European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

The question was what you were able do as a soldier in an unfamiliar environment.

We always tried to build anti-fascist cells and if it was one man or two.

It was not easy to find out where somebody was, thinking the same as you.

You had to proceed carefully with questions.

Sometimes somebody told a joke and you could tell by the kind of reaction:

is he an opponent of fascism or not.

Wherever I went, within short time I always had an anti-fascist cell in my unit.

It was a lot easier later, after I was badly wounded

and we tried as a small group to do what we could.

Like throw a spanner in the works a little bit, being aware that alone one cannot achieve a lot.

But if something like that keeps happening frequently,

it is not only a question of calming your conscience: I was against it; I have done something about it.

On the other side you could show:

“You cannot do what you want. We are here and we are keeping an eye on you!”

Acts of sabotage

We worked in groups of three,

made agreements, always three.

We met somewhere, where we could not be overheard, to prepare missions.

Whether they were campaigns with flyers or posters

or later on, when we realised that we did not achieve enough, acts of sabotage.