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• April 6, 1945

  Tonight Paolo Schumann came to visit me. He now lives in a small city called Landshut, 70 kilometers outside of Munich. We had a beer together. He practically assured me that the war should be over this month, but I doubt it. I said to him: “It should be over but your fellow Germans are […]

• White Wednesday 1945

  I’m tired of working, I don’t feel well. This morning I asked my boss if I could have a permit to go see a doctor, he wouldn’t give it to me, he said I have to work. I asked him again later, so he sent his sidekick, a man worthy of him who we nicknamed […]

• White Tuesday 1945

  Today we worked like we do every day, and like every other day we ate potatoes with no seasoning, hardly even any salt. Even on Easter we ate potatoes at noon and at night, without any seasoning. Food has become a serious issue: there’s no bread at the black market, and if you manage to […]

• Easter 1945

  This is the second Easter I’ve spent on German soil, the second Easter my dear wife and kids are forced to celebrate without me! These holidays are nothing but a blow to my heart, I’d rather they never come. I wonder what sort of bleak Easter my poor wife had without me. She’s been living […]

• Holy Saturday 1945

  Today around noon, while we were working in the usual factory, the siren went off. It ended in an hour, without any damage. We hadn’t heard any pre-raid sirens or sirens in a few weeks, we thought perhaps there had been a summit to end this damn war but sadly that isn’t the case, it’s […]

• Wednesday March 28, 1945

  It’s very cloudy and it’s raining too. Up until Palm Sunday the weather was nice and warm, it hadn’t even been this warm last summer. But since Holy Monday, it’s been drizzling. I’m feeling better now, that angst I was plagued with until yesterday has now subsided. The news from my wife that they are […]

• Holy Tuesday 1945

  I didn’t sleep much last night, I kept waking up. Every time I woke up, I shed some tears and had a knot in my throat. I kept picturing my wife and my dear children. I kept remembering, as if it were yesterday, the summer of 1943, before the Germans dragged me away from my […]

• Holy Monday 1945

  Tonight, when I got home from work there was finally a letter waiting for me. I picked it up and noticed my handwriting on the envelope. I was confused, I didn’t stop to think that it could’ve been from one of the many letters I sent with return envelopes through the Red Cross of Vienna. […]

• March 24, 1945

  At 11:50 the siren goes off. They send us to the factory’s basement, even a rudimentary bomb would make this place collapse. But they won’t let us out, we’re worse off than slaves, whereas workers from other factories are allowed to go wherever they please. I took advantage of the fact that nobody was watching […]

• March 22/23, 1945

  Siren. The sun is still a shining beauty, for those who actually see it, I certainly don’t. The factory is like a cavern, I arrive in the morning and leave at night.