Genuine Heroism

by Gerhard Lauck

National Socialism does not suffer from a lack of heros and heroines. Their deeds, their accomplishments and above all their sacrifices serve us as an example, an obligation and a source of strength.

My generation, the first "postwar generation", still had the chance to personally meet many of these heros. I remember visiting the famous Colonel Hans-Ulrich Rudel in his home in Kufstein, Tirol in the 1970s. A great honor!

But there are many other comrades who have had an even greater influence on me. First, I spent more time with them than with the Colonel, and second, they were "just normal people", even though they did a lot more than "normal".

There were the old SA comrades Walter Luttermann and Karl-Ferdinand Schwarz, the married Müller couple and "Armin" of the Hitler Youth generation, Thies Christophersen, the fighters of the postwar generation such as Michael Kühnen, Gottfried Küssel, Michael Storm and others who remain unnamed only for security reasons.

Some of these comrades and their lives made an especially strong impression on me.

…1945. The war is over. All is lost. Life has become meaningless. One walks into the forest to the railroad tracks. One sits down on the tracks and waits for a train, which will end this sad life. One ponders. Then one makes a different decision. If one survives, perhaps one can one day do something in the spirit of the Führer. One stands up and goes home. Years pass. In the spring of 1972 an expellee from Breslau says there is a NSDAP/AO. One becomes one of the first members, one of the most hard-working volunteers, and a generous financial backer, although not rich and very modest in life style. One does volunteer work year after year, decade after decade. At an old age, blindness sets in. But one continues to work – one can still fold and stuff mailing pieces.

…Mortally ill with cancer. Can hardly eat or sleep. Walking is difficult and tiring. But one can still do something: one drags oneself to the desk and does computer work. Hours long. Because it is hard to stand up and return to the easy chair. Day after day. Year after year. On the morning of the last day alive, this is still the routine. That afternoon death comes.

…1945. The young soldier continues to fight after the armistice. Later he is captured, but not identified as a werwolf fighter. Four years in a special pow camp for unrepentent Nazis. Finally freedom. Immediately resume political activism. Prison. Wife leaves. Again freedom, political activism and a major role in the expansion of the NSDAP/AO in the 1970s. But a traitor means prison. Second wife leaves.

…Four years political imprisonment – without parole to the very last day. Then the day of freedom. Back to political work. A year of intensive activity. Followed by four more years of prison. Free again, active again, right up to death.

…One wishes to marry, but the party needs workers and money. A family will just have to wait a few years. But illness comes despite youth. A family no longer comes, rather death.

…One is crippled in war. Both legs gone. One arm gone. Other arm injured. Still not helpless. Telephone work is possible. Thanks to this telephone work, the NSDAP/AO expands its television program from one to sixteen cities within one year.

…A crisis. One steps in and takes over tasks without training. Free time and profession are traded for political work, aggravation, worry and stress. One holds out for years until the crisis is over and one’s own, large family can again have priority.

Comrades!

These are true stories!

I have worked with these comrades closely, sometimes for decades. We owe the accomplishments of the NSDAP/AO over the past three decades to them.

May they serve you as example and obligation, as comfort and inspiration, as they have served me.

May some of you become examples for those who will later join our ranks and carry on the holy swastika banner when we, too, are called to that great stormtroop in the sky.

  

…For the flag means more than death!