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Posted on 09/04/2004 6:21:53 AM PDT by Jeff Blogworthy
Ernest's story
Life under the Russian occupation
Like Lotte Evans (the VIENNA SCHOOLGIRL), I spent the war years in Vienna Austria, going to school. I was born in 1931. Our part of town, like all of Vienna, was overrun by the Russians in May of 1945 and later occupied by the British. In contrast to Eastern Germany, Austria had a non-communist government even in the Russian occupied sector. This made it very difficult for Russians to "rule" and no doubt caused them to accept a final withdrawal of their troops from that country.
Much of the "restoration of society" after the war was due to the economic impact of the "Marshall plan" and in the case of Austria also to the ability of the then Bundeskanzler (equiv.to prime minister) Figl to hold his own in vodka drinking bouts during negotiations with Russian diplomats!
The frontline troops were the elite of the Soviet army. They seemed to be efficient, disciplined, did not loot and rape as is common, and were very generous to the civilian population, sharing their military rations, handing out bowls of soup etc. from their campsites in the streets.
These frontline troops soon advanced further into the city and were replaced by "regular" Russian troops, which were vastly different in many ways.
Russians soldiers were much more "humane" than German soldiers occupying foreign territory. For example, there was a curfew for civilians till about 9 a.m. By 5 a.m. we used to go out into the street and line up at a bakery to obtain some loaves of bread. If German soldiers had decreed a curfew and found people in the street they would have shot them. Russians might come around and ask what you were doing, but would not bother you once they saw you were only trying to get food.
Much of the benign treatment of civilians in Vienna and Austria by Russian soldiers was due to them being told that they were liberating Austria rather than occupying Germany itself. We were told that Russians in Germany proper, acted with much less restraint.
Most civilians with a Nazi past had either fled, or were smart enough to burn or remove any pictures of Hitler, any Swastikas etc. from their apartments or professional signs, before the Russian troops found them. Any time the Russians would find evidence of Nazi emblems, they would smash them and investigate further.
We soon found out that the soldiers' bosses were not so much their officers but rather "political comissars" which accompanied the army. They were also in uniform but easily distinguishable from soldiers (I think they had a red stripe on their caps, but I am not sure of my recollection on this). In any event, they were the real authorities. Let me relate two examples of what happened:
Just leaving my building, a Russian soldier on a bicycle came up to me, quickly handed me the bike and walked away. A minute later a comissar came around the corner. The soldier was very smart getting rid of the bike as he saw him approaching.
At one other time, as I watched it from my window, a Russian soldier came out of a grocery across the street with some loot in his arms. A comissar saw him, never spoke to him, just drew his pistol and shot him dead on the spot. Yet still at other times, you saw Russian soldiers, mostly of Asian origin (with mongolian features) who were wobbling around on bicycles, obviously just learning to ride them, with no interference from anyone.
In 1972, which is the last time I visited Austria, it was a fifteen minute drive between Austria and the Soviet tanks in then-Czechoslovakia. And believe me, Czechoslovakia could be a pretty scary place. My relatives there were continually frightened of the Soviet troops patrolling their streets and my car was often stopped by Russian soldiers who were suspicious. I can certainly get behind Arnold's story.
Sorry..that was not my father....it was what was written with the map. Did not mean to give the impression, that it was my father.
However My Father in law...was in Austria during the Occupation, as I state earlier, and lived there for about three years. He has an Austrian nannie for his small children, who they still contact.
My Father was in the Pacific theater in the Air Force at the End of World War 2. :-)
I was born and raised in Huntsville, AL. However, I remember often travelling and spending time with my family in other parts of the country.
Link for Ernest's story
Life under the Russian occupation
http://www.timewitnesses.org/english/~ernest.html
digging...
This article is the worst piece of liberal lying I've seen in a while. And when you consider the competition, that's quite an achievement.
Brief but fact-filled link on the Soviet occupation of Austria.
I would recommend remedial reading comprehension classes. This thread makes you look rather 'stoopid.'
They gave all they had and asked nothing in return. Which reminds me ...
SHUT UP ABOUT VIETNAM ALREADY, KERRY. HAND OVER YOUR SENATE RECORD!
I think his use of the girlie-man schtick is genius! (Unless of course he gets sued for it -- but even then it's good for some harmless controversy). It completely embraces (read de-fuses) one of the Left's most heretofore useful armaments (remember Bonzo?)-- to try to make a candidate look silly. Arnold took this potential weakness and made it his own, the way Reagan did with "the gipper." Moreover, it shows he has a sense of humor about himself--something that few Dems have--or can even comprehend.
YEAH...SHUT UP KERRY , AND WHILE YOU ARE AT IT, GET TERESA TO TURN OVER HER FINANCIAL RECORDS!
"Let me tell you about the sacrifice and commitment I've seen firsthand. In one of the military hospitals I visited, I met a young guy who was in bad shape. He'd lost a leg had a hole in his stomach ... his shoulder had been shot through.I could tell there was no way he could ever return to combat. But when I asked him, "When do you think you'll get out of the hospital?" He said, "Sir, in three weeks." And do you know what he said to me then? He said he was going to get a new leg ... and get some therapy ... and then he was going back to Iraq to serve alongside his buddies! He grinned at me and said, "Arnold ... I'll be back!""
I did not know there were any other sectors in Austria. I thought the entire country was occupied by the Soviets, and was the only Soviet occupied country, where they actually left.
Well now you know....;-)
I grew up in the Ohio sector of the USA, and I know this might be difficult to believe but while travelling with my uncle, we were actually been stopped by Arkansas State troopers in their vehicles at checkpoints into the Arkasas sector of the USA.
Any Austrian who visited Vienna from 1945 to 1955 had to go through checkpoints, British, French, Russian or American.
They asked the Historian the equivalent of "Were there ever Arkansas patrol cars in Ohio?" He said no. He was right. Arnold is right. Slate is just RETARDED. DU will gobble this up too, because they are RETARDED too.
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