European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

One or two weeks later it was the turn for the others.

Ten of them were sentenced to death and five taken to the different camps.

Then it should have been our turn.

The ‘Obergerichtsrat’ (high grade judge) „Freißler“, had to go to Berlin and there he died.

It was said that he had been shot, or killed by a bomb.

Because of that we kept waiting until the war was over.

Once there was a message that we would be taken to Graz.

There they almost always shot most of the people who were delivered from Klagenfurt to Graz.

We were lucky again:

During the night they bombarded and destroyed the railway track and again we stayed in Klagenfurt.

We were eventually freed on the 6th.

Then the supervisor got us to the first floor where somebody was waiting;

and there I got my warrant of arrest,

my records and they wished us all the best and said that we were free.

But the war wasn’t over yet.

I was totally happy, went out of the door and shouted for joy with all my heart:

“I am free!” My cousin, who was picking me up, said:

“Shut up. The war is not over, yet.” She was right.

Even during the last two days SS marched a female partisan off, cross examined and shot her.

That is how it worked for many.