Officer Heidelberg…Thank You!
Welcome to another captivating episode of The Memory Keeper. I'm your host, Bram Groen, and today's story will transport us back to 1976 when I was enjoying a smooth drive through the scenic Massachusetts Turnpike. Little did I know that a chance encounter with Officer Heidelberg would make my heart skip a beat. Get ready for a tale that combines fear, humor, and a unique cultural exchange.
No this is not about Officer Krupke of the West Side Story. This officer was nice, sort of. It happened back in 1976, when I was in the US for the first three months or so. I had just acquired a stick shift 1967 Opel Kadett – “Sport” - that I had bought for five hundred dollars and used to drive between Amherst where I was studying and the Boston area where my newly made American friends lived. People here had noticed that I was indeed a European driver as I raced thru the towns and still imagined I was driving my spiffy red Fiat 128 on the Dutch roads. And the Kadett did just fine for me.
Enter Officer Heidelberg. Yes, I vividly remember his name and even his face. How come? We Europeans have a good picture of what the Waffen SS Officers looked like even if we had not gone thru the war ourselves. Fearful images of big men in black boots, a curved visor cap, a blue/grey uniform and pants with puffy thigh areas. See the picture?
The State Troopers in Massachusetts have a strikingly similar uniform and here is an interesting twist to this similarity. The Mass Troopers evidently adopted this uniform style in ….1933. Let’s just leave it with that.
One sunny fall day I was happily driving my Kadett to Amherst enjoying the incredible New England foliage. Halfway through the Massachusetts Turnpike the road gets increasingly hilly, uphill mostly with sudden valleys. I am doing my Dutch driving at plus or minus eighty miles an hour, and all the sudden, oh no, jeez! Behind me I saw the blue lights of the police car that summoned me to stop immediately. Out comes an SS-lookalike trooper and fear of immediate deportation for violating traffic rules made my heart skip a beat or two.
“Sir, papers please! You were speeding young man!”
“Oh my god, sir, I hope not?”
My pants were getting a bit moisty now. Office Heidelberg looked my papers over and asked me why I was speeding? My timid guilty-as-charged response made him smile despite himself and he told me sternly to “get out of here with a ‘next time you’re gonna be in deep trouble’ warning.”
“Ach, Officer Heidelberg, I see from your badge you are from German background. I am a new guest student in Amerika and am from Holland. As you know, Holland and Northern Germany are very flat, and I am not at all used to these hills and think I may have gone too fast when the road goes downhill…”
Talking about SS Officer type uniforms is only a small step to the actual story of World War II and next week I’d like to tell you about my own grandfather – “Opa” as we call grandfathers in our language - in that period, mostly as conveyed to me by my mother. See you next week with our episode titled “My Own Opa Schindler.” My name is Bram Groen, and I AM the Memory Keeper!
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