A25 Encounter in the forest

Narrator: Johanna Mantsch Reporter: Barbara Goigitzer

When I was a farmhand about half a year after the end of World War II, me and my fellow farmhand and the farmer’s son went into the forest to cut some trees.

While we were working we suddenly looked up: Two Russian soldiers were standing behind us. They wanted to frighten us with their angry looks, but we weren’t scared and we looked at them steadily.

Later we started talking to them. After a while the farmer’s son went deeper into the wood with them and they started shooting at trees to find out who was best at it.

At noon we had to go back home. The next day the soldiers visited us again in the forest.