Rybin, Y. Luftwaffe ace Walter Schuck researched / Christer Bergstrom, Yuriy Rybin. - Sweden : [s. l.], 2019. - 190 p. : ill.

WALTER SCHUCK О THE COAL MINER’S SON Walter Schuck was born on 30 July 1920, as the son of Jakob Schuck, a coal miner in the Frankenholz mine in the Saar region on Germany’s border with France. Wal­ ter was the third child of Jakob and Ida Schuck. His eld­ est brother, Richard, was born in 1913, and his sister Use five years later. Walter grew up in a Germany which was marked by poverty and humiliation following the defeat in the First World War. According to the Versailles Peace Treaty, Germany lost the Saar region, which was placed under the con­ trol of the League of Nations. In reality, however, it was occupied by the revengeful France, which took over the rich coal mines of the area. Before the Great War, the miners in the Frankenholz mine had been the lowest paid in the whole Saar region. The working conditions were appalling. When Walter was born, people still were talking about the great mine accident in 1897 which had claimed the lives of 57 min­ ers - one-tenth of the whole work force. The situation did not improve when the French Regie des Mines de la Sarre took over after the Cullman family. Walter got an insight into the meaning of foreign occu­ pation in very young years when his father brought him along into the city of Saarbriicken. As they were walking down the pavement, they met an English officer. Walter saw that he was waving a stick in front of him, forcing any German that he met to step aside down into the gut­ ter. Walter would never forget the humiliation when his strong father, his little son in his hand, without a word, was forced down into the gutter by this English officer. During Walter’s first years, the French made a strong effort to increase their influence among the Saar pop­ ulation, which nevertheless only contributed to widen the gap between Germans and French. The miners were enticed to send their children to French schools which enjoyed special privileges from the French state. Walter and his school mates of the ordinary German Volkschule regarded the pupils of these French schools as traitors, and a more or less permanent boy’s war was waged between the pupils of the two different schools. Jakob Schuck never got involved in politics, but he taught his son a profound scepticism towards any mas­ ters. He used to say: “The state and the government are the greatest criminals in the world. They exploit and suppress the people to the last. Then they are disbanded and succeeded by another state and another government, which starts all over again.” The Schuck family lived under quite modest circum­ stances. With the birth of Walter’s younger sister Lili in 1922 and his little brother Heinz in 1927, the burden to support his family was increased on Jakob Schuck’s shoulders. To make his small means last longer, he used to go mushrooming in the nearby forests, and he always brought young Walter along. In that way, Walter devel­ oped a love and respect for nature which would last into old years. T