Heck, Alfons 1928-

views updated

HECK, Alfons 1928-

PERSONAL: Born November 3, 1928, in Wittlich, Germany; immigrated to Canada, 1951; immigrated to the United States, 1963, naturalized citizen, 1969; son of Jakob Johann (a farmer) and Maria Anna (a housewife; maiden name, Wambach) Heck; married Berniece June Appleby, November 3, 1965. Education: Attended University of Victoria, 1958. Politics: Independent. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—San Diego, CA. Agent—Loma Lectures, 4444 West Point Loma Blvd., Suite 95, San Diego, CA 92107. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Rhein Zeitung, Wittlich, Germany, newspaper reporter, 1949-50; worked in Canada as lumber inspector, owner of a taxicab business, and restaurant manager, 1952-63; Greyhound Lines, supervisor, 1964-72; freelance writer, 1975—. Converse School of Languages, San Diego, CA, German teacher, 1974-77; teacher of German and registered court interpreter for U.S. and California courts, beginning 1975. Lecturer on Hitler and the Holocaust; guest speaker at more than 300 colleges and universities; narrator and subject of the television special Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth, broadcast by Home Box Office, 1991; guest on television documentary "The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler," aired by British Broadcasting Corp., 1989; and several other television programs, including "Today Show," "Hour," and "Good Morning America." Wartime service: Hitler Youth, 1938-45; became district leader; captured by U.S. Army, 1945; received War Service Cross, first class, from Adolf Hitler.

MEMBER: San Diego Press Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Awards from San Diego Press Club, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1985; Annual Cable Excellence Award, National Cable Television Association, George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award, Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Georgia, Emmy Award, outstanding historical programming, Academy of Television arts and Sciences, and International Cindy Award, all 1991, for Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth; Christopher Award, best young adult book, 1995, for Parallel Journeys.

WRITINGS:

A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika (autobiography), Renaissance House (Frederick, CO), 1985.

The Burden of Hitler's Legacy (autobiography), Renaissance House (Frederick, CO), 1988.

(With Eleanor H. Ayer and Helen Waterford) Parallel Journeys (young adult), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1995.

Contributor of more than 200 articles on the Nazi era to magazines and newspapers, including Worldview and Europe.

ADAPTATIONS: The television special Heil Hitler: Confessions of a Hitler Youth is based on Heck's book A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika.

SIDELIGHTS: Alfons Heck once told CA: "I was born in 1928 in Wittlich, a small town in the Rhineland of Germany. I joined the Hitler Youth in 1938 and attended the Nuremberg Nazi Party Congress that year as a ten-year-old delegate. At the age of fourteen I was selected for the Flying Hitler Youth, and in 1944 I was (briefly) Germany's youngest top-rated sailplane pilot. I was accepted as an officer cadet for the Luftwaffe but was not drafted. As a captain of the Hitler Youth, I was sent to the Siegfried Line, where I later commanded 3,000 Hitler Youth engaged in defense projects. I met Armaments Minister Albert Speer and Hitler himself. By 1945 I had reached the rank of acting bannführer, a district leader comparable to brigadier general, and I organized units of the Volksturm in the last-ditch defense of Germany. I was captured by the American Third Army and later arrested by French occupation officials. After a 'de-Nazification' hearing, I was sentenced to one month of hard labor and restricted to the town limits for two years.

"Although A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika is an autobiography, it is also the only book in English which provides insight on the Hitler Youth. My aim is to present the German tragedy of World War II fairly and also as a warning to young Americans. That is one reason why I joined Helen Waterford, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz, to lecture at universities, colleges, and high schools. I believe both perspectives ought to be heard. Although Helen Waterford died in 1997, I continue to lecture about the Nazi era.

"I wrote The Burden of Hitler's Legacy to answer a number of inquiries readers had about my postwar life as well as a reply to questions I received from many students when I gave lectures at universities across the country. Just as in my first book, my principal aim was to present a unique personal view into the Nazi era and its legacy."