Parallel Journeys

Parallel Journeys (1995) is a nonfiction book by Eleanor Ayer. It won several awards, including the American Library Association’s Best Book for Young Adults. An author of many nonfiction books about the Holocaust, Ayer pairs the stories of Alfons Heck (a former Hitler Youth member) and Helen Waterford (a Holocaust survivor) to show how Nazism impacts the people it empowered and targeted. Ayer didn’t choose Alfons and Helen randomly. They formed a partnership in the 1980s and began giving lectures together to promote understanding. Their experiences link to themes like Death and Visibility, Power Versus Helplessness, and Compassion Versus Hatred and Indifference.

This guide refers to the e-book version of the 2000 Aladdin Paperbacks edition of Parallel Journeys.

Content Warning: Parallel Journeys centers on the Holocaust and World War II and features the violent, deadly traumas associated with the genocide and global conflict.

Summary

Alfons Heck and Helen Waterford live in Germany. Alfons is Christian and lives on a farm with his grandparents. Helen is Jewish and lives in the city of Frankfurt with her parents and brother. Alfons is six when Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party, becomes Chancellor of Germany, while Helen is a young adult. Alfons can’t wait till he turns 10 and can join the Hitler Youth, the official youth group of the Nazis. Helen’s mom can’t wait for her daughter to get married, but Helen prefers to hang out with her friends and be free.

After losing World War I, Germany’s economy collapsed, and Germans felt dishonored. Hitler stabilizes the economy, and his bellicose rhetoric makes many Germans feel better about themselves and their nation. He claims that certain groups—primarily Jews—threaten Germany, and, as he collects despotic powers, he subjects Jewish people like Helen to massive violence and destruction.

Helen marries Siegfried, and they move to Holland, away from antisemitic Germany. Helen and Siegfried have a daughter, and Helen works as an interior decorator to support her family.

Alfons turns 10 and joins the Hitler Youth. His dad upbraids him, but Alfons doesn’t care. He’s a member of the drum and fanfare division, and he gets to go to the Nazis’ theatrical rally in Nuremberg, where he sees Hitler, his idol, speak. The Hitler Youth is harsh, but Alfons remains obedient and dedicated. When the Nazis invade Poland on September 1, 1939, starting World War II, Alfons approves.

Soon, the Nazis invade Holland, and Helen and Siegfried work with non-Jewish activists, the Righteous Gentiles, to stay alive. The Righteous Gentiles get them food, find a non-Jewish home for Doris, and locate a series of hiding spaces for Helen and Siegfried. In August 1944, the Nazis find Helen and Siegfried and deport them to Auschwitz—the notorious concentration camp where the Nazis intentionally kill Jews and other groups in gas chambers.

The Nazis must battle England, Russia, and the United States, and their war machine crumbles, but Alfons flourishes. He joins the elite Flieger Hitlerjugend (junior air force) division of the Hitler Youth and dreams of being a fighter pilot for the Luftwaffe (German air force). Due to the desperate situation, Alfons never gets to fly, but the Nazis continue to give him responsibilities. By 1945—the end of the war—he’s the equivalent of a major general, with 6,000 young people under his command.

Siegfried and Helen spend three nights in filthy, overcrowded cattle cars before they arrive at Auschwitz. They separate, and Helen never sees her husband again. She stays alive and then moves to a work camp, Kratzau, where she stops herself from becoming another hateful prisoner. The Russians liberate Kratzau, and Helen determinedly returns to Holland and reunites with her daughter. The relationship is rocky, but they manage, and Helen moves them to Chicago to be with her mom and dad.

Americans take over Alfons’s town, Wittlich, and Alfons becomes a translator for them. When they find out he was a passionate member of the Hitler Youth, they fire him. The French take over for the Americans. They imprison Alfons and threaten to kill him, but the death threat is a mind game.

Upset and confused about his past Nazi beliefs, Alfons attends the Nuremberg Trials, where the Allies—mainly England, the United States, and Russia—sentence top Nazis to death or jail. The Nazis evade responsibility for their actions, but Alfons confronts his role. He moves to Canada to start over but can’t avoid his atrocious past.

As an adult, Alfons moves to America and writes articles about his experiences. Helen reads one of his pieces and gives him a call. Though other Holocaust survivors excoriate Helen for working with a former Nazi, she and Alfons team up and give lectures to promote understanding. They’re an unexpected team, and TV shows and newspapers boost their story, and one magazine calls them “the Odd Couple.”