Parie Dedeaux Jr.
Mr. Dean
December 7th , 2015
Period 2
Book report

You would think that a child so young would be exempt from worrying about war. My little cousin , Harold , is only 8 right now. Two years younger than Karl at the start of the book. I don’t even let him walk home from the bus stop yet! Unfortunately, during Nazi Germany, children were far from exempt. In fact, by age 14, they were required to join Hitler Youth. At age 10, they joined Jungvolk, the precursor to Hitler Youth. Basically, their training began the moment they turned double-digits. Can you imagine that?

Karl Veth is an incredibly intelligent young man. When he’s not buried deep in an educational tome, he and his friend Harold enjoy exploring the rail tunnels. Basically, things that many young boys like to do. Karl’s intelligence doesn’t get him into the Cadet school with Harold, though, so Karl is sent away to an evacuation camp as part of his Jungvolk duties. There, he does such a tremendous job of bringing order to the camp that he spends the next four years traveling to other camps to do the same.

Things change constantly in Nazi Germany. One moment the schools are segregated by sex and the next, girls and boys are sitting in the same classroom being taught by a woman with a “painted face!” First, the segregation alone was unusual in that time, and second, respectable women did not wear makeup. Karl ends up graduating early and spending the majority of his time at the camps as more and more children are evacuated.