"I was born in Riga, Latvia, on 29 August 1911
the fourth son of dentist Karl
Friedrich Max von Westernhagen and his wife Hedwig Angelica von
Westernhagen, nee Bertels. I was baptized a protestant with the
Christian names Heinz Otto Alexander.
In
the winter of 1914/15, when my father returned from Siberia, we escaped
through Finland and Sweden to Germany. When Riga was taken by German
forces in 1917, we returned at once with a shipment of troops. Then came
the Russian Revolution and for a second time we lost everything we had,
this time to the bolsheviks. We left our home for good in the summer of
1919 and travelled to Hamburg as part of a shipment of 3,000 German
refugees. In October 1921 we moved to Berlinchen in the Neumark. There I
went to middle school, having attended secondary school in Riga and
elementary school in Hamburg. I left school on 25 March 1927 and went to
Hamburg, signed aboard a sailing ship and served aboard it until summer
1929. Then I tried to change horses to farming. During this period I
joined the NSDAP, but in early 1930 I turned once again to the sea. I
was let go in April 1932 and was unemployed until February 1933. At this
time I applied to join the newly-formed SS in Harburg.
On
15 February 1933 I signed on as a sailor again, aboard a steamer out of
Hamburg. I remained there until 20 November 1933, when I was let go on
account of complaints about bad food. I applied to the Reich Water Guard
in Stettin and was accepted. Expecting to be let go, I sought work on
land and from 13 December 1933 until 1 October 1934 I worked at the
Phoenix AG rubber factory in Harburg. I was supposed to be laid off in
Stettin, but several days before that I was called up by the
Verfügungstruppe in Hamburg and forgot about the police."
