"All the women did laundry for the Americans..."

"After the end of the war, my mother and sisters and I were evacuated to the countryside where we lived with a farmer's wife. It was only women, the men hadn't returned yet. American soldiers were stationed nearby, and it didn't take long before a few of them came by. They all had little packages in their hand - their dirty laundry. The dirty laundry in one hand and the `good stuff' in the other - groceries, detergent, stockings. All the women did laundry for the Americans. And I got candy for doing the translating, since I was the only one who could speak a bit of English."

Elisabeth C., born in 1931, experienced the first months of occupation in Faistenau/Salzburg (Boltzmann-Institut/Steinocher-Fonds Interview Archive, Salzburg)