WEBVTT 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:18.030 Well, I am Wolfgang Breckheimer, born in 1926 and that's my wife Ria. 00:00:18.040 --> 00:00:22.070 Born in 1927. 00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:44.010 We try not to forget our experiences we had in a very bad time. 00:00:45.040 --> 00:00:55.020 All things considered we lead a life which did not plead the Nazis... 00:00:55.030 --> 00:01:04.050 ..only because of that they founded a HJ-unit, HJ-patrol unit it was called... 00:01:04.060 --> 00:01:18.000 ...and they were deployed, to catch us and to find out our adresses and to spy on our personalities. 00:01:18.010 --> 00:01:31.050 And we, how should I say, fought back with violence. 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:41.050 The Nazis and their followers, they always try to describe it as,... 00:01:41.060 --> 00:01:48.030 ...if the whole German people was united – or how Hitler used to describe it: 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:51.050 »The whole united German people backs me.« 00:01:51.060 --> 00:02:08.040 It was like, that all opposition in this Reich, in the reach of power of the Nazis, was oppressed and stifled. 00:02:08.050 --> 00:02:22.080 And yet it is interesting, that a self-made, in this time grown youth still understood,... 00:02:22.090 --> 00:02:30.090 ...how to elude the Nazis – even it was not made known to the public. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:39.060 But I found such a group while in trade school. 00:02:39.070 --> 00:02:51.040 And there we escaped the Nazis, while making hikes in the Taunus. 00:02:51.050 --> 00:02:59.060 There we found a hut, probably from loggers, which was abandoned,... 00:02:59.070 --> 00:03:09.060 ...because very likely they became soldiers, and we converted the hut for us. 00:03:09.070 --> 00:03:20.040 Our bunker, where we felt secure and alone, or where we were alone. 00:03:20.060 --> 00:03:26.070 As a protection against the persecution by the Gestapo, the Edelweisspiraten only used nicknames among each other. 00:03:26.090 --> 00:03:40.080 Afterwards it was so so hard to find, so that after the war, if we searched for friends, we did not have the names. 00:03:40.090 --> 00:03:48.030 And yes there were the most fanciful names: It was Lottel or Amboss or... 00:03:48.040 --> 00:04:03.030 Pelzkappe! Pelzkappe and so on. I was called Wolfi, that was a minimization of my name. 00:04:05.010 --> 00:04:10.090 The Nazis did not do, how should I say... 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.030 They did not put an effort. 00:04:13.040 --> 00:04:17.040 ...did not put an effort, they simply cited. 00:04:17.050 --> 00:04:24.080 So they cited my mother in ›their own account‹, how they wrote,... 00:04:24.090 --> 00:04:30.050 ...to the Lindenstrasse to Frankfurt, where the Gestapo had it's headquarters. 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:38.090 There was a very well known man, who was called Holland. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:45.090 He was in charge, to get Frankfurt free of Jews. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:55.090 And who...And my mother or generally all then existing Jews,... 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:05.090 ...they were all compulsorily sent to specific companies, who then had so called Jew sections. 00:05:08.060 --> 00:05:14.050 And so my mother was in the printing shop Osteritt. And Osteritt had a Jew section. 00:05:14.060 --> 00:05:25.070 Then, from times to times this Holland appeared, to take a look around, he looked around if everything worked according to the Nazi's ideas... 00:05:25.080 --> 00:05:39.010 ...and every now and then he pointed at a woman there and said she had to come to the Lindenstrasse to testify in ›their own account‹. 00:05:39.020 --> 00:05:49.070 The experience showed, that the ones who were cited never came back. They disappeared. 00:05:49.080 --> 00:06:01.090 The women, who were still there, if they only heard the name Holland, then they had screaming fits and so on. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:10.020 Only my mother, who was extremely brave, tried to comfort these people and told them: 00:06:10.030 --> 00:06:19.010 »Come on, hold it together. We have to hang on. The Allies are near to arrive in France... 00:06:19.020 --> 00:06:31.080 ...and the Russians are already pressing forward to East Prussia and are on the march. It won't take a long time and then the...« 00:06:31.090 --> 00:06:39.020 And this somebody has obviously told the Nazis. 00:06:39.030 --> 00:06:43.020 And then my mother was cited. 00:06:43.030 --> 00:06:52.020 My father went with her, he put on his medals of WW I and wanted to advocate for my mother. 