02:36

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

Aldrans

2008-06-16

Sylvia Manning-Baumgartner

Nicole D´Incecco

1921

My goodness, things were hard in those days. I can’t remember ever being beaten by my father. But I remember my mother once did. The switches were made from soft birch wood. And sometimes we did get? You don't break anything, it’s quite supple, but it was hard to bear, really. I still remember this one time, It must have been a Sunday. Not far from the village is this lake called Muehlsee. A very small lake for swimming. As kids we often ran out there, both my brothers and me ? the other one wasn’t yet born. We always had to pray the rosary on Sundays. Those were the rules. Out there we weren’t concerned with any rosary. We were just having fun. But oh dear, when we got home! Mother was waiting. She took us to the pantry, called Gadele in dialect, next door to the kitchen. Then she pulled our pants down, and gave us a beating with the switch, the boys first, one after the other. "Why didn’t you come home to go to church for the rosary?" When it came to religion, people were very strict back then. We had to kiss the priest’s hand in those days. When the priest came round, the children had to kiss his hand. Of course, this has changed. The church was very powerful, back in those days.