The Story of a young boy growing up in the Third Reich

 

 

 

Wilhelm R. Gehlen and Don A. Gregory

 

Published by Casemate Publishing in June 2008

 

The Book is out and doing well! Order directly from Casemate Publishing

www.casematepublishing.com

or

amazon.com

or

find it locally in your neighborhood Barnes and Noble or Books a Million

  

 

Synopsis of Jungvolk

 

          It might seem rather amazing today that children during the Nazi era in Germany were required to do their bit for ”Fuehrer, Volk, and Vaterland”, and work toward  final victory for Germany, but that is exactly what happened.  Their lessons in school, apart from a basic curriculum, revolved around aircraft identification, friendly and enemy, scrap collecting, herb collecting, parades and inspections, messenger duty and light antiaircraft defense. 

Jungvolk is the autobiography of a young boy, Wilhelm Gehlen, born in Germany the year Hitler took power, 1933.  His life is chronicled primarily over the years 1942 to 1946 through experiences with his family and relatives, many of whom are, at the time, in some branch of the military.  His father is with a tank destroyer team that gets moved all over eastern Europe.  His mother and grandparents hold the family together on the home front.  His older brother is already a member of the Hitler Youth and has complete confidence in the superiority of Hitler’s leadership. 

 Young Wilhelm’s first memory of the war is from 1940 and an interesting story of that time-period about Herr Meyer is told at the beginning of the book.  Herr Meyer was the name Herman Goering was quoted as saying everyone could call him if ever an enemy plane made its way into Germany.  By 1942, when the book really begins, Wilhelm wants to be a member of the Jung Volk, which was the pre- Hitler Youth program for boys age 10 – 14, although boys much younger were allowed to participate unofficially.  Wilhelm was one of those boys allowed to hang around the older kids, partly because his older brother Len was already a devoted Hitler Youth in good standing. Young Wilhelm made himself useful to the personnel of the local anti-aircraft installations and learned war from the ground up.  He also learned about the people everyone had called the “enemy” when he and his mother were “captured” by the Americans.  Wilhelm learned that in this war, the soldiers on all sides were much more alike than different.

 

 

 

Book Foreword

 

            This book was written more than 50 years after the events described here happened, therefore, I ask the reader to excuse me if, in some instances, I have my dates or places confused. Exact dates can get confused in one’s mind after this much time has elapsed. I have also deliberately changed the names of a few persons, units and places to protect the privacy of those who might be still living among us.

            This book describes the life of a young boy of the Jung Volk and Hitler Youth during, and immediately after WW2. This story should not be looked upon as a glorification of National Socialism. I have avoided, wherever possible, descriptions of tasteless or gruesome events that one can sadly find all too often in WW II publications.

            To the reader it might seem rather amazing and unbelievable that children during the Nazi times in Germany were required to do their bit for so-called ”Fuehrer, Volk, and Vaterland”, and work toward a final victory for Germany, but that is exactly what happened. Our lessons in school, apart from a basic curriculum, revolved around aircraft identification, friendly and enemy, scrap collecting, herb collecting, parades and inspections, messenger and light AA duties. Even collecting Colorado beetles in potato fields was regarded as “victory work”. In those years, the Hitler Youth were in the fields all during the summer and it can be truly assumed that the eradication of this pest in Germany is mainly due to the efforts of the boys and girls of school age that collected them until 1948. The Colorado beetle is today not to be found there.

            In 1943 I was ten years old, and at the age of ten we Jung Volk knew how to change the barrel on a 20mm gun. We loaded magazines, we took messages under fighter bomber fire from one gun emplacement to the next, or to HQ after all telephone communications had been shot to ribbons. The young Hitler Youth knew the sound of a P-38 or a Typhoon on a beeline toward him with cannons blazing. He knew where the nearest foxhole was to take cover. He stood steadfast by the light of AA’s, handing magazines to the loader, when around him all hell was breaking loose. It was a total war, where everyone was involved, especially after the Normandy landings; because Germany, from that date, had a war on two fronts.

