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interview // german // 7:34 Min // 16.06.2008
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They knocked hard on the door on the 5th May at 11 o’clock in the evening: “Open up, open up!” And the father asked: “What’s wrong?” – well – “open up!” So he opened and they asked where I was. I was lying in the living room, but I heard everything. Then two or three came in and shouted: “Get up!” “What’s wrong?” I asked – well. “Get up and you will see then what’s going to happen.” Of course I got up then. And the others – my family: the father, the mother, a Polish helper, and my three brothers all had to get up, as well. They all had to sit down behind the table. I was put towards the door so I could not look at the others. And then we were interrogated. One after the other, the mother first ... I was interrogated last. Unfortunately they had found something and I had to confess … just because otherwise the family … so I had to confess and then it was decided that they would march me off early in the morning. When I was getting dressed in the morning I asked one of the guards: “Well, what shall I put on?” He said: “You won’t have warm feet for long anyway. You won’t need anything.” That was his answer. At 6 am in the morning we left home. Only then I saw: the whole village looked green because of all these soldiers and field police. Most of them were field police. Then we went up to where the constabulary was, at the next inn. There they showed me a map of Ludmannsdorf and I could see that everything was put on record; all the houses that we had had connections, just everything. I couldn’t believe my eyes, what was that? But I couldn’t work out, why. Then we drove away and went out to Bach where I saw that they had a lorry, a military lorry. In there were all the others that had been arrested with me. Altogether we were 18 persons. From there we were taken to the Gestapo (secret state police) forum in the court house in Klagenfurt. There the Gestapo had occupied the first and second floor. Most of the people on the second floor were either waiting for their hearing or the ones that were to be taken to the camps later on. There we were until Christmas. After Christmas (26th December) we were transferred to … On the ground floor was the court and there we waited again. One or two weeks later it was the turn for the others. Ten of them were sentenced to death and five taken to the different camps. Then it should have been our turn. The ‘Obergerichtsrat’ (high grade judge), or whatever he was called, „Freißler“, he had to go to Berlin and there he died. It was said that he had been shot, or killed by a bomb. That he had been bombarded on the way. Because of that we kept waiting until the war was over, really. Once there was a message that we would be taken to Graz. There they almost always shot most of the people who were delivered from Klagenfurt to Graz. We were lucky again: During the night they bombarded and destroyed the railway track quite a bit and again, we were in Klagenfurt because of that. We were eventually freed on the 6th. Then the supervisor got us to the first floor where somebody was waiting; and there I got my warrant of arrest, my records and they wished us all the best and said that we were free. But the war wasn’t over yet.” Of course, I was totally happy, went out of the door and shouted for joy with all my heart: “I am free!” And my cousin, who was picking me up, said: “Shut up. The war is not over, yet.” And she was right. Even during the last two days SS – about one partisan I know for sure – marched her off, then cross examined and shot her. That is how it worked for many. Well, with that we were freed. And at home they were still living in fear. The war was not over, yet. And again and again there were reports: something else happened. There they kidnapped one or killed one or… Well, to us, thank God, that did not happen.
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