A Little Boy with a Grim Future

Longing to be an engine Driver

He’s on the left, his poodle beside him, waiting to wave to Papa when the “Basel Express” crosses the Rhine bridge near the house where the family lives. The train will appear in a few minutes, the boy’s father its engine driver of long service with the railway company of the Grand Duchy of Baden. The boy’s mother and baby sister will wave too. It’s a ritual they all enjoy six evenings a week, just before the children’s bedtime.

The engine driver’s wife is the housekeeper of the imposing maison bourgeoise in Kehl where the four live happily in the mansard. Not surprisingly, the boy’s only ambition is to be an engine driver too, like his Papa. Instead, he will serve in the Wehrmacht, the German army of the future that will be created by Herr Hitler when he becomes Chancellor in 1933. An excellent soldier, the boy will die at 36, a decorated Feldwebel, killed by a Russian machine-gun, his body frozen, unburied, at a place far away called Stalingrad.