00:06:52.030 --> 00:07:02.010 But they didn't care at all and kicked him out. 00:07:02.020 --> 00:07:07.020 He had to leave the house, he wasn't allowed to stay with my mother. 00:07:07.030 --> 00:07:20.000 Then after a few days we got the news that she was brought to the detention center, which was in the Klapperfeld. 00:07:21.080 --> 00:07:34.080 And this went on for three months, where she was in the detention center in Frankfurt. 00:07:34.090 --> 00:07:40.090 Room number, cell number? 108, if I remember correctly. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:55.040 Anyway we then got the news, that the mother was sent to Auschwitz. 00:07:55.050 --> 00:07:59.030 Yes, you went to the prison occassionally and whistled. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:04.030 Yes as long as she was in the detention center, I tried to... 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:17.020 They always walked people across the street. Opposite there is the court building. 00:08:17.030 --> 00:08:22.020 And they were walked inside there and then - I don't know - convicted. 00:08:22.030 --> 00:08:33.070 And then I thought, I would maybe see my mother, when she was walked there, so I hung around. 00:08:33.080 --> 00:08:45.070 We had a whistle in our family, that we used to communicate. 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:52.010 And I whistled this continually in front of the prison and one of these days I... 00:08:52.020 --> 00:09:00.090 ...in the cross-barred window, I saw hands coming out, that waved. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:08.050 I suppose, that it were my mother's hands. This was presumably the last, that I saw of her. 00:09:08.060 --> 00:09:21.050 And...oh well then she was deported to Auschwitz and again three months later,... 00:09:21.060 --> 00:09:28.060 ...we got the news that she had died of »general physical weakness« in the Auschwitz camp. 00:09:28.070 --> 00:09:34.020 Today we know, how people died there. 00:09:34.030 --> 00:09:43.090 And that it's actually a derision, when they talked of »general physical weakness«. 00:09:45.040 --> 00:09:54.060 My rage was incredible. I had heard of this Holland, who was in charge of that. 00:09:54.070 --> 00:10:09.010 I had a classmate, a Sinti-gipsy how we said then – he went to school with me. 00:10:09.020 --> 00:10:15.000 One of these days, I don't know, I had something to do in Bornheim at the Bergerstrasse. 00:10:15.010 --> 00:10:23.060 There is the so called clock house, clock... clocktower. 00:10:23.070 --> 00:10:38.090 There we stood and talked. And suddenly we hear someone singing very loud, Nazi songs and so on. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:43.050 And when we went to see, there came a drunk corporal. 00:10:43.060 --> 00:10:52.060 This corporal had a belt with a gun 00:10:52.070 --> 00:10:58.010 And then I said to the Sinti: »Look. Do you see what he has got?« 00:10:58.020 --> 00:11:03.010 And he said: »Someone should...«. And I said: »Get up, let's go with him.« 00:11:06.050 --> 00:11:12.030 And then the soldier went to... I don't know the street's name, which leads to the Guenthersburgpark,... 00:11:12.040 --> 00:11:22.000 ...he turned into the street and bawled. And we followed him. 00:11:22.010 --> 00:11:30.000 And when he had nearly reached the Guenthersburgpark, there where the entrance is,.. 00:11:30.010 --> 00:11:39.050 ...we overhauled him from the right and from the left, we tripped him up, he fell and then we stole the gun from his belt. 00:11:39.060 --> 00:11:44.060 And then we ran away of course. 00:11:44.070 --> 00:11:50.060 Along the way we had a tiff about who should get the gun. 00:11:50.070 --> 00:11:58.000 He wanted to keep it, I wanted too... And then I... in the end I kept it. 00:11:58.010 --> 00:12:07.000 I wanted to shoot Holland with it. This was my firm intention. 00:12:07.010 --> 00:12:12.030 I had the gun at home – I had in the attic of my parent's home,... 00:12:12.040 --> 00:12:18.060 ...I had a child's room, where I lived. 00:12:18.070 --> 00:12:31.010 There I put the gun under the pillow and wanted to go to the Lindenstrasse at the next opportunity. 00:12:31.020 --> 00:12:41.010 My father, he noticed something about my behaviour, which wasn't normal... 00:12:41.020 --> 00:12:49.050 ...when I wasn't at home, he searched my room and found the gun. 00:12:49.060 --> 00:12:58.090 He took it, went to the Frankfurt Main bridge by bicycle and threw it into the river. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:07.080 My plan didn't work. My luck, because I wouldn't have come far. 00:13:09.070 --> 00:13:17.070 Besides I wasn't trained in operating this thing. If it had worked is highly doubtful. 