Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
Introduction
The following is an interview with Mrs. Lucy Merrittconducted on the afternoon of July 8, 1991 in Oak Park, Michigan. Theinterviewer is Sidney Bolkosky.
Could you tell me your nameplease?
Lucy GlaserMerritt.
Your maiden name was Glaser?
Yes. Mm-hm.
Um, and where were you born?
I was born in Vienna,Austria in January 15, 1920.
Um, when did you leave?
Uh, January 12, 1939.
Um, so you were in Vienna during-at least in the '30s.
Yeah.
What was your life like uh, in the '20s and '30s?
I don't remembertoo much about the '20s, but in the '30s high school, when I was in highschool, high school starts at age ten and for me nine. Uh, it was verypleasant. We had friends. We went on outings together with the school. And weparticipated in all the required sports, such as skiing, which you had to do tograduate from high school and swimming, which you had to do to graduate fromhigh school. And we had plays in school and I never felt discriminated. I hearddiscussions. We were discussing, when we were older-they were discussing racialtheories and the head shape, color and whether that. The kids among themselveswere doing that once Hitler took over in Germany.
After the Anschluss.
Yes. No, beforethe Anschluss. Hitler came.
Oh, after-in Germany.
Yeah.
Did you hear this also from teachers? The discussions.
Some. There were some uh, teachers who were quiteanti-Semitic. The foremost among them was the priest. We had religiousinstruction, a rabbi and a priest. And that particular priest was quite apro-Nazi. And he was always pushing the ideas. And we moved him after awhile.I-Austria had a Catholic government. Dollfuss was in charge and he made surethat everybody who taught was loyal, so this priest went and we got another onewho was what they call a Schwarzer. Black being the color of the party. Theblack party was the Catholic, the red party was the Communist and the brownswere the Nazis.
Was this the CatholicSocialist, Socialist Party?
Yes, yes. So-called socialist. There was verylittle socialism in the Catholic socialists.
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