The Forbidden Six

August 20th, 1934

"Werner?" Jakob called.

"Ja?" He was in his room, lying on his floor and doing nothing. He knew he had things to do, but his mind would not let him move. Jakob wheeled into his room wearing bright red rollerskates. "Where'd you get those?" Werner asked, lifting his head to see.

"It doesn't matter. Guess what happened?"

"Uhm...I don't know. Is it your birthday?" Werner let his head fall back on the ground as Jakob lost his balance and fell, crashing into a stack of books Werner had meticulously stacked near his door. He hadn't read them. Instead, he had stacked them by color.

"Jakob," he cried.

"It's fine. I'll fix them. Anyway, the voting results are coming out today. Right now. They're going to announce it on the radio."

"Wait, really?" Werner scrambled to his feet. He looked down at the rollerskates on Jakob's feet. "How are you going to get downstairs?"

Jakob grinned and slowly made his way towards the stairs. Werner went first. He stood on the landing and watched his brunet brother slowly make his way down the stairs. Jakob slipped on the second to last step and was sent tumbling into Werner.

Werner helped his brother to his feet before running to the living room. His mother and father anxiously sat on the couch, waiting for the voting results.

On August 2nd, President Hindenburg had died. Once a president dies, a successor had to be voted in under thirty days. One of the candidates for president was Hitler. On August 19th, the population of Germany had voted for a new president. Since Germany was declared a one party state in July, it was guaranteed that the Nazi party would win. Which meant, Hitler would be the new president.

The man on the radio was about to announce who had won the election. It seemed that everyone in the country was holding their breath. The radio announcer paused and the family could hear the rustling of papers.

"And the new president of Germany is... Adolf Hitler!" he said.

The rest of his words were drowned out by the rushing in Werner's ears. His father cheered and his mother stayed silent. Jakob discreetly glanced at Werner.

"This is good, right, Vati?" Jakob quietly asked.

Hermann quickly shushed him. "Drive it in the hanger," he said, not sparing a glance to his sons. "I have to hear this."

"I have to go," Werner said. His parents didn't seem to hear him. He left his house to go to Pieter's. The door flew open a moment before he reached it.

"They can't do this," Pieter said with a defeated air.

"I agree," Werner said. "They can't vote Hitler as president. He already has the Enabling Act. That basically means he's president. Now he actually is president. Augh... it's all so confusing."

"I'm going to die." Pieter raised his hands in mock enthusiasm. "Yay."

"Nobody's going to die," Werner comforted his friend. "I promise."

"Thanks. Should we go to Leyna's?" he suggested. "I wonder what she thinks of all this."

"Sure. I've got nothing better to do, anyway."

At Leyna's house, there was about the same reaction. When the announcer said that Hitler had won the election, Leyna almost dropped her dog, who she was clutching in her arms. Prinzessin yelped and she clutched the dachshund.

A few minutes later, there was a knock. Leyna nervously looked through the peephole and saw Werner and Pieter. She opened the door and sadly smiled.

"How are you?" she asked.