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The Lower Education system

Deutschland, Deutschland,
Über alles,
Über alles en der Welt!
The sound of our national anthem rang out clear and beautiful from our places on the risers. Fräulein Kuhn smiled and clapped her hands.
"Wonderful! Wonderful! Our Führer would be so proud!" Her sunny beam turned to a scowl of disgust as she shot a look toward Eva, Alfons, and Alexander. They sat under the black board as we sang in class; it was inappropriate for Jewish students to sit with the others. She turned back to the class, smiling again. "You will all do so well at our winter concert next week! Remember, children: make sure your Hitler Youth uniforms  are clean and ironed. Do not wear your recreation shoes! White socks for girls and black for boys-" the bell cut off her speech as we rushed off to the frigid December air, throwing on hats, coats, and grabbing our satchels as we went. I shifted my satchel from shoulder to shoulder as I waited, scanning heads for Jan's green snow cap. Children raced past, throwing snowballs, laughing and catching snow flakes on their tongues.
"Alina!" some one called. I turned, only to get slammed in the face by a snowball. I spluttered, cursing the laughing Jacob. He'd grown since summer and so had I; I was a tremendous 5'1.5", he was a colossus at 5'8". "Are you waiting for your brother?" he asked.
"No, I'm standing in the cold for my health."
"Where is he?" I shrugged, stamping my feet to warm them. "You'll be late to Hitler Youth if you don't hurry up."
"So will you if you keep waiting with me." Truth be told, I didn't want to go to Hitler Youth anyway. The evenings spent at the Junior League of German Maidens were the longest I had ever endured. While the boys did activities centering around team work, agility, strength, fixing bikes and building things, the girls were taught how to cook.
And clean.
And sew.
And the Nazi ideology.
Given, everyone had to hear the Nazi ideology, but it would have been an easier pill to swallow had I been allowed to learn something productive.
We waited another fifteen minutes before giving up and deciding to leave the now deserted school yard.
"Perhaps he went home sick," Jacob suggested. I nodded, I didn't think much of it.
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"Mama, I'm home!" I called as I shoved open the back door. The heat of the kitchen wrapped around me, thawing my frozen fingers and toes. Jan sat at the table. "Jan, where were you? I waited for you all after school, I didn't know where you were! Did you go off with your friends again?" It wasn't unusual for Jan, being the mischievous boy that he was, to go off with a small herd of other boys when no one was looking. I crossed the room and bent so I could see him eye to eye. "Jan, answer! Where-" Mama grasped my arm and half flung me away from him.
"That's enough!" she snapped. "Go up and get changed, your uniform is on your bed. You're leaving in three minutes whether you like it or not! Don't just stand there gaping; go!" I turned and bolted up the stairs. I threw off the skirt, sweater and stockings that I'd worn to school that day and pulled on the khaki brown jacket and skirt of my Hitler Youth outfit. I hopped down the stairs, folding over my socks and shoving on my shoes as I went. Papa threw me my hat.
"I will explain it all to you later," he said, pretending to help me with my coat. I nodded, not quite understanding, and hurried out the door.
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So I sat through a whole lesson on the Nazi ideology, how to balance vitamins in a meal, how to do laundry, and how to properly clean a mirror. Fascinating I tell you, fascinating. The whole time I could hear the clink of tools and the happy shouts of the boys. After a maddening few hours, I could throw on my coat and rush down the steps of the school, where the meetings were held. I trudged through the snow with Jacob, listening as he went on and on about the car he had built from a mouse trap this evening.
"You know, we ought to be grateful to Hitler," he said. "The man who gave us a history lecture  said that after the Great War, no one had food, or money."
"Of course, no one does after a war. Besides, we learned that in school."
"Yes, Miss High and Mighty, but here's what you don't know: Hitler got us out of all that. All the little government parties that couldn't do a thing, the lack of morale, the lack of food. If it weren't for Hitler, we would not be the master race that we are today. We are lucky to have Hitler." He was quoting the man word for word, I knew it. But I also knew that he was right, every word of it. Hitler had done all of this for us, what was a few tedious hours hearing it all week after week? After arriving home, I ate, washed the dishes, completed my homework, and prepared for bed. I was sitting in bed reading when my father came in. It had been years since my father came into my room to say goodnight, and I couldn't help but wonder what was going on when he entered and shut the door softly behind him. He closed the curtains, and removed a chunk of putty from his pocket which he stuffed into the key hole. A pillow shoved into the crack under the door finished the job.
"Papa...?" I was worried now.
"Sh..." he said and sat down on the bed. "We don't know who can hear us." I sat up a bit further.
"Here what, Papa?" My papa ran his hands through his hair, thinking.
"You have heard about Hitler in school, ja?" I nodded yes. Of course, every grade had been taught about Hitler in school. I had heard about him for years. "Jan is not in school because of Hitler." I blinked, not understanding. He sighed. "They say 'Die Juden seid der Feind von Hitler', ja? The Jews are the enemy of Hitler? Ünd von der Vaterland? And of the Fatherland?" I nodded. "Hitler...he does not want the Jews to be in schools with other...'normal' children. He thinks...that the Aryan children will be...contaminated, or made to be 'impure', if they are near the other children." I thought of the three students sitting by the black board. Normal students, friends, not long ago; now made to be the enemy.
"But Jan would never hurt-"
"It does not matter, Alina. The Führer is a very, very bad man." I glanced at the door.
"Why did you do that?" I asked, nodding to the pillow. He took my chin in his hand.
"Because if anyone-anyone-were to hear us speaking about the Führer in a way that could be seen as uncomplimentary, I could be taken away. You, Mama, Otto, Jan and I would never see each other again. Do you understand, Alina? No one can know." I nodded. He kissed my head. "Good girl," he said, turned out the light, and walked out. The pillow sat on a chair, the putty back in his pocket. Nothing had happened.
No one could know anything had happened.
I thought of the night Otto had smacked me and sent me tumbling down the steps. I replayed the last thing he had told me in my head:
"If you were not a child, then you would understand-"
Understand that Hitler was wicked.
Understand that we were in trouble.
Understand that all this peace was a lie.
Understand that we were as good as dead.
Understand that it was only a matter of time before it all came-

I ran to the bathroom and vomited. I cried. It was too much, too much.