I Learned to Fly for Hitler

Flight Journal, Feb 2000 by DeGroat, Robert S

by Joe Volmar. Kron Publications, 1864 Irish Rd., Dundee, MI 48131; (800) 767-4929 (Access No. 29), or www

.volmarjoe.com; 232 pages; 42 b&w photographs; $14.95 (plus $4 S&H).

My mother, the daughter of German immigrants, remembers that in the early 1930s her tightly knit community in Cleveland watched with great I interest as "The Fatherland" rapidly regained its honor and prosperity under Adolf Hitler's leadership. Many local families received letters from the German government requesting that they return home. Some, like author Joe Volmar's family, did.

Volmar was born in Germany in 1927 and emigrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1930. His parents, always loyal to their homeland, chose to return the family to Germany in 1941.

The repatriated German boy was soon swept up in the fervor of the Hitler Youth movement. One cannot really blame him; all kids strive to belong. The organization offered the opportunity to learn soaring, and young Volmar eventually earned his A, B and C badges. His experiences in becoming a licensed glider pilot by age 17 are recounted in his enthralling book.

Since there is very little written from Hitler-era, teenage Germans' point of view, it is fascinating to learn something about their lives during those turbulent times. While my dad was told to stay in college when he first tried to enlist in the USAAF, for instance, Germany felt a real manpower pinch at that time.

Volmar describes the hardships of going to school in the morning and gun drill in the afternoon, and enduring air raids almost every night.

After his wartime experience, during which he was wounded and spent time in a British POW camp, Volmar eventually returned to the U.S. where he enjoyed a successful business career.

Soaring remains one of his loves, and he has rediscovered it in recent years. Of interest to glider pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike, this book shows world conflict from a completely different perspective-a rare story indeed.

-Robert S. DeGroat