The Nine Lives of Arnold
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THE THIRD REICH HITS LIKE A HURRICANE !
President Paul v.Hindenburg, in a desperate effort to appease Hitler, appointed v.Paapen Reichskanzler (Prime Minister). He hoped that Hitler would accept a minor role in a v.Paapen right of center cabinet. Hitler refused. After only two months the v.Paapen cabinet was forced to resign. Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office as President of the United States on January 20, 1933. The aging German President, v.Hindenburg (85), with a heavy heart, asked Adolf Hitler to form a coalition government with the Deutsch Nationale Volkspartei. It was Hindenburg's party. It was small, but it was the party of all the industrialist and mercantile leaders. Thus, on President Roosevelt's 51st birthday, January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler, at 43, became the Prime Minister of Germany. Roosevelt had assumed office only ten days earlier. He was to become tremendously instrumental in eventually destroying Hitler, yet the latter was to survive him by 18 days. Monday morning, January 30th, 1933, I walked to school as usual. It was a slushy, dark, and drizzly morning in Hamburg. My mood was even gloomier than the weather. Hitler Reichskanzler! and another week of hated school. Along came Karl-Heinz Dannmeyer where we usually met on our ways to school. He wore a boy scout uniform of a right of center affiliation. 'Karl-Heinz, it is against the law to wear a uniform to school!' 'Do you know what happened yesterday?' 'Certainly, Hitler was appointed Reichskanzler as of today. So what! He hasn't got an absolute majority. He'll be out at the next election, just like Stresemann, Brüning, v.Paapen and all the rest of them!' 'No, he won't! We are in now. We'll never let go. We'll free ourselves from the Versailles yoke! 'Not another word of negotiations. Death alone can defeat us! We are the storm columns of the Hitler dictatorship!' ' He enthusiastically quoted the words of a popular Nazi song. It turned out that I was 100% wrong, and he 100% right. Death did defeat him, just as it did defeat about half of my other classmates. They were all killed in Word War II six to twelve years later. We were marched into the Aula, the assembly hall, which was usual on Monday mornings. Each class had two rows of benches, and the form-master stood at the end by the window so that he could oversee his class. We always started the week with a religious service. A teacher would read a text from the Bible, the organ would play, and we would sing some hymns. This morning it turned out to be different. Dr. Züge, the headmaster, made a short announcement. He introduced Dr. Payn, a German teacher, as the new 'Assistant Headmaster for Political Affairs.' Dr. Payn immediately launched into a vicious harangue against the Communists, the Jews, and the Reds who had not yet understood the meaning of the 'New Order'. They would soon feel Hitler's wrath, and as for those teachers who spoke against the Party, they would soon be eliminated! He also reiterated how unfairly the Germans were treated by the former Allies who, according to him, had started the World War in 1914 and then had the temerity to accuse the Germans of having done so. He pointed out why so many Germans had turned to Hitler and had abandoned the democratic parties: 'We Germans did everything the Allies asked us to do. We disarmed. We got rid of the Kaiser and his Yunkers. Stresemann had asked: 'Why do you want to punish the poor people of a liberal, unarmed republic?' Did the Allies accommodate us even a little bit? No! They lied to us! Where are Wilson's sacrosanct 14 points? What became of their holy doctrine of self determination?! They took vast territories away from us! Where were the promised plebiscites?! 'They hit us with high tariffs! They starve this Nation! They rather destroy food than sell it to us on credit! We cannot eat our machinery! They never reduced the reparation payments by a single mark! They did not return one colony to us! 'The Charter of the League of Nations demands that all members disarm. We Germans did. Did France and Great Britain disarm?! No! They are armed to the teeth! They claim that they need the arms to maintain peace in the world. 'That is a laugh! When the Japanese invaded Manchuria a year and a half ago, did they stop them? Did they supply Chiang Kai-shek with even a single gun? No! China is a member of the League of Nations. France and Great Britain proved their own lie! They have their huge armed forces only to keep us Germans down, just as Hitler has always predicted! Germany awake! 'Doing their bidding has brought us nothing but misery! For fourteen years they have humiliated us. They call us the disgrace of the human race. It is they who are treating us disgracefully! 'Now we must try the opposite tack: We must defy them! We must defy all our enemies, foreign and domestic! Germany awake! Our flag has changed! Now we will all sing our national anthem while giving the salute of our new Third Reich!' With that he unfurled the Nazi flag down the lectern. We all stood up to sing our beloved: Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.... (Germany, Germany above all else....) The hall reverberated, but I did not raise my right hand to the divisive salute. All my classmates did. After the last notes had faded, Dr. Payn yelled: 'And now the [Nazi] anthem of Germany's future, the Horst Wessel Lied!' I sat down. All the other boys, as far as I could see, remained standing and sang the catchy tune, which had done so much to glamorize the Nazi movement. Over the years I have come to the firm belief that no political nor religious movement can succeed without a rousing song which is simple to learn, plus a symbol which is easy to draw. The Hitler movement surely had both. Dr. Payn had certainly reiterated all the reasons why so many decent German citizens had switched from the parties which had promised that Germany would regain its prosperity and international acceptance as an equal among other European nations by supporting the League of Nations. The radical nationalist movement appealed to German pride. It promised to defy the former enemies of World War I who had failed to cooperate with all German Governments. The Nazis promised to stop the Communists who wanted Germany to unite with the Soviet Union. Very, very few took the threat of terror against anti-Nazis, and especially against the Jews, seriously. Immediately after we got into our classroom, our form-master called on me: 'von der Porten, why did you not salute when we sang our national anthem, and why did you sit down when we sang the Horst Wessel Lied?'
