01:40

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

Lienz

2008-08-25

Sylvia Manning ? Baumgartner

Nicole D´Incecco

1945

And then, when the war was over, the Cossacks were here. Then, the Cossacks were here, thousands of Cossacks came - up across the countryside - and horses, thousands of horses and everything. And at home - father still had the house then - we hid a lieutenant or a Cossack officer in our house. And then - the British came and checked all the houses for anyone hiding. We had someone in the attic and we told him, he had to leave, because they searched every day. Then he went and looked - he went away - not far from us he dug a grave, then he shot his son and his wife - and himself. Then they were gone. That was tragic, yes. That was very, very tragic. But we children witnessed it; we experienced all that. All the ... yes, when they jumped into the river Drau - the big military camp was on the other bank of the Drau - it was cleared out; lots of Cossacks were inside. Then the camp was ransacked. All the Cossacks were loaded onto a train, onto a - how should I say - onto a freight train, then the children and the people were screaming, and the people - in the Drau, you could see them - they fled to the mountains - it was really just terrible. Yes. It was really terrible.