[VideoView]

Christine Forestier

Hitler, like Mussolini
video length:
02:48
interviewer:
Ruth Deutschmann
photography:
Benjamin Epp
copyright location:
Innsbruck
date of recording:
2008-08-20
English translation by:
Sylvia Manning - Baumgartner
Italian translation by:
Nicole D´Incecco
event
[1939-06-29] "Optants" and "stay there" Attitude change of the VKS (VB Kampfring South Tyrol) for resettlement: "(...) The German people of South Tyrol is leaving the old country and strikes to save and preserve his German nationality in the Greater German Reich a new home, the ancestors of justification and the youth the people's commitment. The people of South Tyrol has not lived in vain for 20 years under the beds and I know that there will be no more after the completion of resettlement in the countryside on Isarco and Adige German life. "
place of recording
Brixen
???iuimd_video_v_zeit_zuordnung_en???:
1938
transcription:
How did you experience the political developments in the 1930s? We South Tyroleans always hoped that we would be annexed to Germany, as Hitler had promised. We wanted our language ? we wanted to sing in German and to observe our traditional customs. Obviously, that was wrong of us. We didn't know that Hitler was just like Mussolini. We expected something else. My parents knew what was going on and were very sad when I opted for Germany. But they let me choose for myself. I was 22 years old at the time and very naive. I left the way I was - only took my piano with me. I had to see how to survive. I earned 50 D-Marks at the time and had to pay the rent, food, everything... Somehow it worked out. But I did have to save. What was it like to take that decision in 1939 - to stay or to leave? How did you make your decision known? What happened afterwards? I worked at the Sparkasse. Everybody there was for Germany. Not a single one of us South Tyroleans wanted to stay. There were also two Italians there who suffered from this atmosphere. We didn't mind them, they were quite nice those two Italians. All of us decided to leave. But my parents who owned property wanted to stay. They never thought of leaving the country. Never. And my siblings? All my brothers were at boarding school in Austria. They didn't suffer so much under the Italians. Also my two sisters were at boarding school in Austria. They didn't feel the oppression so much. They stayed in South Tyrol. But my brothers did have a tough time because first they had to join the Italian army and then later also the German SS. Even though they never were connected to the SS, they had to join.