European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Then he used to give us bundles of it and with them we paid for the bread or a 250 g of sausage or a 500 g of meat.

The money was worthless the next day.

During this time many sank into poverty.

A lot of people had paid war bonds

and they became invalid – were not worth anything.

So, whoever had no material goods, lost everything.

1927 I left school.

Then I tried for an apprenticeship.

I didn’t get one, although I had good school reports.

It was in this time, as well,

that the grammar school pupils were older.

There is a difference between the strength of a fourteen year old boy or a seventeen/eighteen year old young man.

I wanted to become a type setter.

My uncle sought for a place – rejected.

Then another uncle said: “Well, then you become a bricklayer” – as well, no success.

My father was a metal worker – again, nothing.

And then I started at the company ‘Jonas’ as an adolescent employee.

That was in 1927.

During this time I joined the trade union, the central association of the employees.

The head office was in the same building. Later on,