Louis Hagen - Ein Volk, Ein Reich: Nine Lives Under the Nazis

EIN VOLK
EIN REICH

During a cross-country journey to a field hospital some shots were heard near a village. No one knew whence and why, but at once several hundred SS men surrounded the village and shouted to me that Polish snipers were hiding there. Every house was broken open and all the Polish men were driven into the church, which was set on fire with its human contents and completely burnt.

I was shocked and appalled by this summary justice. But I had learnt well enough not to burn my fingers when the SS or Gestapo were stewing a broth.

Dr Franz Wertheim

He had a strange nervous twitch in his face when he spoke. But the most marvellous thing was his eyes; they were very large and radiant, with a peculiar gleam lighting them with an uncanny power. I had to summon all my strength to look into his eyes. But then I knew surely and certainly and calmly that whoever looked in his eyes would be ready to die for him.

From that day I knew that the Fhrer possessed supernatural powers over men.

Eric Dressler

No one amongst my friends could take the Nazis seriously. The economic foundations of the Nazi programme were both vague and crude. The nebulous, vague and hardly comprehensible tone of their speeches, slogans and propaganda might serve to stir up certain sections of the population or to inflame unstable youths; but a businessman had no time for this kind of Valhalla hysteria.

Herman Voss

What could one say in school about the poets who now found themselves hurled into an undreamt-of popularity and whose literary value was less than nothing? Every poem was a marching song. Interminably they sang the Fhrers praises in every stanza, every line, every foot. With sickly lumps in their sickly throats they bleated the words Homeland, Fatherland, Germany, Race, Generosity, Blood, Soil, Honour, Mother Earth, Sorrow, Breeding, Sacrifice, Reproductive Force, Earthlove, Flags, Standards, Faith in Ancestry, Faith in Kindred, Faith in the Fhrer, Faith in Fate

which just about composed their complete vocabulary.

Verner Harz

I was never afraid of Goering or of any of the high-up Nazis whom I knew personally. They were not in the least touchy on the subject of their credo. In fact I was always amazed at their cynicism about most of the Nazi philosophy. They admitted quite freely that the Hitler salute, the blood and soil, German sacred destiny, Jewish-communist world domination and the innumerable oaths of allegiance, were nothing but so much eyewash; necessary only for the masses, to keep them marching blindly in the right direction.

Baroness Mausi von Westerode

LOUIS HAGEN

EIN VOLK
EIN REICH

NINE LIVES UNDER THE NAZIS

SPELLMOUNT

I dedicate this book to the memory of my brother K.V. Hagen, former officer of the American DSS who was killed on the Berlin Air Lift.

Louis Hagen

Ich hatte einst ein schones Vaterland: es war ein traum

Heinrich Heine

This book would not have been republished were it not for the encouragement and conviction of my late mother, Anne-Mie Hagen. She had an unshakeable belief in my fathers ability to relate these stories without prejudice and to give full weight to their historical importance. This edition is dedicated to her memory. Caroline Hagen-Hall, England, 2011

This book was originally published in 1951 by Allan Wingate Ltd under
the title Follow my Leader. This edition first published 2011

Spellmount, an imprint of The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL 5 2 QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved
Louis Hagen, 2011

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EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 6933 1
MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 6934 8

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Louis Hagen was born in Berlin in 1916, the second son of a wealthy Jewish banker. The family lived in an imposing Bauhaus-style villa on the banks of the Jungfernsee in Potsdam. In 1934 he was apprenticed at the BMW factory founded by his grandfather, but he was later dismissed for being non Aryan. One day he sent his sister Carla a joke on a postcard: Toilet paper is now forbidden so there are even more Brownshirts. She left it lying around and it was picked up by a maid in the Hagen household; this maid had been caught stealing jewellery and was about to be sacked. She threatened to give it to her SS boyfriend if the family did not withdraw the accusation of stealing, but they would not be blackmailed. A few months later Louis, who was only sixteen at the time, was taken to the concentration camp in Schloss Lichtenburg.

While imprisoned Louis saw the true nature of the political giant that was taking control of Germany. Drunken guards would wake him at night, strip him naked and beat him with riding whips. He also watched as four other prisoners were forced to swim back and forth across a pond until they drowned.

Family connections were Louis salvation, a school friend told his father of Louis imprisonment. The latter was a judge and Nazi Party member, who wasted no time in driving to the camp in a chauffeur-driven BMW, asking to see the commandant, and taking Louis home. Louis had been forced to sign a document saying he had been well treated.

Louis parents realised that their children would have to flee the country but thousands of other Jews were also desperately trying to leave. It was eighteen months before a business friend, Sir Andrew McFadyean, arranged for him to emigrate to England. In 1936 Louis left Germany, intending to go to the US, but he ended up staying in England and took a job with the Pressed Steel Company near Oxford. He spent several happy years in the city rubbing shoulders with people such as Robert Graves, Nye Bevan, Stephen Spender and Sir Peter Medawar. Meanwhile, back in Germany most of the Hagens had fled, and the family home was seized by the Nazis. Five of Louis relatives would die in concentration camps.

The Hagen family before the war. Louis Hagen stands third from right.

As war loomed, Louis lost his job; new rules stated that no foreigners could work in factories engaged in war work. He transferred to Prestcold Refrigerators in London, but lost that place too once war broke out, as he was classed as an enemy alien. He was called to a tribunal to ascertain whether he should be interned, but Sir Andrew McFadyean came to his rescue once again, testifying on his behalf. However, he was later arrested as a deserter for not having reported for military service. This was because he had no fixed address for his call-up papers to be sent to.

Louis joined the Pioneer Corps and in 1943 became a pilot with the Glider Pilot Regiment, No.22 Flight, D Squadron, No.1 Wing, changing his name to Lewis Haig to avoid problems in the event of his capture. On 18 September 1944 he was ordered into action, being amongst the first to take off. When his Horsa aircraft landing on the outskirts of Arnhem, he and the rest of the crew were greeted by ecstatic Dutch civilians. His conduct was more than impressive, especially since this was his first experience of combat. Louis attempted to destroy a machine-gun post single-handed, and managed to run to within 20 metres of it before he was forced to take cover. The Germans manning the post knew that he was there but not that he could understand every word of their bickering, which revealed how low their morale was. He was eventually able to report his information to an officer. He was wounded on the 24th when a splinter severed a vein in his hand as he manned a Bren gun, but he refused to leave the front line. When the Division pulled out, he and a friend, Captain Ogilvie, made their way to the banks of the Rhine for evacuation. With the embarkation point under fire and no boats to be seen, they decided to swim for it. Louis made it to the far bank but Captain Ogilvie drowned in the attempt.