Parallel Journeys

The book centers on Alfons and Helen. Their stories create the parallel in Parallel Journeys, and Eleanor Ayer uses Alfons’s experiences to illuminate how Nazism impacted people who were a part of their deadly system. As Ayer writes, “Alfons Heck considered himself fortunate. He was one of the millions of German children who were Adolf Hitler’s chosen people, his Master Race” (34). Hitler’s powerful theatrics captivate Alfons. He sees Hitler at a parade and “will never forget the magic of that night” (27). He can’t wait to join the forceful spectacle, and he becomes a member of the Hitler Youth.

Through Alfons, Ayer spotlights the many levels of the group. He starts in the drum and fanfare platoon and ends in the elite Flieger Hitlerjugend. He works hard and follows directions, and the Nazis reward him. If the Nazi war machine didn’t collapse, he presumably would have been a pilot for the Luftwaffe. Instead, the desperate Nazis keep promoting Alfons, giving him more and more young people to command as they try to repel the encroaching Allies.

Though Alfons is a Nazi, the reader might find themselves sympathizing with him or, at the very least, not hating him.