Gilbert Beillschmidt was sitting at the dining room table doing his homework, when his little brother ran into the room on the verge of tears. This was alarming mainly because little Ludwig never cried. The young blond boy ran over to Gilbert and buried his face in the older boy's shirt. Gil realized he must have just run home from school since the young one still had his backpack on his shoulder. "What's wrong, West?" Gilbert asked, using the nicknames he and Luddy had made up years ago when Gil had had to do a school project on the division of Germany by the Soviet Union.
"Ze uhzzer kids vere making fun of me," little West bawled. Since he was so upset, his already thick accent was even more prominent.
Gilbert sighed. "What for?" he asked, unable to thick of a reason anyone would make fun of his awesome little brother.
"Because I'm German. Ve're learning about Vorld Var two right now and zey accused me of being a Nazi!" Once more, Luddy buried his head in his brother's shirt.
Gilbert knew this was going to happen sooner or later. It was the main thing he was worried about when their Vater had said they were moving to America. In an attempt to avoid any confrontations like this, the older Beillschmidt son had found a way to successfully adopt the local accent, having no trouble speaking English since he'd been being taught how to in school for years. West, however, had grown up speaking only German with a little bit of English when Gil decided to teach him a word here and there. Because of all that, Ludwig had ended up learning English in America and still had a thick German accent. Gilbert had hoped that a confrontation like this wouldn't happen to his little West this soon, though. They had only been living in America for two years.
The platinum blond switched to German when he next addressed his brother, "They said you were a Nazi, huh?
"Yes. They said that since I was German, I had to be a Nazi. And since I was a Nazi, I must hate Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and a lot of other things. They even said that Father must be happy that I'm Aryan and then they said the whole family was Nazis. I don't get it East, what did I ever do to them?" Ludwig's tearful blue eyes locked with Gilbert's sympathetic ones.
"Forget about them West. You didn't do anything wrong. They're wrong for being intolerant of Germans. Remember, just because someone is German, that doesn't mean they're a Nazi." Gilbert seemed calm on the outside, but inside he was a swirling mass of hatred for those kids. How dare they accuse his sweet little Luddy of being a cold-blooded, heartless Nazi? The same kid who brought in every stray, injured, or stray and injured dog he found (they had four already, all of which German breeds oddly enough) was being accused of being the type to kill millions of innocent people? Gilbert just couldn't stand the thought. "Hey, West, how about you go play with Blackie, Aster, Berlitz, and Adolf, ok? They'll cheer you up. And remember what I said. Those kids just aren't awesome enough to be near my little brother."
"Ja, Bruder," Ludwig said as he turned and left the room to go find their dogs.
Gilbert, on the other hand, texted his dad to tell him that he had something to talk to him about when he got home before returning to his homework.
A half hour later, their Vater came home. "Guten Abend, Gilbert. Where's Ludwig?" Alderich asked as he hung up his coat.
Gilbert was putting away his school stuff. He looked up, "Playing with the dogs. You'll never guess what happened to him at school today." With that, the older Beillschmidt brother told their father about what had happened to his poor, sweet West.
That night, at dinner, Alderich addressed Ludwig in German, "Your brother told me about what happened at school today."
Ludwig swallowed nervously.
"About what those kids said to you." His father continued, "I want you to know, just because someone is German, that doesn't make them a Nazi. And just because someone is American, that doesn't mean they're tolerant of others. People, especially children, have a tendency to be mean to others because they're different. Remember, Luddy, just because you're German doesn't mean you're evil. Be proud of who you are."
Ludwig stopped eating. He let the words sink in. "Danke, Vati. Danke, Bruder."
A/N: This one was actually inspired by this one day when I was in a bookstore and I was looking at the German History section. Everything in there either had "Third Reich," "World War Two," "Nuremburg Trial," "Hitler," or "Nazi" in the title. Looking at them got me thinking about how America is said to be the nation that will accept everyone, but we're still such racist assholes, and about how the world doesn't seem to be able to look at Germany the same way anymore. Originally, this was going to take place with Prussia and Germany in a bookstore together and Germany making a discovery much like mine, but I wrote this instead. Hope you enjoyed!