'Because party politics have no business in German Schools!' I felt my anger rise. My heart beat in my throat. And my ear tips burned. 'It is divisive, and also against the Hamburg State Constitution as well as against the Federal Constitution!' Some of my classmates started to boo me, but Mr. Unbehaun said: 'von der Porten now has the floor. Anyone who wants to rebut him, can do so, after he sits down. Free speech has been guaranteed in Hamburg State for many centuries.' I took advantage of my right. I spoke of the proud history of Hamburg. I sa
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About the Book
Who would want to read: The Nine Lives of Arnold? Serious people who have wondered how it was possible for an intelligent and cultured people like the Germans to vote for a maniac like Hitler, history buffs and students who are interested in an entertaining and often humorous report on the time between the two World Wars, World War II and its aftermath. Born in 1917, Arnold von der Porten is raised in a family whose religion was democracy, he describes how the ominous threat of Nazism was fed by the fear of a Communist Revolution and by the foreign politics of the victorious Allies of the first World War. As he left home, Arnold, a boy of 15, brought up in the genteel German middle class, was suddenly tossed into extreme poverty in the British Crown Colony of Jamaica. He describes all aspects of Jamaican life before World War II as he works himself up and eventually starts his own neon shop. This narration and Arnold's 26 drawings are sure to be of great interest to people of all backgrounds and nationalities who wish to understand the time between the two World Wars with the rise of Hitler. Certainly it will be of great interest to British and Jamaican people as well as others who ever lived in, or read about a colony. War comes. He interned with Nazis, Fascists, and Jews alike. Life in a British internment camp. Released, he describes his experience in the Kingston business world. Arnold becomes prominent. He marries Amy Barry of a prominent family. Arnold illuminates a lot of historical events causing Hitler's rise, leading to World War II, the changing fortunes of that War, the Cold War. He was there when the British Empire was breaking up. The independence movement became hostile to foreigners. Amy and Arnold decided to migrate to America in 1953.
About the Author
Arnold P. Von der Porten was born in Hamburg, Germany, November 30, 1917. He had to leave High School half a year before graduation, as he was an anti-Nazi. In October of 1933 he migrated to Jamaica, British West Indies. He had a ver difficult life because of pervasive poverty. Became a very good refrigeration mechanic. Went to New York to study glass blowing. Was then called back by the Jamaica Public Service Co., to take over commercial refrigeration for that company. Became Jr. Swimming Champion of Jamaica, in the 200m breast stroke, and was a goal keeper for a water polo team. Started the very first neon shop in the British West Indies March 1, 1939. Having arrived with a German passport, he was interned September 3, 1939 with Nazis, Jews, and Italians. Was a 'Guest of his Majesty King George VI' for one year and nine months. Released, he became a Director of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association, a member of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, and a Director of the Electrical Contractors Association. Was one of the ten best known oil painters. Became goal keeper for the All Star Jamaican Water Polo Team. Married Amy Barry January 4, 1947. She was 23 and he was 29. Their first child died. Migrated to the United States January 17, 1953 and worked as a glass blower, industrial foreman, production manager, and a mechanical designer. Attended Rutgers University College, New Brunswick, NJ, and graduated with a BS in Business Administration 1965. Sent all four children, Richard, Marguerite, Christopher, and Arlene through private schools and to colleges. Retired from Johns-Manville as the machinery design-engineer for their factory in Manville, NJ, August 1, 1980. Retired to Gainesville, Florida.