Interview with a WW2 Soldier Continued
A continuation of an interview where my father tells in his own words of his experience leading up to World War II. This text is an unaltered transcript of the recorded interview. Last time I left off when my father said, “Hitler had one saying. Better cannons than butter.
I am 78 years now. The whole thing was about 55 years ago. When all these things happened and I am still here. And that it is a miracle. God’s grace and God’s saving power. And to Him be the glory. When I continue this, we always have to remember that this is the main thing. When I tell this, how I tell these things.
How Things Were Before
I think it’s a good idea to give, try to give, an overall picture of the situation where in we lived at that time and so on.
Now it was a depression time. There was no work. There was no money. And a lot of people were out of work and also in Germany.
Now in Germany was even worse because Hitler had a slogan for the people, what we want is cannons. Weapons. Better than butter. So those people had to live with that.
And actually they were short in a lot of things. But that was Hitler’s slogan, and all he did was spend all the money for weapons.
And Then Things Got Serious
Now one serious thing happened at that time, actually, more the first thing was that the minister president of Austria was assassinated. Schuschnigg was his name. (After researching this, I learned that my father might have confused the names. It was likely Dollfuss who had been murdered in 1934. He was then replaced by Chancellor Schuschnigg, who opposed Hitler and managed to keep Austria from annexation until 1938, when the Nazis stripped him of power and put him in prison.)
“And then the Germans, they walked right into Austria and occupied Austria. Now Austria didn’t fight because most of the Austrians thought it was a good thing, joined with Germany because they speak the same language. And so they were one unit, anyway. Later on, they had to pay dearly for that.”
This link verifies the names and summarizes the annexation of Austria. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-von-Schuschnigg
Another resource, which I’d like to read, is about the Austrian takeover—a book told by Schuschnigg’s son When Hitler took Austria. A memoir of heroic faith by the chancellor’s son.
Parliament Building in Berlin Burns
Then the second thing that happened in those days was all of a sudden the German parliament building in Berlin was on fire. Reichstag building (1933) and, ja, who did it?
For more on the 1933 Reichstag Fire—the emergency powers that were put into place to protect the German people, the decree that destroyed the German free press and more, paving the way to dictatorship, refer to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.
Hitler Finds a Scapegoat
“And, finally, they found there was one boy walking in Berlin. And that is what happened because more people were looking for work. And food, and things at that time. So that Dutch guy, a young fellow, I think in the twenties, he was walking, and they caught him and they accused him that he was the one that had put that building on fire. He—Van der Lubbe—was condemned to death and beheaded. Funny way of execution. But that is what happened.
Accusations Lead to Holland
Now the whole thing was they want to have some accusations against Holland. You felt that right away, heh. An excuse that whenever they want to fight Holland, that they had an excuse for that. Also, when I was at the border that time (when he was mobilized as a border guard), a little further south, there was an incident. A German shot one Dutch soldier and they dragged another Dutch soldier over the border to Germany and the Germans accused the Dutch army of starting this incident.
So everything showed clearly already that something was going to come.”
Everything from my youth… lived in, where we were brought up… it’s gone. Isn’t it so that everything in your life is gone? There is nothing that is staying. Nothing. Everything disappears, and so will we… All those people that have lived there for years and years, well, they have the same feeling. They are gone or everything around them is gone.
A Soldier’s Testimony – God is in Control
But there is only one thing that blijft—stays—the Lord. He stays the same. Whatever there is, He is the leader. He has everything in His hand. And He can never ever make a mistake. Everything that He does is right. So. We cannot understand it, why it is all so like that. The only thing we know, He is coming soon. And that everything that is ‘now’ will disappear.
A New Heaven and a New Earth
And there will be a new heaven and a new earth where gerechtigheid—righteousness, justice—lives. It says in the bible. En als wij daar now naar mogen verlangen—And if we might now long for that—och. Then we won’t find it so terrible—that everything disappears. It will anyway. But the Lord will never disappear. He is always with you. And if on him you trust, nothing can happen to us that is not by his will. And if we can only live with this…
We Need the Lord
I can still see my father sitting in his recliner, focusing on the words of Psalm 91 in a golden frame hanging on the wall, Dad’s favorite chapter. He’d tell us how faithful God is, and merciful. That He is our destination. And Jesus has been spending an awful long time, 2000 some odd years, preparing our eternal home for the day He welcomes us to glory.
My father understood he needed the Lord. I know I need him too. How about you?
Blessings,
Johanna
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