Europe of the World War II era should have been made childproof. Instead, it was “child abuse” on a scale that the world had never before seen.

Because of those six years, millions of children were denied their first kiss, the pain of algebra, the flowering cactus of puberty. Violent death happened first.

Though children don’t write history books, they often see things that we may not, and more quickly. The memories of children, as they are later sorted out with maturity, can give a perspective that grows our own.

One German child who lived through the Hitler depredations was Guenter Schott, a boy who was born into an unremarkable family, but in a most remarkable city — Berlin, the place where the worst of it began, and where it ended.

Schott was born in 1931 and lived with his parents, Walter and Ilse, and Wolfgang, a brother two years older, in an apartment in a working-class complex.

Childhood memories are unlike those of adults who recall important things in the continuous reel of a movie. Kids’ memories, however, are usually of the slide show variety, snapshots filed away in no certain order.

Today, in his 82nd year, Schott, a U.S. immigrant in 1958, lives in San Marcos and is still active in publishing. He can plumb his memory and speak of the dark time he lived through — the Nazis through the mind’s eye of a child …

Of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Schott says: “They made Berlin beautiful with flags, parades and flowers. I remember saying to my parents, ‘What is this all about?’ and they explained that it was a very important time in life, because Germany was taking its rightful place in the world. Hitler had been in power only three years at that time and already the public loved him.

“Hitler gave people work building the autobahn and reviving the armaments industry. That turned a huge number of people from unemployed to wage-earners. I watched happy workers coming home at the end of the day, finally being able to feed their families, and praising Hitler for providing jobs.”

Hitler used that credibility with the public to intensify his campaign against Jews. It became a signature fact of the Nazi regime. Schott was there.

“Jews were known to be well-educated. Many people went to Jewish doctors because they knew they’d get the best care possible. But Hitler, who was a brilliant speaker, stopped that by brainwashing the people. He pounded and pounded in his speeches that Jews were no good. Because people had confidence in Hitler, they wanted to believe him.

“We heard his speeches on the radio that we received in a little black box called volksempfanger, the radio of the people. Everyone had one because the government sold them cheap (to spread propaganda).”

In November 1938, Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, was named for the shattered windows that littered the streets as Nazi thugs looted and terrorized Jews. Schott remembers the crunch of broken glass beneath his shoes on the streets.


