yell Heil Hitler , click our heels and then walk out again.”
Karl did not think much of the idea, “How can that be fun?”
Harold did not give up, “Come on, Karl, this would be good training for us,” he grinned at his friend. “We will walk out without buying anything. Just in and out.”
Karl liked the wide grin from Harold but sometimes he thought that his friend had weird ideas, “I don’t have any money to buy anything anyway, do you?”
Harold’s grin faded faster than the daylight, “No, I never have any money. My mom pays me a few Pfennige (pennies) when I do some household chores, but they always disappear in the piggy bank.”
Karl agreed, “Same here. I think when I am grown up I will have a bunch of pennies.”
Harold considered the answer, “Me too. You think that we will have enough to buy us some apples?”
“Yes, I guess we could buy some apples but not enough to buy us an orange. My dad says that oranges are very expensive because they come all the way from Spain and we have to pay something like import duty. Did you ever eat an orange?”
“No, never did,” Harold answered. “How about you?”
Karl nodded his head, “Yes, once, last Christmas.”
The boys had stopped their walk while they were talking and scanned the people in the grocery store. There were no bigger boys around to possibly chase after them.
“Wait,” said Harold, “what if the grocer does not return our salute. Do we report him to Herr Halama?”
“No,” answered Karl. “My mother said that I am not to report anyone.”
Harold was done observing the store customers. “Let’s do it. But shout as loud as you can and really click your heels.”
He opened the door to the store and the boys stood still for a moment because nobody paid them any attention.
“Heil Hitler!” roared both of the boys together. Their heels clicked like a whip and their arms were extended just as they had been instructed a short while ago.
“Get out!” yelled the grocer. He threw a rotten potato in their direction. The customers grumbled to each other and the boys clicked their heels once more as they turned on their left heel and left the store.
“This was not much fun,” said Harold on their way home. “I had hoped for a different reaction.”
“What did you expect?” Did you see the grocer’s wife? She nearly slipped and fell. Is that what you hoped for?”
Harold shook his head, “I really don’t know. But it was not much fun,” he repeated once more.
The boys did not know it at the time but two years later, by 1942, the Jungvolk introduced regular store patrols where they did exactly what Karl and Harold had done; except they reported any storeowner who did not answer their salute. Hitler’s doctrine worked slowly but it worked. People were afraid to get reported and so it came that everyone shouted Heil Hitler, Nazi’s and dissidents alike.
Four
During the following year a few things changed in the Veth family. Karl found himself with a baby sister, although he had no clue where she came from. His parents told him something about a big bird, a stork, which apparently had lost its way on a baby delivery route. Luckily for the stork his mother had been in the right place at the right time to catch the baby and now they had to take care of her.
Yeah, right. As much as Karl trusted his parents he had his doubts. Besides, he had never seen a big bird in the city.
A few days after the arrival of his sister he had conferred with Harold about this issue and the boys decided on a trip to the zoo.
“I don’t see any babies,” said Harold while the boys stood in front of the Stork exhibit.
“No,” agreed Karl. "I don’t believe the story anyway. But let’s make sure and look up some other big birds.”
On the way over to the other birds they ran into a woman wearing a zoo caretaker uniform. “Ask her,” suggested Harold, and Karl walked right up to her.
“Excuse me, dear lady,