            In the eyes of our parents, we were still kids; in the eyes of Hitler, we were a convenient substitute for older Flak personnel that had been sent to the front to make up for the terrible losses at Stalingrad. It can truly be said that these young kids took, proportionally, as many casualties from fighter bomber attacks as any other Wehrmacht division. The Hitler Youth organization was in fact the second oldest paramilitary group in the Third Reich, founded one year after the Sturmabteilung (SA). Jung Volk and Hitler Youth also dug up thousands of soccer fields to be used as vegetable plots. They excavated tank traps, not with heavy equipment either, it was with pick and shovel, and all this, for most of the time, under constant threat of fighter bomber attack.

            I did not consult any reference books in the writing and telling of this account. I wrote down what I could remember, and I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to my wife Barbara, who encouraged me in the first place to write all this down, to Beverly Niekerk for the first draft typing of my notes, and lastly, I dedicate this book to all the soldiers of WW II and to their friends and relatives, both Allied and Axis, who lost their lives in the line of duty.

You are not forgotten!

 

Thank you.

WRG

 

           

            I met Will Gehlen some 3 years ago and soon after making his acquaintance, I began to urge him to tell his story so that others could better understand what things were really like growing up a young boy in Nazi Germany, experienced by someone who was really there. He finally grew to know me well enough to admit that indeed he had written down some of the things he could remember about that time and that he would really like to see his story published as a book. Being a university professor with an attitude much like Will’s brother Len, whom you will soon meet, I knew I could handle this bit of  writing in the span of a few months. Well, more than 2 years later, it was finally finished. I don’t know who was more glad, Will or me. He indeed had some notes, typed on paper using a typewriter, and these had to be scanned page by page and translated page by page. I saw my job however as more than someone who could utilize modern hardware and software. I actually wanted to turn these notes into a book that would be readable, informative, as factual as Will and I could make it, and maybe even a bit entertaining. Luckily for me, Will is a fascinating conversationalist and was always ready to retell a story that did not get written down just right; so a portion of this book is my interpretation and rewriting of what was written in his notes and what I gained from multiple interviews and correspondence. Will’s English is very good but it was learned by listening to those around him who spoke English, and sometimes they were not the best teachers, and for this reason, some of the notes had to be further interpreted. I have done this while doing my best to leave the spirit of what was in the notes and what he told me untouched. Much of the book is written as conversation because that is the way he remembered the events. I have very much enjoyed communicating with him during the preparation of this book, even though it was often difficult to explain to him why I was having so much trouble with the simple task that I told him two years ago I could handle easily. I would certainly like to acknowledge the assistance of Sean Anderson and Kira Patty for solving some difficult scanning and formatting problems that I could not handle.

            You may not recognize the name, Wilhelm Gehlen, but you do know the name of his father’s cousin, whom Will called Uncle, Reinhard Gehlen, better known as the chief of the Gehlen Organization and the true father of America’s CIA.

 

DAG

Huntsville, Alabama

2007

 

 

Photo of Jungvolker Wilhelm Gehlen, age 10

 

 

 

Wilhelm Gehlen and Don Gregory

(Short biographies)

 

Wilhelm Reinhard Gehlen was one of the thousands of children who were brought up in the 12 year Reich and like all children; he was called up to the Jungvolk and Hitler youth.  His childhood was therefore entirely tailored by the National Socialist doctrine.  Every child had an education that was watched over by the Party.  He attended the Volks School (the Herbert Norkus School) until September 1944 when lessons were stopped because of the nearing western front.  His formal education was resumed in July 1945, after the war, with a new crop of teachers that had been de- nazified by the allied military authority.

