A Nazi in the Attic

(c) 2017, 2021 Frederick E. Walton, Walton Family Historian 

Fred Walton (Circa mid 1930s)

The sleepy seven year old threw back the covers and swung his bare feet on the cold wooden floor. He carefully tip-toed through the inky darkness of his room and reached for his bedroom door knob, heading to the bathroom down the hall. Silently turning the knob, an eerie screech pealed from the squeaky hinges spoiling his attempt to be quiet in the sleeping household. He stepped into the hallway and noticed a bright square of light at his feet where darkness should have prevailed. Looking up he saw a hatch in the ceiling he had never noticed before. A strange man's head and shoulders leaned out of the hatch, urgently pulling an old ladder up into the bright light. Finishing his chore, the man momentarily turned his head, his dark eyes meeting the awestruck little boy, penetrating to his soul. With a muffled thud the panel slide into place leaving the hall in pitch darkness, the head and ladder already a distant memory. It only took  second for the lads feet to unglue themselves from the floor and scurry to his fathers nearby room, where he burst in shouting. His father was startled awake and asked his young son what was wrong. The excited explanation spilled out of the child's mouth as he pulled his sleepy father toward the door. Pointing to the hatch while repeating the events of just a moment ago. It sounded like a bad dream, which his father assured him it was. He sleepily shuffled his son back to bed and did likewise, quickly falling back to sleep, but in the room across the hall the little boy stirred under the covers. His wide, freighted eyes betrayed what he knew to be true. Strange men where hiding in the attic.

The little boy is my Dad, Fred Walton, who told me this story last time I visited with him. The Boy’s father, Fred Walton (1908-1980) had moved his young family to this multi-family house in Elmsford, off the Tarrytown Road, only a short time before because his son was going to start elementary school and Elmsford was rated as a better school. This house was near the school, but he was  already questioning its suitability, not because of the location, but more because of a growing unease with the owners.

Elmsford Public School on Hillside Ave where my Dad started his education

The Waltons had moved from Benedict Avenue in the Glenvillle  area, southeast of Tarrytown, just down the road, to this house on French Avenue off the Tarrytown- White Plains road  (current RT 119) in Elmsford, New York.

The house was two stories. The owners were a German family who lived on the first floor. Hitler's aggressive actions in Germany were enough to raise suspicions against Germans living in America, but this family was especially suspect. In the late 1920's, when the wife was expecting, long before the Walton's moved in, she returned to her homeland to give birth and remained there for many years bringing her baby up in Germany. 

This was a Germany experiencing radical changes as Hitler rose to power. This was a Germany indoctrinating the ideas of Hitler’s Nazism into the youth. This was a Germany that she called home. When she returned to New York, both her and her son had long been exposed to the idea of Arian supremacy, and brought it back to America with them.

The German family rented the second floor to tenants. This was where my dad and his family lived. My dad attended first grade while they lived in the German house. He remembered the owners son, who was about his same age. "Fritz" came back from Germany with an attitude and a uniform. 

Dad's playmate- "Fritz"

“He thought he was better than all of us” my Dad recalled. 

“He was a little bully and tried pushing me around, but I wasn’t having any of it from him.” 

Dad stood up to him and, like all bullies he sought easier targets. 

“He had a Hitler youth brown shirt, uniform, the whole works that he brought back from Germany.” Dad recalled “and the mother was nasty too.” 

By the time Dad saw the men in the attic, his parents were already uncomfortable living in this house and had started looking for other lodgings. It wasn’t long after that they moved to another apartment house nearby on Saw Mill River road in Elmsford. 

Contemporary view of Mazzille's Tavern and Apartments on Saw Mill River Road

Who were the men in the attic? Where they the product of a young boys over-active imagination? Movies, comic books and newspapers of the era were full of ideas about Nazi spies infiltrating our country to weaken and prevent us from entering the war. They were known as the fifth column, enemy spies living amongst us with a mission to undermine America from within. Germany resented our part in bringing about their defeat in World War one and had an axe to grind, so it was not too far fetched.   

I asked him if Pop, my grandfather, did anything about it? 

“Yeah, we moved to a new house!” dad said with a smile.

Fred Walton and his boys Fred and Edgar circa 1939

Apparently no G-men were contacted and no gun play resulted. Too bad. It would have been neat to learn my dad captured a Nazi Spy ring when he was a first grader!

Dad. can't explain what he saw and  insists that he saw exactly what he described that night. I have to believe him. What other explanation could there be? They were possibly just illegal immigrants hiding out, but they could have been spies!

I have spent many hours searching for information about the German family and their house to see if there was ever a raid, but nothing comes up in period newspapers. Those Nazi’s must have been darn good spies or maybe they were trying to scare away the tenants so they could raise the rent.