A New Era

Life was good, and I mean that in every sense of the word. While I remember nothing about the struggle for power as I was born in 1929, I heard many stories. When I started to remember my life, it was 1934 and I remember my father coming home in his sharp black uniform, and I would take his cap and play with it. All I remember hearing was how much better everyone had it, I would overhear how Germany overcame a lot of despair and a bad economy.

The people I saw were genuinely happy; there were smiles everyplace I would go, and my father took me with him on many trips. I remember the throngs of people who came up to my father to thank him and the other leaders around him for saving them. It was a strange feeling, my father was very high up in the Reich government but yet I felt, and my father reinforced this, that we were part of the people, no better and no worse. That was the essence of National Socialism; everything was done for the people, to help improve everyone's life and happiness.

I still remember going for walks and smelling all the gourmet food from the mom and pop stores that lined the streets, under National Socialism everyone was encouraged to start a small business or to have a good career, so we had many shops to choose from. I would often go with my mother to buy ingredients for dishes that we would cook together; every family was encouraged to eat together and share. The life I remember in the Reich was organized, happy, fulfilling, and full of hope.

Gudrun Himmler