 

He left school in 1948 to learn to be an electrician, but the rebuilding program in Germany was not up to full steam at the time and money was scarce.  To find something to earn a living, he joined the Foreign Legion and served in Indochina (Annam-Tonkin) and North Africa.  After his discharge in 1959, he worked a short while for the International War Grave Commission of NATO, and retired in 1983.

 

He now lives in the Smokey Mountains Area of Eastern Tennessee.

 

 

 

 

Don Allen Gregory has been Professor of Physics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville for the last 15 years.  He was a supervisory research physicist for the US Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (1982 – 1992) and a Materials Scientist for NASA/ Marshall Space Flight Center before that.  He is the author of more than 150 refereed technical publications in internationally circulated science and engineering journals; reviewer and editor for manuscripts for technical journals and the chairman/advisor for 18 masters students and 19 doctoral students, with subsequently published theses and dissertations.

 

Professor Gregory has been named Outstanding Teacher of the Year at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and has numerous research and service awards, granted by the university, NASA, and the US Army.  He is known as a proficient technical writer whose papers are also readable and informative.  He was the recipient of the Publication of the Year Award for one of his papers published by IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.  Professor Gregory is a native Alabamian who grew up with a love for Science, the English language, and German military history.

 

Don and Will (December, 2007) Photo taken at UAH

 

Don  and Will have been invited to New York to appear on the Joey Reynolds Show (WOR, NYC) for a one hour live interview regarding their book Jungvolk, to be published by Casemate Publishing in June of this year. The program has about 9 million listeners worldwide and is rated the number one late night radio show in the New York area.  Joey was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland three years ago for his accomplishments in radio, television, and music.  Several show business personalities have appeared on the show and listen to it regularly.  The main interviewer, and Joey’s guest, will be Albert Wunsch, a well known New York lawyer, resident military historian, and Beatles fan.  On the show, Gregory and Gehlen will discuss their new book, which is based on the life of a very young Wilhelm, growing up in the Third Reich.  They will also finalize dates for book signings in the New York/ northern New Jersey area planned for later in the year.

 

 

The book has been shipped!!!!

 

The book has been shipped from Casemate and will be in bookstores before the end of June.  Will is in Germany until June 26th.  Casemate is doing advertising for the book now.  A radio interview on Public Radio Station WLRH in Huntsville has been scheduled for July 2nd and the first book-signing is scheduled for July 13th in Johnson City, Tennessee.  There will also be a book-signing in Huntsville at the new Barnes and Noble store in the Bridge Street shopping complex as soon as Barnes and Noble gets moved in there.

 

Will reports from Germany that the book is getting good advertisement in bookstores there. 

 

 

One boy’s view of life during World War II – from the other side

JUNGVOLK: The Story of a Boy Defending Hitler’s Third Reich

By Wilhelm Gehlen and Don Gregory

 

“In the eyes of our parents we were still kids, in the eyes of Hitler we were a convenient substitute for older (flak) personnel sent to the front.”- Wilhelm Gehlen

 

This is the wartime memoir of a boy named Will, who happened to be the nephew of the head of Nazi Germany’s intelligence agency, Foreign Armies East. After reading this book, the reader will wonder who had the most exciting time during World War II.

Will Gehlen’s father, a trolley driver, was drafted into the Wehrmacht to man a Sturmgeschutz assault gun in < xml="true" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" prefix="st1" namespace="">Russia. His older brother, Len, was enlisted in the Hitlerjugend. The author, only 10 years old when the war began, became a helper at the local Luftwaffe flak battery, fetching ammunition. It was exciting work for Will (a member of the “Jungvolk”) and by the end of the war he had become expert at judging attacks. As fighter raids increased in frequency he noted that the pilots became less skilled.

Aside from aircraft kills, Gehlen had other adventures during the war, as when his mother dragged him to visit his aunt in Luxembourg in 1944. Crossing the lines they found no aunt but met American troops, and were surprised when the German Army launched an offensive, overrunning the village and forcing US soldiers to retreat with casualties. Making their way back to Germany was even more perilous, until they discovered the most secure vehicles were mail trucks. No one, not even the SS, tried to interfere with their progress.

