Well, I am Wolfgang Breckheimer, born in 1926 and that's my wife Ria.
Born in 1927.
We try not to forget our experiences we had in a very bad time.
All things considered we lead a life which did not plead the Nazis...
..only because of that they founded a HJ-unit, HJ-patrol unit it was called...
...and they were deployed, to catch us and to find out our adresses and to spy on our personalities.
And we, how should I say, fought back with violence.
The Nazis and their followers, they always try to describe it as,...
...if the whole German people was united – or how Hitler used to describe it:
»The whole united German people backs me.«
It was like, that all opposition in this Reich, in the reach of power of the Nazis, was oppressed and stifled.
And yet it is interesting, that a self-made, in this time grown youth still understood,...
...how to elude the Nazis – even it was not made known to the public.
But I found such a group while in trade school.
And there we escaped the Nazis, while making hikes in the Taunus.
There we found a hut, probably from loggers, which was abandoned,...
...because very likely they became soldiers, and we converted the hut for us.
Our bunker, where we felt secure and alone, or where we were alone.
As a protection against the persecution by the Gestapo, the Edelweisspiraten only used nicknames among each other.
Afterwards it was so so hard to find, so that after the war, if we searched for friends, we did not have the names.
And yes there were the most fanciful names: It was Lottel or Amboss or...
Pelzkappe! Pelzkappe and so on. I was called Wolfi, that was a minimization of my name.
The Nazis did not do, how should I say...
They did not put an effort.
...did not put an effort, they simply cited.
So they cited my mother in ›their own account‹, how they wrote,...
...to the Lindenstrasse to Frankfurt, where the Gestapo had it's headquarters.
There was a very well known man, who was called Holland.
He was in charge, to get Frankfurt free of Jews.
And who...And my mother or generally all then existing Jews,...
...they were all compulsorily sent to specific companies, who then had so called Jew sections.
And so my mother was in the printing shop Osteritt. And Osteritt had a Jew section.
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...
...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‹.
The experience showed, that the ones who were cited never came back. They disappeared.
The women, who were still there, if they only heard the name Holland, then they had screaming fits and so on.
Only my mother, who was extremely brave, tried to comfort these people and told them:
»Come on, hold it together. We have to hang on. The Allies are near to arrive in France...
...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...«
And this somebody has obviously told the Nazis.
And then my mother was cited.
My father went with her, he put on his medals of WW I and wanted to advocate for my mother.
But they didn't care at all and kicked him out.
He had to leave the house, he wasn't allowed to stay with my mother.
Then after a few days we got the news that she was brought to the detention center, which was in the Klapperfeld.
And this went on for three months, where she was in the detention center in Frankfurt.
Room number, cell number? 108, if I remember correctly.
Anyway we then got the news, that the mother was sent to Auschwitz.
Yes, you went to the prison occassionally and whistled.
Yes as long as she was in the detention center, I tried to...
They always walked people across the street. Opposite there is the court building.
And they were walked inside there and then - I don't know - convicted.
And then I thought, I would maybe see my mother, when she was walked there, so I hung around.
We had a whistle in our family, that we used to communicate.
And I whistled this continually in front of the prison and one of these days I...
...in the cross-barred window, I saw hands coming out, that waved.
I suppose, that it were my mother's hands. This was presumably the last, that I saw of her.
And...oh well then she was deported to Auschwitz and again three months later,...
...we got the news that she had died of »general physical weakness« in the Auschwitz camp.
Today we know, how people died there.
And that it's actually a derision, when they talked of »general physical weakness«.
My rage was incredible. I had heard of this Holland, who was in charge of that.
I had a classmate, a Sinti-gipsy how we said then – he went to school with me.
One of these days, I don't know, I had something to do in Bornheim at the Bergerstrasse.
There is the so called clock house, clock... clocktower.
There we stood and talked. And suddenly we hear someone singing very loud, Nazi songs and so on.
And when we went to see, there came a drunk corporal.
This corporal had a belt with a gun
And then I said to the Sinti: »Look. Do you see what he has got?«
And he said: »Someone should...«. And I said: »Get up, let's go with him.«
And then the soldier went to... I don't know the street's name, which leads to the Guenthersburgpark,...
...he turned into the street and bawled. And we followed him.
And when he had nearly reached the Guenthersburgpark, there where the entrance is,..
...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.
And then we ran away of course.
Along the way we had a tiff about who should get the gun.
He wanted to keep it, I wanted too... And then I... in the end I kept it.
I wanted to shoot Holland with it. This was my firm intention.
I had the gun at home – I had in the attic of my parent's home,...
...I had a child's room, where I lived.
There I put the gun under the pillow and wanted to go to the Lindenstrasse at the next opportunity.
My father, he noticed something about my behaviour, which wasn't normal...
...when I wasn't at home, he searched my room and found the gun.
He took it, went to the Frankfurt Main bridge by bicycle and threw it into the river.
My plan didn't work. My luck, because I wouldn't have come far.
Besides I wasn't trained in operating this thing. If it had worked is highly doubtful.
It happened that my hate, my rage with the Nazis caused, that I saw their biggest enemies as my friends.
The Nazis saw the Bolschewiks, the communists as their main enemies...
...so it became clear for me, that I would become a communist. And I joined the partie. And well...
We then had, well they had a youth organization, the FDJ.
We had an event on the Roemerberg in Frankfurt, where we protested in a very loud way.
And then the police came, brought us in their cars and drove us to the Klapperfeld where we were kept.
We sat inside and from outside our friends, they in front of the door,...
...chanted very loudly and tried to support us.
When the day was over, they let us out, because there was no conviction or anything,...
...again it was – how should I say – a method to establish order in the city of Frankfurt.
And yes, I sat in a prison cell together with a friend and he was very angry about the whole thing,...
...that he smashed the furniture, the bench which was inside or the stool, he smashed it to bits on the floor.
Then the officers probably thought:
»Let's kick them out, before they...before there are even more – how should say - outbursts.«
And then they released us.
Furthermore they probably wanted us to be away for only this day, to stop our protests.
Surely inside, I told my buddy that my mother had also been here.
But I don't know details.
It was... My mother had a guard, a woman, it was... She had the surveillance.
I can't tell the exact time any more. It was... 1945 the war was over, it was maybe two, three years later..
Generally after the war, the history of the Nazis was downplayed and preferably ignored.
It was not only in Frankfurt, but it was everywhere.
We hinted at it very persistently, actually – how did we say:
»The National Socialism is still there.«
We always knew, that the guilty Nazis were still free and didn't even have to be afraid.
We met each other after the war, in Frankfurt.
You were actually from Offenbach.
But I went to the events to Frankfurt, then we met.
Yes, there were central events, where we...
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.
No no, we met before:
At an event you always came to me with your guitar,...
...put your foot on my chair and sang a song to me. After that, you went away.
And I sat there with a red head and didn't know what was going on.
Wolfgang Breckheimer plays the song " in Junker's Bar" a song of the Edelweisspiraten. The melodies served the Edelweisspiraten for recognizing each other.
In the Junker's bar, with beer and a pipe, we spent the night.
A cool drop of the best hop, the devil keeps watch.
Yes, when the fellers sing and the guitars ring and the girls chime in.
How can life give something more beautiful, we want to be free.
Yes, when the fellers sing and the guitars ring and the girls chime in.
What can life give more beautiful, we want to be happy.
And if we ever met a young maiden, it has to be like we are...
That is the self-portrayal of the Nazis: »The whole German people backs me.«
But he forgot about the Edelweisspiraten. They didn't back him.