FLAKHELFER TO GRENADIER. MEMOIR OF BOY SOLDIER, 1943-1945.pdf

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On January 7 1943, the German government, in order to free adult soldiers for frontline
duty, ordered that all male students of secondary schools born in 1926 and 1927 be
drafted into anti-aircraft service in the homeland. Students were to arrive in batteries on
February 18 1943. After serving from one year (those born in 1926) to thirteen months
(those born in 1927), the boys were transferred into the Reich Labor Service and from
there into the armed forces. They were replaced by boys born in 1928 who served to the
end of the war. About 200,000 boys became
Flakhelfer.
Most were called up at sixteen,
but many, like the author, Karl Heinz Schlesier, were only fifteen. The boys served in
batteries of light and heavy flak. Although the government insisted school programs
continue for
Flakhelfer,
the effort was a sham, especially where heavy bombing occurred.
Schlesier, a student of Rethel
Gymnasium
in Düsseldorf, served as
Flakhelfer
in the
regions that suffered the most numerous and heaviest air raids of the war in the Rhineland
(Düsseldorf) and the Ruhr (Recklinghausen). His is a coming of age story in a world gone
mad, where a teenage boy launched shrapnel into a sky filled with bombers, where
Christmas-tree-like flares marked cities about to burn, where working beside Russian
POWs, protecting industries with slave labor, courting a girl among bombed-out ruins,
and spending leave with family hiding in claustrophobic bomb shelters was
unremarkable, as was finally being thrown, unprepared, into a disintegrating frontline
only fifty kilometers from his childhood home. The memoir is based solely on Schlesier’s
diary notes and memories of that period. He has consciously avoided including what he
learned after the war. His views, opinions, and interpretations of events are from inside
the Germany of that time. If some are inconvenient today, they mirror the chaos of the
world he experienced. Then, to live or not to live was accidental. Schlesier wrote this
memoir as an old man in response to a granddaughter’s question about what he did in the
war. This is his answer. Perhaps, he also gives a voice to the silent generation of boys
born in Germany in 1926 and 1927. This generation has been silent because the horror it
knew pales in comparison to the horror of the Holocaust.
Karl Heinz Schlesier was born in Düsseldorf, Germany on July 31 1927. Following the
experiences in this memoir, he attended Bonn University studying anthropology and art
history. His Ph.D. described the art of the pre-Inca Nazca of Peru. A post-doctoral
fellowship at the University of Chicago in 1958 introduced him to Sol Tax and action
anthropology. Action anthropology was designed to benefit host populations. Schlesier
began working with the Cheyenne in Oklahoma in 1968. Ever since, he has supported
Cheyenne traditional leadership in their struggle to retain important features of their
ancient culture and adapt them to the realities of the present and future.
The author is best known for his work with and writings about American Indians. Of
his eight books, six deal with Indian issues, as do most of his many articles in the
scholarly journals of eleven countries. His books include the award winning novels
Trail
of the Red Butterfly
and
Aurora Crossing,
as well as
Josanie’s War
and
Plains Indians,
A.D.500-1500.
Schlesier served as a Jury Member on the Fourth Russell Tribunal, “The
Rights of the Indians of the Americas,” Rotterdam, 1980, and twice as expert witness on
Cheyenne cases in Federal Court in Oklahoma City.
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Published by Helion & Company 2014
Designed and typeset by Bookcraft Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Cover designed by Paul Hewitt, Battlefield Design (www.battlefield-design.co.uk)
Printed by Lightning Source Ltd, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
Text and images © Karl H. Schlesier
Cover: Author on the gunner’s seat.
4. Zug,
Hüls, spring 1944 (author’s collection).
ISBN: 978 1 909384 98 9
DIGITAL ISBN: 978 1 910294 87 1
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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