Chapter Thirteen - Siegfried

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Chapter Thirteen
Siegfried
Hotel Metropole
14 June 1943
 
In this chapter, the girls meet a dashing Napola boy, a new courier, Hans-Rudolf von Duffendorf, with mixed feelings about him. Bekka realises that he looks like Sisi's cousin and best friend, Ludwig II of Bavaria; Hilda and he strike up a friendship. Meanwhile, we learn that he has been set to work by an agent in the SD, the SS Detective Branch, as a spy. Bekka and the Napola boy discuss ciphers, and he reveals that he speaks Hungarian. Hilda and Rudi go swing dancing, which is a subversive activity, with his best friend, and we learn about the brutal life in the Napolas. Bekka's Grandmamma dies and she is allowed to attend the funeral, where she meets up with Aunt Sophie's brothers, Max and Ernst. Claus is sent to North Africa for speaking his mind about the Nazis and there is grievously wounded in an air attack, which results in his being sent back to Berlin as a member of the staff of the Reserve Army. At a dinner party, Dietrich meets a young Lieutenant who asks him if he has permission to shoot Hitler; later, after battlefield injuries, to be sent to the Reserve Army headquarters as Claus's second. Dietrich is arrested by the Gestapo for his activities in getting Jews to safety. Sepp butts heads with Himmler after he is frank about his opinion of the handling of the Eastern Front, but he is given command of a new Division of the panzercorps, the Hitlerjugend, and they see their first action at the battle of Normandy.
 
Rudi:
Period signs: 


 Backnang Napola, Bavaria: 


 Theresianum Napola, Vienna:


 Napola Life:





 












The Ballhaus (seat of the government in Vienna):

Claus in North Africa before his injuries: 

Grandmamma's sarcophagus in the Imperial Crypt:


Dietrich in prison:

Sepp in Normandy:



Ernst and Max Hohenberg and their wives:


The Third Reich 's Elite Schools - The Nazi Napolas - with Helen Roche, who wrote THE book on the subject. Excellent.
Unsere Jungen (Ein Film der Napola│1943) - Propaganda film from the period.
Hitlers Eliteschule in Potsdam Napola - Documentary in German
German 12th SS armoured division 'Hitlerjugend' (1943-1945) -short documentary on the 12th Panzers, Sepp's new Division.

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