She recalled a related pull. "I am very much against the military. But when I hear military music, somehow I get goose bumps." She paused. "And I must make it clear to myself I don't want anything to do with that. It is a danger."
She also spoke (as noted in the Introduction) of the dangerous pull of words during the Third Reich, that is, the diabolically and alliteratively clever nouns and phrases that emanated from Joseph Goebbels's propaganda ministry. One example was the slangy double-k Kohlenklau. It meant a "coal snatcher," but implied a person who squandered precious fuel. "If someone merely came into the heated room of a house, the rest of the house was cold, and left the door open, someone would say, 'Kohlenklau, close the door.'"
Were such words and slogans repeated on the street?
"Oh, always, always. Everyone knew them. They were used a lot." Her husband added, "You heard it once, then you knew it. Goebbels was really a master in such things. And in the face of this clever psychological work, a normal human being could hardly defend himself, hardly preserve himself."
Neither the lure of the crowd nor the cleverness of the phrase swayed Frau Beck, however. She continued thwarting the Nazis in her own way, by trying to ignore their directives. One directive was to buy a Nazi flag. The encircled black swastika on a field of red—the bigger the flag the better—was required decor for many German homes, especially those facing a street on which Nazis paraded.
"It eventually got very difficult. People were always coming and saying why haven't you hung out a flag, for Hitler's birthday and so on," said Frau Beyme. "You almost went to jail. It was very dangerous if you didn't do it. One person after the other came, rang the doorbell, and said you haven't hung out your flag yet. Finally, my mother bought a real tiny one. You were supposed to hang it on a pole. She simply hung it over the balcony like a little rug you put by the bed."
The degree of maternal heroism may seem negligible in comparison to that shown by others. But for the daughter who lived through the time and the fears with her, the admiration never wavered. "My mother was a brave anti-Nazi. I really got my attitude from her. It's not something I earned on my own, but I thank my mother for it. She was incredibly courageous and not always very careful, so we really were afraid for her.
"She was consistently against the Nazis. She was supposed to attend evening meetings of Nazi groups. She always said, ach, she couldn't, she couldn't walk that far. It was a bit away from town and it was too dark in the evening and she'd be afraid. Nothing but such excuses. Then a terrible neighbor came over, an Ortsgruppenleiter, and he told my mother, 'If you're afraid, I'll take you there and bring you back home.' My mother told me, 'For God's sake, I'm more afraid of him than I am of the dark.'"
Frau Beyme laughed high and delightedly at the memory. "She never went once."
One evening, the ever-hopeful Ortsgruppenleiter's attempts to get Frau Beck to attend a meeting put both women in danger. "This horrid man came into the house to persuade her to go with him and we had our radio dial set to the enemy station. My mother literally trembled that he'd look over and notice where the dial was set. But he didn't, and nothing happened."
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