"The GIs wanted to dance with our girls, without asking us..."

"I was a musician and played quite a few gigs for American soldiers. In Salzburg, for instance, in the Steinkeller. That was one hot spot, man. Both American GIs and Austrian civilians could get in and of course that could very often get out of hand. The two sides just didn't hit it off. Why? Because our boys didn't want the Americans to take away their girls. The Amis just thought they were God's gift to women and could simply take whatever they wanted. To cut in on a dance with the lady, it's customary to ask the permission of the gentleman...but they didn't waste much time asking questions, which often led to trouble. And sometimes it really turned ugly. I remember one time when it got way out of hand - the beer glasses were flying. Our drummer was hiding behind his drums and a few of us were over in the corner behind the piano. Some of the other managed to make it out of a window. I want to tell you, that was a hell of a fight. It was like that all the time."

Joe W., born in 1920, then a Jazz musician in Salzburg(Boltzmann-Institut/Steinocher-Fonds Interview Archive, Salzburg)