"That was an indescribable feeling, when we were once again a free and independent land..."

"We actually didn't have the feeling of being occupied by the Americans. But then when they were finally gone - it was not so much an individual feeling as it was one of national unification - and we were all very happy. But not because they had been so oppressive but because we were simply once again free. Because it was again `our Austria'. So, I can still remember to this day what a great feeling it was to be able to say that `Now we are free'. That was an indescribable feeling, when we were once again a free and independent land."

Gertrude B., born in 1930, she experienced the era of occupation as a salesgirl in Zell am See/Salzburg (Boltzmann-Institut/Steinocher-Fonds Interview Archive, Salzburg)