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:33.010 It happened that my hate, my rage with the Nazis caused, that I saw their biggest enemies as my friends. 00:13:33.020 --> 00:13:41.060 The Nazis saw the Bolschewiks, the communists as their main enemies... 00:13:41.070 --> 00:13:54.060 ...so it became clear for me, that I would become a communist. And I joined the partie. And well... 00:13:54.070 --> 00:14:00.010 We then had, well they had a youth organization, the FDJ. 00:14:00.020 --> 00:14:12.080 We had an event on the Roemerberg in Frankfurt, where we protested in a very loud way. 00:14:12.090 --> 00:14:29.070 And then the police came, brought us in their cars and drove us to the Klapperfeld where we were kept. 00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:35.090 We sat inside and from outside our friends, they in front of the door,... 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:46.090 ...chanted very loudly and tried to support us. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:15:01.060 When the day was over, they let us out, because there was no conviction or anything,... 00:15:01.070 --> 00:15:16.010 ...again it was – how should I say – a method to establish order in the city of Frankfurt. 00:15:16.020 --> 00:15:30.070 And yes, I sat in a prison cell together with a friend and he was very angry about the whole thing,... 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:48.090 ...that he smashed the furniture, the bench which was inside or the stool, he smashed it to bits on the floor. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:57.040 Then the officers probably thought: 00:15:57.050 --> 00:16:08.050 »Let's kick them out, before they...before there are even more – how should say - outbursts.« 00:16:08.060 --> 00:16:12.000 And then they released us. 00:16:12.010 --> 00:16:28.060 Furthermore they probably wanted us to be away for only this day, to stop our protests. 00:16:30.010 --> 00:16:41.030 Surely inside, I told my buddy that my mother had also been here. 00:16:41.040 --> 00:16:45.040 But I don't know details. 00:16:45.050 --> 00:17:01.060 It was... My mother had a guard, a woman, it was... She had the surveillance. 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:11.010 I can't tell the exact time any more. It was... 1945 the war was over, it was maybe two, three years later.. 00:17:12.030 --> 00:17:29.020 Generally after the war, the history of the Nazis was downplayed and preferably ignored. 00:17:29.030 --> 00:17:34.020 It was not only in Frankfurt, but it was everywhere. 00:17:34.030 --> 00:17:47.020 We hinted at it very persistently, actually – how did we say: 00:17:47.030 --> 00:17:51.090 »The National Socialism is still there.« 00:17:52.000 --> 00:18:12.060 We always knew, that the guilty Nazis were still free and didn't even have to be afraid. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:21.090 We met each other after the war, in Frankfurt. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:25.040 You were actually from Offenbach. 00:18:25.050 --> 00:18:28.070 But I went to the events to Frankfurt, then we met. 00:18:28.080 --> 00:18:35.050 Yes, there were central events, where we... 00:18:35.060 --> 00:18:48.050 It was a left-wing youth group and she went to the one in Offenbach, I went to the one in Frankfurt, then we met, in a tent camp. 00:18:48.060 --> 00:18:51.050 No no, we met before: 00:18:51.060 --> 00:18:56.070 At an event you always came to me with your guitar,... 00:18:56.080 --> 00:19:01.070 ...put your foot on my chair and sang a song to me. After that, you went away. 00:19:01.080 --> 00:19:06.080 And I sat there with a red head and didn't know what was going on. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:17.080 Wolfgang Breckheimer plays the song " in Junker's Bar" a song of the Edelweisspiraten. The melodies served the Edelweisspiraten for recognizing each other. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:25.000 In the Junker's bar, with beer and a pipe, we spent the night. 00:19:25.010 --> 00:19:32.090 A cool drop of the best hop, the devil keeps watch. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:42.070 Yes, when the fellers sing and the guitars ring and the girls chime in. 00:19:42.080 --> 00:19:51.070 How can life give something more beautiful, we want to be free. 00:19:51.080 --> 00:20:01.000 Yes, when the fellers sing and the guitars ring and the girls chime in. 00:20:01.010 --> 00:20:11.020 What can life give more beautiful, we want to be happy. 00:20:11.030 --> 00:20:20.000 And if we ever met a young maiden, it has to be like we are... 00:20:22.080 --> 00:20:37.070 That is the self-portrayal of the Nazis: »The whole German people backs me.« 00:20:37.080 --> 00:20:47.020 But he forgot about the Edelweisspiraten. They didn't back him.