"The Nazis said that the Americans were releasing potato beetles to ruin our harvest..."

"The Americans were constantly dropping silver tinsel, but they did that to disrupt our radar. And the Nazis told us they were doing it in order to poison us. Imagine, they actually told us such things. The silver tinsel could be found everywhere, and in school they warned us not to pick it up because it's all poisoned and anyone who touches it will get sick. That's what we were told. And during the war, children had to go out and collect potato beetles because the Nazis said that the Americans were releasing them to ruin our harvest. As if they had nothing better to do than to release beetles. It was so disgusting! All of us 12-year-olds had to go to a farm and spend the whole afternoon picking bugs. And for that we got a sandwich. And the Nazis said that the Americans were releasing potato beetles to destroy our harvest. That's the kind of propaganda that was spread."

Gertrude B., born 1930, then a schoolgirl in Radstadt/Salzburg and 15 years old by the end of the war (Boltzmann-Institut/Steinocher-Fonds Interview Archive, Salzburg)