Gehlen’s town was repeatedly bombed and he often had to help with the wreckage or to pull survivors from basements. He witnessed more death than a child ever should; nevertheless, his flak battery continued firing until US tanks were almost on top of the position. In this book Gehlen, provides an intimate glimpse of the chaos, horror and black humor of life just behind the front lines. As seen through the eyes of a child, who was expert in aircraft identification and bomb weights, food-rationing and tank types, one encounters a view of life inside Hitler’s wartime Reich that is both fascinating and rare.

The most amazing part of the story is Gehlen’s attitude as a child: “The fact that these guys could go through this and they thought of it as an adventure. People they knew were dying, bombs were falling, and they were shooting at airplanes that were trying to kill them. Here are these kids, who believe they are totally indestructible, and every day was a new adventure.”

All young boys like to play war games.  But in Wilhelm Gehlen’s case, his escapades were a long way away from the safety of the playground

 

Advance praise for Jungvolk:

“There are no OOB’s, weapon specifications, or other hard details of battles and strategy. But what you have is a readable home front account on the German side. And that’s not something you find every day.”

Magweb.com 5/2008

 

Casemate has been publishing & distributing Military History titles in the US since 2002 and in the UK (and the rest of the world)

 since 2007.

 

Publish Date: June 2008; Specifications: 6 x 9, 320 pages, 16 pages b/w photos, maps
978-1-932033-87-8; $32.95, hardback

For more information please contact Tara Lichterman at Casemate Publishing (610) 853-9131 or tara.lichterman@casematepublishing.com

 

 

Specifications

978-1-932033-87-8

June 2008

320 pages

16 pages b/w photos

hardback

6 x 9

$32.95

Casemate

CASEMATE

1016 Warrior Road

Drexel Hill, PA 19026

Tel: 610.853.9131

Fax: 610.853.9146

Tara Lichterman

tara.lichterman@casematepublishing.com

www.casematepublishing.com

JUNGVOLK

The Story of a Boy Defending Hitler's Reich

Wilhelm R. Gehlen

Don A. Gregory

This is the wartime memoir of a boy named Will, who happened to be

the nephew of the head of Nazi Germany’s intelligence agency, Foreign

Armies East. After reading this book, the reader will wonder who had

the most exciting time during World War II.

Will Gehlen’s father, a trolley driver, was drafted into the Wehrmacht to

man a Sturmgeschutz assault gun in Russia. His older brother, Len, was

enlisted in the Hitlerjugend. The author, only 10 years old when the

war began, became a helper at the local Luftwaffe flak battery, fetching

ammunition. It was exciting work for Will (a member of the “Jungvolk”)

and by the end of the war he had become expert at judging attacks. As

fighter raids increased in frequency he noted that the pilots became

less skilled.

Aside from aircraft kills, Gehlen had other adventures during the war,

as when his mother dragged him to visit his aunt in Luxembourg in

1944. Crossing the lines they found no aunt but met American troops,

and were surprised when the German Army launched an offensive,

overrunning the village and forcing US soldiers to retreat with

casualties. Making their way back to Germany was even more perilous,

until they discovered the most secure vehicles were mail trucks. No

one, not even the SS, tried to interfere with their progress.

Gehlen’s town was repeatedly bombed and he often had to help with

the wreckage or to pull survivors from basements. He witnessed more

death than a child ever should; nevertheless, his flak battery continued

firing until US tanks were almost on top of the position.

In this book Gehlen, provides an intimate glimpse of the chaos, horror

and black humor of life just behind the front lines. As seen through the

eyes of a child, who was expert in aircraft identification and bomb

weights, food-rationing and tank types, one encounters a view of life

inside Hitler’s wartime Reich that is both fascinating and rare.

