Jean added. ‘If that’s not too personal a