Name : Therese Kobencic

Date of birth : 22.10.1923

Place of birth/Country : Altheim

Profession : Maid, Temporary Worker

Therese Kobencic: "I was never afraid, not of Hitler or anybody else, not at all. And I always spoke my mind and always did well that way. "

Information on her life before, during and after WWII.

Therese Kobencic, neé Langmair, was born on 22 October 1923 in Altheim (Upper Austria). Her father was a butcher and her mother was a housewife. The most important person in her life is her maternal grandfather. The family is poor, the parents, grandfather and three children share a tiny kitchen and two, little unheated rooms on Weinlechnerplatz Square in the Altheim working class neighbourhood.

In 1933, she experiences clashes between Nazis and Communists in her home town. A dead Nazi is left behind. The bright girl follows the worsening political disturbances with interest. She observes the great unemployment, the talk about Adolf Hitler, who has seemingly delivered the neighbours (Germany) from their need and the increasing presence of the illegal Nazis.

In 1937, Therese completes her seven-level Elementary School education. She begins working as a maid at the beginning of 1939 since there is no money with which to continue her education or get professional training. She earns very little and has no medical insurance. When Hitler crosses the border at Braunau on 12 March 1938 (annexation of Austria by ther German Reich) and stops in Altheim on his way to Linz, Therese meets the Führer along with her friend on the open road. Hitler today. A month later, at the referendum on the (already completed) annexation, Therese is repelled by the opportunism of some former "Blacks" (Christian Socialists) who are suddenly on Hitler’s side.

1939, the war is already on when she goes to work as a maid in the house of an evangelist pastor in Braunau and moves to Vienna with him in 1940. She spends two very quiet years there, as she says herself, but has to quit and return to Altheim in 1942 because her mother becomes very ill.

She is obligatorily transferred to the Luftwaffe base at Freinberg close to Linz. She is trained as a telephone operator and begins to work as a Luftwaffe aide after a number of courses. Her duties include drawing approaching enemy planes on a large map in mirror writing.

She asks for a transfer to a small FLAK (anti-aircraft unit) close to Braunau in order to be close to home. From there, she and her comrades are transferred to Passau (Kachlet Plant) and then attends a training course in Dresden. She is then transferred back home to Steyr.

On 1 may she receives a limited leave permit, although the end of the war is imminent (8 May 1945). She leaves Steyr and crosses the Enns back to her parents and arrrives there at 2:00 a.m. The American occupation forces march into Altheim five hours later.

On 8 June 1945, Therese Kobencic heeds the call of the Americans for all Wehrmacht members to come to Mauerkirchen, which is right close by. Since she is not on the list of War Criminals, she is issued a dismissal permit.

She spends the occupation in Salzburg, Vienna and in Altheim as of 1946.

She works at a large chair factory there as a temporary worker and becomes involved in the Works Council.

Therese Kobencic married 1952. She has two sons, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

She started writing in 1983 and has recorded her innumerable experiences and memories in the form of poems, both in formal German and vernacular.

"Hitler", says Therese Kobencic, "ruined our entire youth. I am thankful to my destiny that I was allowed to experience good times today."

"Approaching 14 North Dora Berta 5 7Anton"

Childhood and first job I was born on 22 October 1923 in Altheim in the Innviertel region. My father had a small business. The earnings were always only enough to live hand in mouth. I only attended a seven level Elementary School. There wasn’t any other choice.I was dismissed from school as early as 1937. I was left standing on the street, without any perspectives for the future. Then I got a job as a maid, but only for three hours a day, so that they had to pay my medical insurance. I earned ten Schillings. That was very little, even for the living standards in those days.

Well, assumed power in Germany in 1933... Weinlechnerplatz Square is five minutes from here, a large square. That is where all the unemployed met, stood in groups and always said, "Do you have your weeks? Yes, and do you get unemployment?" You can’t even imagine, these people had to go begging. It is unthinkable: You have a couple of children and don’t know how you are going to feed them. Well, I was ten, because I was born 1923 and Hitler was being discussed all the time then: "People talk about Hitler, and suddenly things are getting better in Germany, people are getting jobs." And so I ran home and said, "Mama people are talking about Hitler all the time, who is that?" And she said, "Oh yes, he was born right close by, in Braunau." And then I said, "Yes, and? Why doesn’t he come and help us? Or doesn’t he know how badly we’re doing?" "Yes, yes," said Mama, "he knows, but that’s just the way it is." That’s why I was the first person to be angry with Hitler. I wrote it (in my memoirs): I was angry with Hitler because he wasn’t helping us, because we weren’t getting anything to eat and they had food over in Germany. (Laughs) That’s the way you see things as a child, or not?

