Description
Object description
Austrian civilian lived in Vienna, Austria, 1922-1938; emigrated to GB, 1938; lived as refugee in GB, 1938-1940; served as NCO with Pioneer Corps in GB, 1941; served as sapper with Royal Engineer in GB and North West Europe, 1942-1944; served with Field Security Branch, Intelligence Corps in North West Europe, 1944-1948; served with Special Investigation Branch, Military Police in Germany, 1948-1952
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Galicia, Poland and Vienna, Austria, 1922-1938: family background and social circumstances; political situation and father's involvement in radical social democratic party in Vienna uprising, 2/1934; accommodation in Vienna; father's political beliefs originating in service with Austrian Army on Italian Front, 1914-1918; story of attending meetings of Social Democratic Party as child; education and question of anti-Semitism; work as apprentice engineer in sewing machine factory, 1936-1938; activities with Red Falcon, SDP, 1929-1934; membership and activities with League of Socialist Youth, 1934-1938.
REEL 2 Continues: membership and activities with League of Socialist Youth, 1934-1938; awareness of Hitler and Nazi Party, 1933-1938; political situation and joint demonstrations prior to Anschluss, 1938; reactions to German Anschluss, 13/3/1938; reactions to attending Hitler speech in Vienna, 3/1938; nature of anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish community; dispossession of Jewish owners and dismissal of Jewish employees at sewing machine factory, 6/1938; father's service with International Brigade, 1036-1938; arrest of father and background to expulsion as undesirable alien via Czechoslovakia to Poland, 1938; risk of informers; nature of proscribed activities with League of Socialist Youth, 1938; risk of beatings from Brown Shirt fascists.
REEL 3 Continues: story of being reported to Hitler youth and moving to live with friends; musical activities; story of escape with friends to Switzerland, 7/1938; arrest by Swiss frontier police and return to Austria, 7/1938; detention in police station and story of release; return to Vienna; soup kitchen run by Jewish community; escape as winter skiing tourists to Italy, 10/1938; sympathetic treatment following arrest by Italian border guards prior to return to Austria avoiding Austrian border guards, 10/1938; return to Vienna; prior inclusion in holidays for sick Jewish children; background to inclusion in scheme to evacuate Jewish children to GB, 10/1938; train journey across Germany, 10/1938.
REEL 4 Continues: reception of train in Netherlands prior to Channel crossing to Harwich, GB, 10/1938. Recollections of period as refugees at Butlins Holiday Camp, Dovercourt, 12/1938-3/1939: chalet accommodation and cold weather; reaction to eating kippers; reception of new arrivals; question of adoption of children by wealthy civilians; musical activities; effect of Kristalnacht and influx of Jewish refugees. Recollections of period as worker at Richborough Camp, 3/1939-6/1939: work to improve condition of huts and facilities; arrival of German Jewish refugees; planting potatoes; dispute with wealthy refugees. Period at farm school, Wallingford, 7/1939-9/1939: nature of school; kit and hut accommodation; forestry and tree nursery work; football activities and dispute over cup; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939.
REEL 5 Recollections of period at Saffron Walden, 1939-1940: background to formation of 'Q' Committee of doctors to finance farm for juvenile delinquents; relationship with staff; move to workhouse building at Bicester; assisting in care and education of delinquent evacuees; illustration of methods of treating delinquents; failed attempt to get scholarship to Ruskin College, Oxford University; problems with police as suspected spy signalling German aircraft due to status as registered alien; departure of sympathetic principal; question of move to Edinburgh; severance of connection between Refugee Committee and home. Period with Jewish ORT Organisation vocational factory/home in Leeds, 1940: training as fitter; dispute with insensitive Jewish official and subsequent interview with police; friendship with local woman working for Quaker Refugee Organisation. Period in Quaker Hostel for non-Jewish refugees in Leeds, 1940: story of fight with Czech roommate.
