Figure 1.--

Alfons Heck wrote two memoirs and was the subject of a HBO documetary focusing on his boyhood experiences in the Hitler Youth. Alfons grew up in Wittlich, a small village near Luxembourg. He was broughtup by his grandmother. He was fascinated by Hitler and the NAZIs when he joined the Hitler Youth at age 10 in 1938. By that time it was virtually complsory for all German children to join at ahe 10. Heck narrated a HBO special "Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth", explaining how millions of children were swept up into the Hitler Youth, many becoming devoted followers of the Führer. Heck describes himself as among the most fanatical of Hitler's followers. He felt himself very lucky to have been selected at age 10, having just joined the Hitler Youth, to attend the Nuremberg Party Congress. The whole event that he would later describe as a "jubilant Teutonic renaissance", made a huge impression on him as a boy. He was Hitler's devotee body and soul until the very end and even a little while later. Heck rose rapidly in the Hitler Youth organization during the War. He joined the air division, the Flieger-HJ (Hitler Youth Flyers). He qualified as a glider pilot. He desired to join the Luftwaffe and become a fighter pilot--virtually suisidal in 1945. Instead he was romoted to Major General in the Hitler Youth in charge of a district with several thousand boys and girls belonging to the HJ organization. As the War turned badly af=gainst German, he at vage 16 was put in charge of a small town along the Luxembourg frontier. He ordered some displaced HJ members to be billited in a school house. When the teacher ibjected, he threatened to have him shot. Hitler awarded him the Iron Cross for excellence of service. He was taken prisioner by American forces. He was tied by the French and sentenced to a month of hard labor and restricted to remain within the town limits for 2 years. Heck in his memoirs also writes anout his post-War expeiences when he repudiated the NAZIs and had to come to terms with the Holocaust.He obtained a pass to attend the Nurenberg War Crimes Trials. It was hear that he learned of the true nature of the Third Reich and what Germany under National Socialism had done. Heck emmigrated to Canada and worked as a lumber jack, restaurant operator and bus driver. He was incapcitated by a heart attack. While e was recovering, he wrote his first menoir. Helen Waterford, an Auschwitz survivor, contacted him. They began giving joint lectures on the NAZI Third Reich and the Holocaust. They soke at more than 150 colleges and universities.

Sources

Heck, Alfons. A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days when God Wore a Swastika (1985).

Heck, Alfons. The Burden of Hitler's Legacy.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Satellite sites]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 2:19 AM 4/30/2005
Last updated: 2:19 AM 4/30/2005