The swastikas were cut out of newspaper and then spread all over the streets.

And the "blacks" which we called "Hahnenschwanzler"(Chicken tails), pulled the young boys, who was suspected of being sympathetic to Hitler out of bed and didn´t ask: "Did you participate in this?" They formed a group of them. Gendarmes walked beside them to the left and right, one with paint and the other holding a brush. They had to clean up the whole mess. They often painted a swastika on top of a stadel, a barn, and then had to scratch it off, or collect everything from the ground. And so both ends were at odds, so to speak, until it all came to an end in 1938. Once there was even harvested a swastika which was sown into the meadow in the autumn. Then they threw paper firecrackers once and shattered a windowpane somewhere. So, as I said, it was tense time.

The sky, blood red That was before Hitler marched in. So, he marched in on 12 March (1938) and I didn’t think it was something worth remembering...

But I think it was in January already, before Hitler came. People ran out on to the street: "My God, what is going on now?" The sky was blood red. Blood red. "Jesus, a war is coming," said those who were superstitious. And the others, the more educated said, "Ah, that has to be… a northern light, that’s what it was! "A northern light."

And the others said, "A war is coming now. And the war came. The people were very disturbed and I can see it today still, because the sky was blood red. I never saw that again, ever. It was as if it had really been an augur.

The radiant Führer (Adolf Hitler)Well, I experienced it. Now you have to imagine, on 12 March (1938), Hitler was just 16 Kilometers away from us – at Simbach across the border. The German troops came, they clanked in at six in the morning, the tanks. And more and more people gathered at the market and watched. You could actually tell that the soldiers were afraid: What’s going to happen, is there going to be an uprising or what?! But there was none, and then, at ten in the morning, one of the soldiers shouts, "Mädchen" (Girl). The soldiers reached down from the tanks and shook our hands. I was a 14 year-old girl, with long braids down to my knees. You know, a German girl (laughs). Anyway, then a German soldier asked: "Girl have you ever seen the Führer?" "No, how could I have?" And it went on that way, and they shouted, "Do you know the Führer?!" "No!" "You will get to know him today, he’s coming to visit you."

Then I said to a girlfriend, "If its really true that Hitler is coming to visit us then I really do want to see him." And the people crowded into the market place, everyone wanted to stand in the front row. And so my friend and I walked out to the country road towards Mauerkirchen (Braunau is meant here). And suddenly Hitler came our way. Standing in the car, unprotected, he didn’t need a car like the Pope. That has to be said once. A car with a loud speaker drove ahead blaring: „Achtung, Achtung, jetzt kommt der Führer!" ("Attention, attention, here comes the Führer"). And there was Hitler, unprotected. He greeted us, laughing, because he was happy about the reception in Braunau, because the people cheered when he passed. He drove right passed us and greeted us. Then he drove into the market, roughly at noon. And then he held a speech in Linz at eight. He only drove on to Vienna the next day. But there was no threat. No one would have made any form of attempt on his life. If someone standing next to me had shot Hitler then, he would have saved the lives of millions of people. I have thought about that often. People would have said, "He was a murderer," but it would have saved the lives of many people.

Because he was an aggresator (aggressor is meant). You have to say that, don’t you?

So, and now you have to imagine, suddenly Hitler shows up and says, who you are descended from and where you come from is wurscht (irrelevant). The only thing that matters is your performance. And the people’s self-confidence surged, no? Because originally one had been told, "You were born poor, therefore you will remain poor and you will die poor." We were similar, as they say, to India, a caste system. Those who were born in better circumstances had chances. Some were able to study (attend university). Whereas a poor person, who was born poor, never had a chance of becoming someone.

And that was Hitler’s tactic. That’s how he captivated the younger population, I have to say. The BDM and HJ, and then they were kept busy with sports, games and bonfires. They sang loudly and naturally the children loved that. You have to look at it that way. And suddenly you were on a first name basis. Let’s put it this way: the children from the market area, who grew up a little more comfortably didn’t even look at us who came from Weinlechnerplatz Square. We were, I have to say, of the lower class (laughs), or caste, isn’t that true? And then Hitler marched in, yes, and now we were all on a first name basis. No matter who you were, we were all equal! And that only happened because of Hitler, because he said: "Well, we are all a community, we all belong together, we all have to stick together."