 

 

 

Casemate Publishing Presents Jungvolk – The Fascinating Tale of A Childhood Lost to World War II - From The Other Side

 

	NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Drexel Hill, PA, United States, 06/04/2008 - Jungvolk: The Story of a Boy Defending Hitler’s Third Reich by Wilhelm Gehlen and Don Gregory.
	“In the eyes of our parents we were still kids, in the eyes of Hitler we were a convenient substitute for older (flak) personnel sent to the front.”- Wilhelm Gehlen This is the wartime memoir of a boy named Will, who happened to be the nephew of the head of Nazi Germany’s intelligence agency, Foreign Armies East. After reading this book, the reader will wonder who had the most exciting time during World War II. Will Gehlen’s father, a trolley driver, was drafted into the Wehrmacht to man a Sturmgeschutz assault gun in Russia. His older brother, Len, was enlisted in the Hitlerjugend. The author, only 10 years old when the war began, became a helper at the local Luftwaffe flak battery, fetching ammunition. It was exciting work for Will (a member of the “Jungvolk”) and by the end of the war he had become expert at judging attacks. As fighter raids increased in frequency he noted that the pilots became less skilled. Aside from aircraft kills, Gehlen had other adventures during the war, as when his mother dragged him to visit his aunt in Luxembourg in 1944. Crossing the lines they found no aunt but met American troops, and were surprised when the German Army launched an offensive, overrunning the village and forcing US soldiers to retreat with casualties. Making their way back to Germany was even more perilous, until they discovered the most secure vehicles were mail trucks. No one, not even the SS, tried to interfere with their progress. Gehlen’s town was repeatedly bombed and he often had to help with the wreckage or to pull survivors from basements. He witnessed more death than a child ever should; nevertheless, his flak battery continued firing until US tanks were almost on top of the position. In this book Gehlen, provides an intimate glimpse of the chaos, horror and black humor of life just behind the front lines. As seen through the eyes of a child, who was expert in aircraft identification and bomb weights, food-rationing and tank types, one encounters a view of life inside Hitler’s wartime Reich that is both fascinating and rare. The most amazing part of the story is Gehlen’s attitude as a child: “The fact that these guys could go through this and they thought of it as an adventure. People they knew were dying, bombs were falling, and they were shooting at airplanes that were trying to kill them. Here are these kids, who believe they are totally indestructible, and every day was a new adventure.” All young boys like to play war games. But in Wilhelm Gehlen’s case, his escapades were a long way away from the safety of the playground. Advance praise for Jungvolk: “There are no OOB’s, weapon specifications, or other hard details of battles and strategy. But what you have is a readable home front account on the German side. And that’s not something you find every day.” Magweb.com 5/2008

 

 

Gregory helps pen childhood memories

of Nazi Germany 

 

Phil Gentry, Senior Editor, News Services, The University of Alabama in Huntsville

 

      For young Wilhelm Gehlen, growing up in Nazi Germany during World War II was a great adventure, complete with narrow escapes, hardship, combat, capture and escape. At the age of ten he manned an anti-aircraft battery and, at eleven, saw both sides of the Battle of the Bulge.

      For Don Gregory, a UAHuntsville physics professor, a chance on-line encounter with Gehlen sixty years later led to a soon-to-be-published book that tells the story of what things were really like for a young person growing up during that time.

      It started with “an odd-looking medal on an eBay auction,” said Gregory.  “It turned out to be from the Crimea. I posted a question about it and he got back to me with way more information than I wanted.”

      Gehlen’s response started an e-mail conversation that lasted for several months, until Gehlen told Gregory that he lived in Telford, Tennessee, and that he had been in the Hitler Youth.

      “We corresponded for months about trivial things: What did you eat?  What was school like?”  Gregory said.  “The answers I got weren’t anything like what I expected.  The Hitler Youth sounded more like the Cub Scouts than a paramilitary organization, and the kids got involved because they got to do things they ordinarily would not have been able to; camping out at jamborees, athletic contests, and just being with a lot of kids their own age.”

