Definitely: How Many Families Were Drafted Into The German Army

(CR): Definitely. All eligible men were drafted into the German army – so many families were left without fathers and relatives (as this was the case with my family). Special school activities became mandatory German youth group sporting participations. I hated to go to a soccer field and having to run, jump or learning how to throw a long distance ball, for instance. Luckily got out of it to the anguish of my mother fearing reprimand, but none ever came to our relief.

(NR): How did day-to- day life change for you during the war?

(CR): My mother and I lived alone in an apartment. As the war progressed, food became scarce, especially meat, bread, dairy products, sugar and sweets, which I started to crave quite a bit.

(NR): Did school change
(NR): Did you feel the war end?

(CR): Oh yeah, most definitely. Let's... the air raids and bombing attacks by the American bombers at war end intensified and happened on a daily basis, always during noon hours. And I remember the warning signs of the wailing sirens still ringing in my ears many years after.

(NR): Did, uh, school ever change afterwards?

(CR): Yeah the schools were long closed, and it was not safe to leave the house any longer. During the very last days of the war, the artillery shelling finally had seized. All of the remaining people in the apartment house (mothers, children and an old man-- all the young men had been drafted) were huddled together in the basement. My mother and I slept in one corner of the cellar with blankets covering our shivering bodies... And at at that time, we had only pea soup and awful tasting bread to eat. On May 8, 1945, uuhh... I still remember the day as if it were yesterday, it had become very quiet outside and we all realized that something had happened. We soon saw a large colony of American army panzers and vehicles driving by the apartment building and soon realized that we had been liberated by the American army... and the war was
television and technology of today, was non-existent... Communication happened mostly through radio and, really, censured newspaper. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party had forcefully annexed Austria to Germany and began to... impose its political and philosophical views on the Austrian people. That was difficult times for a young girl of barely 12-years old... and for everybody else for that matter. Austria recovered slowly after its liberation and only fully developed economically after the Staatsvertrag, which was the uh, I looked this up, the Austrian State Treaty of 1955, the treaty that I think ultimately helped Austria's economy to become