Friedrich Herzog had been born in 1908 in a small village in the state of Hessen. He was one of eight children growing up on a small farm when it was the custom that the firstborn male takes over the family business. Since Friedrich did not inherit the farm, he became an apprentice in a bakery. Times were tough in Germany, with an increasingly high number of unemployed. As a result of the unemployment, frustration, and people’s needs, Adolf Hitler’s organizations grew very strong in the early 1930s. They not only offered ideological content, but provided work, clothing, and food. Friedrich joined them.
About six feet tall, hook-nosed, and black-haired, he was a gentle soul if not provoked. He treated Walter with care, and only occasionally, when Lisa distressed him for some reason, complaining and whining about Walter, did he rush after him, grab, and beat him fiercely. Friedrich used his hands; Lisa usually grabbed a coat hanger or wooden cooking spoon. She broke countless of those on Walter’s back and behind. It also happened frequently that his father hit him in the face because his mother put too much pressure on her husband. Friedrich could take tension, but only to a point, and then he needed relief—and that was usually his son. After a while, he would feel guilty, almost apologizing, and sometimes he even wept. During those moments, a bond and understanding developed between father and son, resulting in a relationship in which the third person, Lisa, was transformed into an outsider.
Lisa had been a beautiful woman with hazel eyes and wavy brunette hair. What did Frau Herzog really do when her husband was detained in one of Russia’s prisoner-of-war camps after World War II? Could it be that she tried to enjoy life in one of Frankfurt’s nightclubs, where local girls went to have some fun with American soldiers? It will stay a mystery. She never told her son. She confided in nobody except possibly Frau Mueller, but then again, maybe not even her.
Walter never really understood or knew what was driving his mother until he was able to forgive her completely. She and her sister, Susanne, who was two years older, had grown up in Frankfurt with a railroad-worker father, who was a discordant, irritable person most of his life, and a mother she had dearly loved but who passed away much too early. After her mother’s death, her father married Lina, a friendly and compassionate person. Through the marriage, the two combined owned a respectable number of smaller agricultural properties in the garden farmland suburb of Oberrad. The girls had to start working early. Lisa became a tailor after completing junior high school. She was thirty-four years old when she conceived Walter.