European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

I was an apprentice upholsterer,

an artisan, I was making sofas, armchairs and matrasses.

Fascists? I rather remember them as assholes more than as fascists.

As a young guy, I was a member of the Young Fascists

and my friend, a foreman, asked me:

“Why didn't you come to the demonstration?”

Since we were old friends, I told him I had stayed in bed, since I was better off there.

That stupid guy went to report me to the fascists

and they gave me castor oil and beat me up in 1939.

I went to the Army, I stayed away five years

without talking to him, then a common friend came up to me and said

“Look, that guy … “ and I told him that I didn't even want to see that stupid guy.

I didn't want to react, we even remained sort of friends,

but I remember there were two or three older men with clubs,

and I was weighing about 40 kilos by then,

I mean, being beaten up was not funny.

See, this is why I never wanted to see the fascists,

I'm “glad” they gave me 42 months of war to do. I never liked them.

Conclusion: against war and fascism 

When I came home, I joined (I hadn’t been politically organized before) the SED,