It was like this in reality: Hitler marched in on 12 March (1938), and then elections were held on 10 April, which Hitler won with 99 per cent. And that was also the Church’s fault! Do you know that? The Catholic Church was (to blame), because Austria was an entirely Catholic country and the people didn’t know any better than to go to Church on Sunday. It is an entirely different situation to today. And on 28 March – the elections were on 10 April – on 28 March a pastoral letter was read in all churches in Austria that was signed by all the bishops. I can let you read it; it’s in the book anyway. And it said that naturally, everyone should vote for Hitler, why not? The Catholic Church requested us to. And Innitzer signed the letter with "Heil Hitler". Except that nobody wants to know that anymore! ... Well, there would be so much to say about that.

You have to imagine, in a small village like Altheim, 266 did not come back. I was 16 years old then, when you say life is really starting, and most of the young men did not return. Many young women were left over. They couldn’t have a man after so many had fallen. You have to imagine that, nobody talks about it today anymore anyway. There was no dancing, so we didn’t have any form of youth. I never went dancing in my life. It just didn’t exist. Yes, and naturally we had to save on food. We weren’t exactly starving, but everything was a bare minimum! We weren’t demanding anyway, since none of us were doing any better.

People with the Jewish Star I came to Vienna a year later (Autumn1940), to the household of an evangelist pastor. I lived on Liechtensteinstraße, in the ninth district and it was - we were already at war – a relatively quiet time.

As a good Christian, I walked up to Votivkirche Church every Sunday, via Berggasse. It is unnecessary to say that I never heard the name "Sigmund Freud". The circumstances were entirely different then. There was no daily paper or any other form of information. I only found something out when I went to the cinema, because I heard the Wehrmacht Report there. But we just didn’t have a radio and television hadn’t been invented yet and so one only knew what one heard by coincidence. And it isn’t common to talk to strangers on the street in a large city. And no one noticed that I thought to myself, "Well this isn’t right." That was never the case. I have to say that. And then, I can’t say exactly when anymore, I think it was in the autumn of 1941, I went shopping the way I did everyday and stopped dead, I was very surprised, because I was encountering so many people wearing a yellow Jewish star on their coats. I thought to myself, "What’s going on today?" I didn’t know anything about the persecution of the Jews until then. Then I read that park benches had been labelled "Für Juden verboten" (Forbidden forJews), I was shocked when I told my employer. She didn’t engage in conversation with me and just started talking about something else. Maybe she didn’t trust me, maybe she thought I give something away somewhere. And she certainly knew what was going on there.

Well, it was horrible: "What’s going to happen with us now?" But the worst thing was when Hitler declared war on the Russians. I t had already been a couple of years in which so and so many had fallen. And then, when was it? June 1941? When did Hitler declare war on the Russians? I think it was June 1941, I don’t know anymore. Doesn’t it say inside? In any case, it was a radiant, beautiful Sunday and I was in Lower Austria then, to the side of Wiener Neustadt. The evangelist pastor had a summerhouse there.

And we heard how Hitler declared war. I thought to myself then, "It is all over now, Hitler has gone crazy. The same is going to happen to him that happened to Napoleon. He is going to take a beating in Russia." And that is exactly what happened. Its impossible, how are you supposed to defend a border that is over one thousand kilometres long? You have to imagine all the supply lines... The soldiers may have penetrated deeply, but then they needed supplies. They needed everything from petrol to food. All that on a front that extended over a thousand kilometres!

My brother participated in the Polish campaign (note: remained in Poland during the occuaption) and then he told us: "We were lying on the Russian lines, in Poland. And after the evening trumpet was sounded the officer said, "We will be attacking at five in the morning!" So we attacked at five in the morning and the Russians came tumbling out of their poor, run down houses wondering, "My God what is going on now?" And we just overran them. We just overran them."

And the most horrible thing was Stalingrad. I will never be able to forget that. It was the Sixth Army, part of which was still stationed in Altheim for 14 days of rest and relaxation. And my mother said – there were stalls behind us and the horses that they had were there – and my mother said when they were ready to march off, "They all came," she said, " looking very pale, they alll knew they were marching to their deaths."

And how many fell? How many felll? 374,000, or something like that. I don’t know by heart. And many were taken prisoner. Nobody can imagine what they went through in Russia, in Siberia and so on. Nobody had done anything really. They had to fight for their lives. They would have shot you otherwise!

