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interview // german // 4:35 Min // 15.06.2008
// Hits: 355
We were always in danger of something happening and it did. One day three partisans came (friends of the farmer and one relative) and came in for a snack. The farmer said: “You did not put up any guards.” So they answered: “We will be gone in a minute, anyway.” They really got up and went outside but they stayed in the hallway and kept talking for a little while. And the children did what they always do when somebody comes round. I was standing right next to a partisan when the police or the Gestapo (or whatever you can call them) came to the house and they just shot wildly into the house, just wildly. Two partisans died straight away and the third one followed me, when I ran away through the door, left, into the kitchen. There he wanted to get out of the door. He was wounded. A bullet went through my apron but it didn’t hit me. I hid myself in the kitchen, in a hole under the cooker. The Gestapo, or policeman, came in and stuck his machinegun into the hole. But he looked in, as well, and saw that there was only a child and pulled me out. I was not frightened any more. I don’t think I felt anything. I was in shock, or something. Then I had to step over these partisans. He made me step over the dead people! One of them was not dead, yet. He really begged to be shot again and he was pleadingly looking at us. I had to step right over their heads. I still remember these eyes the way I saw them back then. That will probably stay. Whenever I see blue eyes like these somewhere, I remember this man. I do have a problem with that; I cannot forget that. Then they took me inside to the two old farmers and my cousin. One of them just wanted to shoot us and burn the house down after. Another one came in and said: “You shouldn’t do that. The partisans have to be buried, everything cleaned, and in two hours time a patrol will come and there mustn’t be anything showing; not a sign that anything happened.” And they really did that. The farmer buried the partisans and the farmer’s wife cleaned up, wiped the blood up. It was very hard for her to mop all that and she cried so hard, when she was kneeling in the blood, so hard. The two of us (the cousin and I) we were totally shattered. The farmer’s wife said: “You stay indoors and don’t go outside. Don’t you tell anybody what happened.” And we didn’t. If somebody told us to keep something to ourselves, we did. It was as if we would have put it in a box and locked it away. Anyway, we protected the partisans so much when we were kids; they were our friends and the Germans were our enemies.
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I was born in Remschenig near Eisenkappel into a Slovenian family; at my aunt’s, really, where my mother was a farm maid. In this house lived: my sister, Zofija Rotter, my mother, Ana Rotter and I. There was another aunt, Marija Rotter, with her daughter, Marija Rotter, and then there were Jurij Sluga, Katarina’s husband, and his brother Hanzi Sluga and Katarina’s sons Michael Sluga, Karl Sluga and Franz ... more |
length: 2:51 min
| date: 15.06.2008
| video-hits: 205
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I was not at home. I was at the neighbour’s. When the neighbour saw that the Gestapo went to our house, she hid us in an outhouse and warned us: “Please, don’t look out of the window and stay quiet.” But us as children, we didn’t understand that and didn’t keep quiet. We kept looking out of the window to see what was going on until we saw that they were marching our family and relatives off. Only then did we ... more |
length: 2:51 min
| date: 15.06.2008
| video-hits: 1.175
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We were quite desperate. Then we remembered that we still had another aunt nearby. We would go there; it was aunty Amalija. She had three children of her own, and her husband (her partner, really) was still at home. We stayed there. But the aunt had such a small flat. So she went to our house, where she looked after the small animals and us children because we had enough to eat at home; plus the small animals to ... more |
length: 2:06 min
| date: 15.06.2008
| video-hits: 173
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At the end of January 1944 the aunt got us ready and dressed and we asked: “Where are we going?” The older ones already knew, but the little ones didn’t. And she said: “Well, we are going to church.” So we asked: “At night? Why are we going to church at night? Why is there a church service at night tonight?” The aunt answered: “Well, because there is. Let’s go.” So out we went. We had put a lot of clothes on ... more |
length: 6:07 min
| date: 15.06.2008
| video-hits: 149
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So, we went back over the mountain to Carinthia, when the snow was gone. Before it was near enough impossible. We got to a farmer’s where the cousin’s grandmother was. The aunt asked the grandmother whether she could leave the youngest daughter there, because she was very ill. This woman said she could, because the girl would die otherwise. So I thought: ‘Oh, she can stay and I have to go again; and it is so nice ... more |
length: 2:05 min
| date: 15.06.2008
| video-hits: 76
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We were always in danger of something happening and it did. One day three partisans came (friends of the farmer and one relative) and came in for a snack. The farmer said: “You did not put up any guards.” So they answered: “We will be gone in a minute, anyway.” They really got up and went outside but they stayed in the hallway and kept talking for a little while. And the children did what they always do when ... more |
length: 4:35 min
| date: 15.06.2008
| video-hits: 355
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There were conflicts as well, because I was a Slovenian. I even had conflicts with other Slovenians. They could not understand why I had so much political interest and why I am for the Slovenes and so on. Well, the disappointment was quite big when the English came and treated us like enemies again, and we weren’t even allowed to go to church without ID and so on. Even the English were quite discriminating. When ... more |
length: 1:59 min
| date: 15.06.2008
| video-hits: 72
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Yes, I did have problems because of that. As long as I was healthy, there was nothing; but when I was ill, I started having delusions, bad feelings and fears about people, and when I saw somebody in uniform coming, I used to hide. The Germans were my deadly enemies for a long, long time. It took many years before I had worked out for myself that it weren’t the Germans as such – it were just the fascists. But not ... more |
length: 1:00 min
| date: 15.06.2008
| video-hits: 159
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Contemporary witnesses of the Nazi-Regime
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Knorr, Lorenz
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Zablatnik, Ana
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Kolenik, Lipej
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Schulz, Erwin
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Dušek, Veroslav
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Rach, Elli
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Bab, Werner
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Tokarska-Kaszubowa, Stefania
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Chrushynski, Hendryk
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Nowavzyk, Wladislav
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Hoffmann, Urszula
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Ledermann-Rodbell, Barbara
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Reimann, Barbara
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Burger, Adolf
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Pick-Goslar, Hannah Elisabeth
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Hinenberg, Pola
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de Ruiter, Gerard
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Fischer, Franz Josef
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Snep, Peter Josef
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Iwakin, Anatoli Abramowitsch
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Crüger, Reinhart Berthold
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Ebert, Dorit
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Menger, Truus
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Sylten, Walter
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Omankowsky, Manfred
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Kann, Ludwig
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Müncheberg, Hans
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Schuster, Gisela
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Frickel, Heinrich
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Cornelius, Heinz
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Lammel, Inge
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Kaufhold, Marianne
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Rentmeister, Elsa
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Claessens, Karina
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Siebner, Margit
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Rinne, Karl-Heinz
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Eckert, Werner
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Schmid, Fritz
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Rewald, Ilse
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Schwersenz, Jizchak
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Mehling, Waltraud
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Deutschkron, Inge
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