"Upon seeing the first Americans, I felt a deep sorrow for my Fatherland. One can only rejoice that the Nazis would be overthrown, but the Nazi party is not Germany. And in this moment, I thought of the poor, deceived,and terroized German people. Won't the liberation disappoint them? Would it allow them to make amends, for which they could do nothing about and send them on a new path of suffering, twice as hard, during which they would long for peace and quiet.
We had to leave the basement and march out, hands raised, onto the street. Airplanes thundered, machine guns barked, tanks rumbled, cannons threatened. Soldiers everywhere. The chapel had another direct hit. We breathed deeply as we took shelter in the basement of the "Zur Simbach" restaurant. Men, women, everyone was thoroughly searched. Prisoners arrived, and so did the wounded. From 8 in the morning, until 5 in the afternoon, we sat in the almost pitch black basement. Then determining identities. I was the Mayor and I was told that I must identify individuals, but I refused. For my Eschringer "Home Guard" I could at the same time assure this, that they would not be brought away as prisoners, but needed to come with me into the "mill" (The translator believes this phrase is likely to mean "stand by my side or rally together). I took responsibility for each one.
Our basement was a great confusion. All kinds of clothes, laundry, etc, was strewn about the floor, even my church things. Approximately 100 altar candles, that I brought for safe keeping were short and broken in small pieces. The chalice cover has completely disappeared. On the first day in which the liberators came, I had lost, in total 10000 RM cash, bank account books, camera equipment and similar items. On this night no holy mass could occur. The Americans sat at the table in the kitchen and had a huge bundle of cash that they captured today. My church banner has become a tablecloth. The very same men that were in the bunker last night were brought away as prisoners that same night.
On March 17, 1945 the French prisoners of war were allowed to go home. I was often called on and questioned about the Eschringen Home Guard. On the 16 and 17th I held evening mass and on the 18th again in the morning. How far the Americans had advance, we couldn't find out. We still sat in the basement. After great effort, some of the men were allowed to go out from 9 to 10 and again from 3 to 4 to feed the livestock. Many soldiers are friendly and tell stories about their German parents or grandparents, others will drive the men roughly into the basement when they only wanted to milk or feed in the stall. Then they were not allowed to talk to us and weren't allowed to give us anything to eat. They poured gasolene on all of the piles of dinnerware and set them on fire..
Under guard, we were allowed on hour outside. We saw how they threw furniture through the windows. It is a joyful feeling to no longer have fear of the airplanes flying overhead.
On March 19th we had free time from 11 to 1. Twenty minutes were enough for me. On the roads, soldiers, autos, cannons. Soldiers are even in the church. On the church lawn a heavy gun was emplaced. The offering boxes in the church were all broken.
On Palm Sunday, Holy Mass was held in the living room. In the meantime, church services were held in the main room of Franz Job's Restaurant.
There were 98 people, including children in the town when the Eschringen was taken over."
END OF TRANSLATION.
Webmaster's comment: How much of this is truth ,how much is exxageration and how much is based on German propaganda I am unable to say, but I think it does provide just a quick view of German attitude and thinking as we made our way through the country. I don't understand the use of the word "Liberators" unless that is how it comes out in translation. By no stretch of the imagination did we consider ourselves as Liberators as we did in France.. |
