Hitler's Home Front: Memoirs of a Hitler Youth by Don A. Gregory Wilhelm R. Gehlen

Author:Don A. Gregory, Wilhelm R. Gehlen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473858220
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2016-09-30T04:00:00+00:00

A winter food source for us that is mostly ignored today is Viper Grass, also known as Black Root or Scorzonera. We used this weed in salads by washing the roots first and then thinly slicing or grating them. Mixed with celery, pepper and salt, the combination is quite good. They can also be cooked but they will turn brown and not look like anything to eat. We found that if the roots are boiled first, then peeled, they are much better. We also mashed them and then fried them as a sort of pancake. Ginger roots were also used in salads but they were prized as the main ingredient in a home-brewed Schnapps called Ratzeputz which loosely translates to ‘rat cleaner’, ‘rat plaster’ or ‘rat poison’. That was a good name. It burnt like rat poison. A spoonful of ground red pepper was often added to each bottle to make it even more potent. Our soldiers in Russia loved it during the cold winter of 1941/42. On the fronts a saying was created that went something like: ‘My last word shall be “Ratzeputz”; after drinking it, I won’t mind being kaput.’

After the terribly cold winter of 1941/42 was over, our schoolteachers told us that to keep our soldiers from freezing in the next winter, a clothes drive by the WHW was being started. I found this rather disturbing; we had been told in 1941 that the war was almost won, so now it was 1942 and we were looking forward to the next winter already? My brother Len naturally knew more about this and he convinced me to listen. He knew a lot more about lots of things, or so he thought. His view was that since our Wehrmacht had to occupy a large slice of Russia even after we finished beating the ‘Ivans’ (the Russians), the soldiers would need warm clothes for the winter occupation. My remark that I had not seen a naked Russian in pictures from the Eastern Front, and that they surely had cloth mills and tailors enough in Russia to dress their 128 million inhabitants fell on deaf ears. In any case, I was surely not going to give the WHW any of my warm winter sweaters – so Len had a better idea. It was early spring and the farmers in our area were already busy sowing wheat, rye, barley, and oats. To protect the fields from hungry birds, the farmers put up scarecrows everywhere, complete with hats on top. We sneaked out into the fields about midnight one night, and high up we heard a lone British snooper plane we nicknamed ‘Iron Gustav’ on his normal rounds, taking night photos of our area for future bombing raids. We knew he had no bombs, so we proceeded with Len’s plan. We undressed a few of the scarecrows and stuffed the clothes in a hemp sack. Our teacher was delighted the next day and we were given time off from homework. We did that

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