REEL 6 Continues: work in glass factory. Recollections of period working in Edgbastion, Birmingham, 1940-1941: background to move into lodgings managed by Quakers; work at bicycle factory; story of resigning after dispute over milk allowance ; background to recruitment into Pioneer Corps, 1941. Period at Pioneer Corps Depot, Ilfracombe, 1941: hotel billets; fight with Spanish member of Foreign Legion who had served with Fascists in Spanish Civil War; drill; PT; erecting barbed wire coastal defences. Recollections of period with Royal Engineers at Preston and Chatham Barracks, 1941: renewal of 'enemy alien' status; weapons training; training in mine laying; background to request for transfer to Royal Navy. Period as sapper with Royal Engineer Coy in GB, 1942-1944: stories illustrating treatment as 'foreigner' by NCOs; story of going AWOL; lack of contact with Austrian refugees during leave in London.
REEL 7 Continues: story of going AWOL to Torquay, return to unit and disciplinary hearing in front of colonel; period in Sowerby Detention Barracks, York; promotion to corporal on return to unit; question of anti-Semitic treatment; story illustrating lack of religious convictions; workshop lorries and work on PLUTO oil line on Isle of Wight; flight to check camouflage on PLUTO; move to concentration area, 1944; cigarette rations and non-smoking;. Various aspects of operations in France and Belgium, 6/1944-9/1944: personal morale on Channel crossing; reactions under fire; situation; role erecting Bailey bridges across Orne River; superior facilities of French Canadian unit; reaction to discovery of corpses of French Canadians executed by German and subsequent retaliatory shooting of German prisoners; story of running over mine in jeep, 8/1944; treatment in field hospital and convalescence in Brussels. Recollections of period with Field Security Branch, Intelligence Corps in Belgium and Germany, ca 1944-1945: composition of unit.
REEL 8 Continues: situation; training in preparation for dealing with German resistance movements on invasion of Germany; question of establishment of task forces to capture German SS and Gestapo headquarters; lectures; story illustrating superior US food rations; lectures; role interrogating German prisoners; abandonment of task force concept; liaison as interrogator with German civilians administration; precautions against German resistance movements; question of pro-Nazi sympathies of Germans and attitude to Soviet Union; story of visit to Belsen Concentration Camp, 20/4/1945, including reaction to corpses, anti-Semetic reaction of British officer, presence of Dirk Bogarde and impact of conversation with inmates; rejoining unit in Hanover; move to British Sector, Berlin; reactions to devastation and story of responsibility for widely publicised slogan on wall attributing responsibility to Hitler.
REEL 9 Continues: automatic arrest list; question of liaison with US Counter Intelligence Corps and false alarm of German uprising; question of arrests made; successful interrogations to establish identity of German prisoner; daily report summarising German press in West and East Germany; nature of intelligence meetings between occupying powers and lack of real cooperation; story of investigation into black market activities in dance hall and story of hearing German women singing anti-war song; visit to political activist father in Soviet Union and his reports of ex-Nazis prominent in East German administration; rapid development of Cold War; story of visit to US Military Police and view of US soldiers attacking Soviet soldier, 1948; story illustrating Soviet treatment of their own drunken soldier.
REEL 10 Continues: story illustrating British attitude to anti-Soviet Germans; question of impact of return of Jewish refugees intercepted whilst attempting to emigrate to Palestine; transfer to British Zone, 1948. Period with Special Investigation Branch, Military Police in Dusseldorf, 1948-1952: role of unit; investigation and courts martial dealing with rape cases involving British soldiers and German women; investigation of black market activities; case of murder of German worker by British guard, subsequent court martial and attitude of British journalist; investigation into accidental deaths due to negligence; composition of unit; reaction to anti-Semitic attitude of British NCO in SIB; story of checking background of German woman marrying British soldier; story illustrating anti-Semitism of German priest.
REEL 11 Continues: use of accommodation and facilities in German police station; attitude of German police photographer used to record scene of rape of German woman by British soldiers; meeting wife working as member of Greek Military Mission and marriage, 1951; background to leaving army and demobilisation, 5/1952. Post-war career: work as telecommunications engineer in Oxford area; problems in securing accommodation; work as assistant manager for Australian/Greek shipping company in London; reactions to visit to Austria, 1945, including fate of fellow League of Socialist Youth, visit to former employers factory and workers attitude to fate of Jewish workers; reactions to visit to Austria, 2000.