About the beginning of his war service Kurt Müller said:
 
"Then, already in 1940, I was drafted. With Ford

(his new job with the American car builder's factory in Cologne)

I was not solidly enough entrenched, yet, so that they couldn't apply for my conscription to be deferred. But eventually that wasn't too bad, because who knows where I'd have been sent at a later moment rather than, from the beginning, to this air force building company which contained all birth years 1903, 1904, 1905, until 1910, about, these were the age groups who weren't impeccable (

from a Nazi point of view

), and they intended to keep them together to hold them under better surveillance. Our sergeant, the old Buss, a nice fine guy, told us: 'You know, eh, that we, eh, that we can't trust you!' He derided it."
 
But at this moment neither opponents nor followers of the Nazis had any idea which unprecedented catastrophes and horrors this war and the terror regime of the Nazis were about to bring, not even those who were clearly aware of the crimes that had already been committed.

Quite the opposite, even if the great majority of the German population did not welcome a new war in 1939 (as many sources confirm), after the seemingly effortless victory against France this successful war was perceived as a just compensation for the abhorred Treaty of Versailles and not seen as something connected to the Nazi party or ideology (though this victory carried Hitler himself to heights of popularity which he never reached before or after this time).
 
Also in Kurt Müller's company - if you look at the photos from those days - at times the soldiers' mood seems to­have been quite serene and releaxed which may be irritating for us today who can't shake off our knowledge of the historical context and the consequences. But from these people's point of view at this moment the worst seemed to be over, they were relieved that the acute phase of the war seemed to lie behind them and that their task so far stayed more or less limited to their defined task of technical support at airfields. Such scenes were probably only possible during this short phase of the war, and because noone of them knew what was to come, including the war in Russia. The destructions of war which also these rearguard troops were confronted with and which were clearly taken note of - as the selection of photo subjects shows (see below) - aparently did not thwart this mood entirely.

Above and right: Pontoise

Above and below: Beauvais

Above, below and right: Kurt Müller in St.Quentin
(rigth with soldier Landwehrkamp, right)

Above: near Brussels (Kurt Müller 2nd from left, with pipe)