"...and now his daughter is having a baby, and from the American enemy, no less..."

"It wasn't just an affair for me. We wanted to get married. I didn't want to stay in Salzburg. I had always wanted to leave. I wanted to go to America. Like I said, we wanted to get married. Then, in October, the entire division was transferred back to America. My boyfriend was part of a so-called line division. The actual occupation forces only arrived later. I was naive and of course I believed that I would receive some word from him. But I never heard from him again. America is far away. Now, I can somehow understand - he would probably have had difficulties in his home town if he had brought an Austrian or a German woman back with him.

My father became enraged when he learned that I was pregnant. He was a highly decorated major and had received many medal for extraordinary bravery. He had even seen action in World War I, and now his daughter is having a baby, and from the enemy against whom he had fought, no less. I was not permitted to stay at home; I had to move to a farm in the countryside. And when we drove away, he refused to permit me to get into the car in front of the house. The driver had to wait for me in a nearby street. My daughter was born in 1946."

Gertraud D., born in 1922 in Salzburg, was 23 years old at the end of the war (Boltzmann-Institut/Steinocher-Fonds Interview Archive, Salzburg)