03:11

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

Innsbruck

2008-06-17

Sylvia Manning - Baumgartner

Nicole D´Incecco

1938

My grandmother hated everything that had to do with Hitler. She even secretly listened to the English radio - - and once she was caught. Because she didn't hear so well anymore she turned it up so loud that the local group leader came and confiscated the radio. I was such a naive person I went to Bozen ? and wanted to get the radio back from the district leader. I had bought it for my parents, so it was mine. I went to district leader Hofer. I wasn't afraid of anything, I even saw his personal secretary. He asked me: "What do you want from the district leader?" I answered: "I would like to get my radio back, it has been confiscated. It's mine." ? "Well, why was it confiscated?" "My grandmother was listening to foreign broadcasts." "Go home right away and be glad that your parents are still there!" So I left quietly. Everybody was surprised that I had dared to go there. My grandmother really hated the Nazis and all that. My parents were indifferent to it all. They said: "We're staying here, we're South Tyrolean. We don't care about the Italians or the Germans; we're South Tyroleans and are staying in South Tyrol." I didn't much like being a stay-behind, not so much. I was glad that the young people accepted me anyway, because my parents went through a lot, in that respect. Apart from having their windows broken and the hay burned, and such, they were treated like lepers, especially because my father wasn't from here. His last name was Palvai, that's an Italian name. Yes. That's how it was, it wasn't easy.