Max stared down at his boots so his father wouldn’t see his flushed face. If he knew how much joy Max got from his occasional snippets of praise, he might give them out even less frequently.

As Max grabbed a cloth and gave his boots one last shine, his father came to sit at the table. ‘What time are they picking you up?’ he asked.

‘At eight, Father,’ Max replied, barely managing to keep the excitement out of his voice.

He was going on his first Hitler Youth weekend. A whole weekend with his friends: two days of races, games, making fires, camping out in the woods, toasting bread on an open bonfire. But mostly it would be two days where they got to act like soldiers. Marching in their ranks, their feet stamping in perfect time, their ‘Heil Hitler!’ salutes synchronized to a T. These were the things that made Max’s heart sing. The feeling of being a small cog in a large, perfect machine was like nothing he had ever felt before and he couldn’t get enough of it.

The weekend was even better than Max could have dreamed. Whenever it was time to line up, Max was at the front. When they came to pick teams, Max was elected captain of his. When they had to carry logs across a river, Max picked the heaviest log and waded across the deepest part. When the other boys made jokes about Jews, Max laughed the hardest, and when they thrust their hands in the air and shouted, ‘Heil Hitler!’ Max shouted the loudest.

So it was an easy decision for the leaders that, when medals were given out at the end of the weekend, Max was declared ‘Best Boy in Camp’.

His teammates carried him high on their shoulders, calling out his name as they gave him three cheers.

Max felt that he owned the whole forest, the city, the world.

For a brief second, he remembered feeling something similar once before. Looking down at a city as if he were king of all he could see.

Then it came to him: Vienna. The Riesenrad. That day at the top of the Ferris wheel with Leo and Elsa.

The memory gave him a strange sensation in his chest. Not a good sensation. Not a comfortable one. One that seemed at odds with the boy he was now. And he couldn’t afford to let anything stop him from being the boy he was now. He had far too much to lose. So, before the memory could take hold, he shook it away and dragged his thoughts back to the present moment. It was safer there.

LEO

‘It’s here! Mama, it’s here!’

I ran up the stairs and into Mama’s bedroom. Sitting on the side of her bed, I shook her as gently as my excitement would let me. ‘Mama, wake up!’ I insisted.