Bämer Against The World

Eins

Berlin, Germany, Early June of 1939

    "Nach vorne! Nach vorne!" Friedrich Bämer had three things in mind as a child. His family, his friends, and adventure. During the day when his mother was at the market and his father was at work, he'd pussy around with his friends in the streets of Berlin. This time around, they had tied a milk cart to the end of Friedrich's bike and were swirling around the city like savages. At least, that's what every pedestrian thought as they tried to prevent themselves from being hit. Considering 10-year-old Friedrich's size, his legs and arms were sticking out of the cart while only his back and butt were inside of it. "Do it for the Fatherland!" Friedrich's best friend, Claus sped up while ignoring the screams from people around him. His other friends, Bruno and Christoph ran alongside them scream-singing the nazi anthem. These four boys were the bane of Germany's existence, when they were separated, they were the sweetest, calmest things in Europe, but when they were together, they created hell on earth. Most of the things they did were Friedrich's ideas, he was the instigator, and even his family knew that. The laughter of the boys quickly came to a stop when Claus accidentally ran over a rock and sent the bike flying, flipping over Claus and Friedrich before the boys landed into a man's vegetable cart. The boys coughed before laughing once more. "Boys!" for the public, this was the final straw. The man who owned the cart grabbed Friedrich by the ear and started to drag him home. "Freddy!" the boys yelled as they started to follow him. But one evil look got them to run home. The man was Peter Schmidt, a farmer man who was a constant victim of the boys' mischief.

    "They're gonna end up killing themselves!" Peter exclaimed. When Paul came home from work, he was not happy to hear of his son's behavior again. Freddy looked down in shame while still rubbing his sore ear. "For a former soldier of the Fatherland, you are raising wild children!" Paul stared at Peter and froze. The memory of the Great War was not a fond one, it was the night his friends died horrible deaths. And if it wasn't for God, he'd be gone too. "Friedrich?" Paul looked back at his son and raised his eyebrows. Freddy sighed and crossed his arms tight. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Louder," Paul demanded. "Sorry!" Peter tsked and let himself out of the house, slamming the door behind him after saying one last thing. "The Führer needs to straighten that boy out." Freddy scoffed and put his hands on his hips. "The Führer will love me soon enough."
"What?"
"Christoph's parents say we're old enough to join the Deutsches Jungvolk now." Paul hated the idea of his son being excited about war. During his time in the trenches, there was only death, blood, and fire. He was as silly as Freddy at some point. The only thing he wanted to do was serve the Fatherland, but the cost was too great. That is something Freddy won't ever understand. "No." Paul refused. "Why not? All my friends are going," Paul sighed. If he didn't say anything Freddy would never stop talking. "Life is always easy for someone your age. But the Führer..." Paul kneeled closer to his son and cupped his hand near his ear. "He will turn you boys into men the second you step onto that battlefield. He is not the cause you need to be fighting for." Freddy rolled his eyes. Hell would freeze over before he stopped hearing about Paul's Great War stories. Freddy always assumed they were for a scare, but little did he know, war was very real. "You don't understand, Papa. Things are different now." Paul sighed and gave in. "Wait until your mother heads about this." unlike most families, Ida, Freddy's mother, was the one to enforce all the discipline. Her no-nonsense attitude and her extremely religious ideologies made Freddy deadly afraid of her. "Papa wait! Please don't tell Mama!" no matter how much Freddy begged, Paul wouldn't listen. "We were just playing around!"
"That's the thing, I'm sick of you playing around!" Freddy jumped back, shocked by his Father's outburst. "You're childhood ends today. You understand me?" reluctantly, Freddy nodded. To a young boy, this was the worst thing to happen to him. He was a hawk, a hawk with frilly feathers and a strong beak. And he had just been caged.

~~~

"I can only take so much from that boy." by the time Ida got home, she was in for some complaining by her husband. "If he wants to join let him go," Ida said, putting her coat on the hook. "Let him go? Really?"
"If the Gestapo finds out he hasn't joined even though he's well enough to, we'll all be dead." joining the youth was already law, and no matter how much Paul hated what his country had become. He couldn't hold Freddy down for long, especially when he wanted to join. Ida wrapped her hand around Paul's nape. "For our sakes, let Freddy be a boy for the little amount of time he has." Paul sighed before a small smile crept up on his face. "Alright," he caved, pecking his wife on her lips. "I'll go give him a spanking to even it out." Ida winked before walking upstairs. Paul's smile dropped when she left. His son was a Nazi.