A30 Hiding in the barn

Narrator: Angela Medla
Reporter: Gregor Pieringer

After World War II, the Russian army had occupied parts of Austria. People were afraid of the foreign soldiers.

My father had to hide my mother and his children, otherwise they would have taken us with them or they would have raped us. He hid us in the barn. We dug a bunker; it was simply a hole in the ground. We hid inside it and father covered it with wooden boards with some hay on top.

Although our family didn’t have much food at that time, all of it was taken by the foreign soldiers many times.

I’ll always keep that terrible time in my mind.