      “It isn’t often that you have an opportunity to talk to someone who has had these experiences. I told him, ‘You should be writing this stuff down. One day all of this will be lost.’”

      Gehlen replied that he had a manuscript.

      “I told him I would like to read what you’ve written. Eventually he came down here. When he showed up it was like I’d known him my whole life. We talked for an entire day.”

      The manuscript turned out to be some 200 loose pages of typewritten and handwritten notes in something approaching English (and German).  Gregory was hooked by the story, “kind of ‘Tom Sawyer in the Third Reich,’ a first person account from a kid’s point of view.”

      “I told him, ’I think I can make a story out of this,” Gregory said. He thought the process might take three months. “When I only finished six pages the first week I knew I had gotten in over my head.”

      They went back and forth for three years, translating and expounding, filling in gaps and rewriting.

      The most amazing part of the story, says Gregory, is Gehlen’s attitude as a child: “The fact that these guys could go through this and they thought of it as an adventure. People they knew were dying, bombs were falling, and they were shooting at airplanes that were trying to kill them. Here are these kids, who believe they are totally indestructable, and every day was a new adventure.

      “Despite everything, kids are still kids, and kids will find adventure in whatever is there.”

      “Jungvolk” is scheduled for publication in hardback, in June by Casemate of Pennsylvania and Gregory and Gehlen are scheduled for a book-signing and radio interview in New York later this year.  A phone interview with BBC radio has also been arranged.  Barnes and Nobel has already named “Jungvolk” their book of the month for June.  The book is named for the Nazi youth organization for children not old enough for the Hitler Youth.

      Gregory’s experience with the book and the people he met through Gehlen opened unexpected opportunities.  He is working on a book now based on two diaries written by German enlisted men who were involved in the most important campaigns of the war: the battle of Stalingrad and the war in North Africa (“This doesn’t have a happy ending for the Germans.”), and then a Third Reich cookbook.

      “There are a lot of recipes for rabbit, fake coffee, fake lots of things,” Gregory said, although they were never called fake; they were “replacements”.”

 

An excerpt from ’Jungvolk’

      “Just as we started across the parking lot, I heard the screaming sound of Allison turbines from somewhere. I froze. There was only a three foot high privet hedge behind me. No other shelter. Home was 100 yards away but the open expanse of the parking lot looked like 40 acres to me at that moment. I pushed (little brother) Fred into the hedge and looked up. A P-38 was coming straight toward us, just above tree top height, the nose cannons spitting fire. I heard the plopping sound of bullets on the factory roof. I pushed Baby Fred deeper into the privet and sheltered him with my body. Two small bombs tumbled from the plane and with a high pitched sound they disappeared behind the factory. The next moment I heard the explosions.

      “Fred was struggling and screaming to get away from me. I couldn’t see the P-38 but I could tell by the engine sound that he was somewhere near.

      “I decided to run for home but Fred was only three years old and he couldn’t, or rather he wouldn’t, run. I kept pulling his arm. “Let’s go Freddy! Quick, bang bang is coming!” I shouted to him. We had been lucky so far, not getting hit. I thought those pilots were terribly bad shots.

      “We were right in the middle of the parking lot when a P-38 came right overhead, maybe 50 feet high. I could see the pilot’s face as he looked down on us. Was he smiling at our helplessness? He did not fire his guns. I was surprised to see him waving at us. I waved back and before he went out of sight I saw his wings doing a sort of wobble from left to right and back. Was that some sort of greeting? Surely the pilot, from 50 feet up, had seen us and from that distance he knew the difference between soldiers and little kids. Perhaps he was a father of a son himself or he just simply had spent the last of his ammunition.”

 

A review from  the London Daily Express

 

 

 

 

Photo from Booksigning in Huntsville

November 4, 2008, Barnes and Noble: