"They were more gallant, not so macho..."

"I had already had an Austrian boyfriend - like most adolescent girls growing up then. I was 17. But in those days there was a big difference: the Americans were more gallant, not so - as they say nowadays - macho. In our house when I was growing up, the rule was: the father's word is law. There was no contradicting, no ifs, ands or buts. Period. Later, my husband and I compared our respective experiences - in his family, it was pretty similar. That's the way he grew up. But his generation was different. For him, it was the most natural thing in the world to pitch in a little with the housework., It was also quite remarkable to my mother. - years later, she frequently came to visit us in the USA - that a man would push a baby carriage. I always had to remind her not to stare when she saw this, but she simply found it so interesting."

Elisabeth C., born 1931. Experienced the end of the war in Salzburg, married an American soldier in 1954 and moved to the USA with him. (Boltzmann-Institut/Steinocher-Fonds Interview Archive, Salzburg)