Called up by the Luftwaffe I went home then (in the summer of 1942) because my mother became seriously ill... She was operated and then I received a summons from the employment authorities telling me to take a job again. One wasn’t a free person then, it was a real dictatorship. I had to drive to the employment offfice and I was told I had to take a job, either at the ammunition factory in Steyr, or with the Luftwaffe. Well, I never wanted to go to a factory so I only had the Luftwaffe left. I entered the service on the Freinberg in Linz. And I have to say honestly that my knees shook: "What is coming up now?" But it wasn’t in the least bit tragic and that was the beautiful thing about the system: It was a community. So the leader just came running down the stairs, grabbed my suitcase and said, "So, you belong to us now, we’rea community."

Into the Operations Room as a maid All those of us who had just arrived had to report the next day. A Colonel Cohrs, a man with a monocle mustered us and asked us what jobs we had. So, one said she was a saleslady, the other worked in an office and I was the maid. And he started yelling and said: "What are they thinking at those employment offices that they sent us a maid? People here have to have a higher education!" I shook like a dry leaf.

Then he calmed down and said he would give me one month of time. I was to train as a telephone operator and if I didn’t make it, well, I would be off to the factory. But I made it and I was an operator for four months. Then I was transferred to the operations room and had to draw the approaches of enemy planes on a huge map. Everything was in mirror writing since the officers were sitting in front following the routes of the approaching units. And the alarm was sounded when the enemy aircraft were within one hundred kilometres and the people rushed into the cellar.Bombing raids and mirror writing Everything was measured in degrees on grids. There were huge maps and we stood behind them with headphones on and instead of hearing messages like, "Now there is a flight approaching Vienna or Linz" we were told "14 North Dora Berta 5 7 Anton". That worked with the grid. Greenwich is the zero degree mark, you know that from school. And we were 14 to the north. So it wasn’t, "Attack on Linz or Wels", it was "14 North Dora Berta 5 7 Anton". The grid was subdivided into 35 kilometre areas.

And so we stood behind the map listening to our headphones. We would hear, for example, of the approach of one hundred four-motor bombers, depending what they were, and then we drew the plane. We also included whether it was a two-motor or four motor plane by drawing two or four lines next to it. And everything was drawn with grease pencils and in mirror writing so the officers could see properly up front. They sat in front of the map and observed this wondering, "Where is that unit flying to?"

And the alarm was sounded when they were one hundred kilometres away. The all clear came when they were one hundred kilometres away again. There were extra girls in cabins also wearing headphones. They would write things down and hand the officers the slips of paper. They were monitoring us. If, for example, I had drawn 15 south, the planes would have been in an entirely different position than 14 north, which is clear, or not? And so there was verification, no?

Ruth Deutschmann:

How were you trained? That wasn’t an easy task.

Therese Kobencic:

Yes, yes, but I managed it pretty well. Afterwards I could write mirror writing as well as my normal writing. It is all a matter of practice. I was sent to Dresden for training; didn’t I tell you that once? I was in Dresden in 1944. (Clears her throat) I was at a large squadron six kilometres away from Dresden called Klotsche. I completed my training there and then returned to Austria.

Yes, well as I already told you, I was in Klotsche. That was six kilometres outside of Dresden, a large squadron. And Dresden was one of the cities that had been spared from attacks. We had a lieutenant there who always said after the lessons were over in the evening, "Ladies, look at Dresden, this wonderful city!" Then he would extoll on the Semper opera house, the castle, the Brühl Terrace, the great sights. I walked around there often.

Prager Straße was like Kärntner Straße in Vienna... I looked at many things there. There were unbelievable treasures there. Then a British reconaissance plane flew over our squadron, spreading leaflets. And they read "Ihr Dresdener Zwerge kommt zuletzt in Eure Särge ("You Dresden midgets will wind up in your caskets in the end"). That was in the summer of 1944. And then – when was the attack, on 14 February 1945, or something like that!

And when the war had been over for 50 years, in 1995, when we already had a televsion set, I saw a show about the great bombing. In it, a German journalist says to an Englishman, "Yes, well why did you even fly the attack? The war was already lost then, the Russians were barely one hundred kilometres away?" "Yes," said the Englishman, "We still had so many bombs, what were we supposed to do with them? We couldn’t have used them otherwise."

Indeed! And that shocked me, you can easily say that.

And there is something I still have to say. Once... Hartheim, have you ever heard of Hartheim? It is a castle close to Linz. Then they said that those who were handicapped or were challenged in some way were given an injection. It was known that there was somehting like that. And I was in Linz and someone said to me that a chimney sweep had told him that busses arrived in Hartheim with their windows blackened from the inside, so you couldn’t see who was inside. And the chimney sweep said that were many used children clothes in the attic who had had received an injection.

But it only occurred to me later, "Oh, that’s what that was!" But it wasn’t like everyone with a flaw, lets say, was taken away. The community was mainly to blame. We had one on Weinlechnerplatz Square who never progressed above the level of a five year old. He’s as old as me and is still alive. You can still take a look at him. And as I said, he remained at the level of a small child. But he is still alive today. Nothing happened to him because his parents were there and resisted. If he had been any old poor person the Mayor, who was a fanatic would have sent him to such a home, which is absolutely possible. But they were not taken away mandatorily, that isn’t true. After all, many survived. But it is beyond doubt that some were removed.

You can’t imagine how afraid we were. And we weren’t allowed to leave (Steyr), we had to stay! And then we said: "Doesn’t Hitler understand that we lost the war long ago? What does he want now? Should everybody die?" That’s how we complained about Hitler, but that was a matter of course, actually.

There was one girl from Saxony. I said once, "I’d like to know now, don’t you understand what Hitler started. How many people have already had to die? And she said, "You’re all complaining about Hitler." She said, "I’ll…never forget how he came and I ate my first slice of bread with butter. We were in such need in Germany and we were given something to eat when he came." Yes, she defended him until the end, but I hadn’t for a long time already, because I thought to myself, "What he is doing is insane."

The French imprisoned him. And then he said – he was in prison for nine months in France, and he dropped to 49 kilos in nine months! And he always said, "Comrades starved to death left and right."

Yes! And there was a Carinthian painter there as well, I mean someone who could draw well. He would often draw something and then trade it with the guards for a piece of bread. And he, said my husband, saved his life because he always gave him a piece of bread because he was also from Carinthia.

49 kilos measuring 1.83m!

And then he always said, "I would go to war again voluntarily against the French. When they could, because we couldn’t defend ourselves, they showed their true face. In the begininng they didn’t defend themselves, they were beaten within a few weeks. One could say France was overrrun."

And at the end a Court Martial was convened, which angered me very much once again. This Major General Rendulic, was his name, was the Commander in Upper Austria and he was to blame for the fact that a few soldiers still had to die as a result of the Court Martial.

And then, it was 1 May (1945), we were set free, we received our release permits. Two or three days before, a comrade came, she was in Steyr and we had three kilometres to go before Gleink, and she said, "I saw something now: awhole column of ghastly figures. They must have herded them up from Hungary"

They were probably from the concentration camp, or something, I don’t know exactly where from... But she was utterly shocked. We had never heard of something like that.

And I didn’t really realise it at that moment, I remembered much later again, because I was so worried at that time. "What will happen with us now? Will we make it home or will the Russians catch us? But in hindsight you see things this way: Yes you heard, but you didn’t really register it. I imagine the following: they evacuated a camp when the Russians were already coming and herded the prisoners towards Upper Austria.

Suddenly the front came to a standstill close to St. Pölten (Vienna was already occupied at this time). We all had to report there, the Commander shook our hands and said, "You are still young and can still start a new life. I can’t anymore."

He was a Count from Upper Silesia and had already been told that the Russians had taken his castle and that his family had been forced to flee. The man turned white overnight. And then we were given a leave permit, I still have mine, it was limited to 31 July. If the front had advanced again, we would have been expected to report back on 31 July 1945 again. This despite the fact that that was the end. But probably no one wanted to acknowledge the fact.

I was standing there in front of a truck, and "Verlorene Ehre" (lost honour) was written on side panel. I thought, "What is that supposed to mean? I couldn’t see anyone in the cab, so I went around to the back. And then I went rigid: the whole truck was full of dead (German) soldiers who had wanted to escape. And then I thought of a saying, I think Schopenhauer said it, "Dear God, if it was you who created the Earth, then I don’t want to be in your position. The misery in this world would crush me."

A pair of soldier’s hands grabbed me then and dragged me to another truck that was driving to Wels. And thus my life was saved.

At the train station in Wels, that was in the evening hours of 1 April (1 May is meant here) a railway man said "A train is trying to reach Braunau, I can’t say if they will succeed or not since the Americans are already at the Bavarian border, meaing across the Inn River. We got as far as Ried, it might have been eight in the evening, and I hear a man say, "Hitler is dead!" And I thought to myself, "Why did it take so long? How many lives could have been saved if it had been recognised at the right time that the war was already lost?

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Copyright © 2001 by Ruth Deutschmann, Vienna

Ruth Deutschmann

Vienna, 31 July 2001