Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
Austrians
And these were allAustrians.
Yes, they were all.
They were not Germanimports.
No, there were no German imports. I-you know, Iwould know the moment he opens his mouth with he's an Austrian or not. Therewere no German imports. These were all, it was all native talent, nativetalent. None of whom have any memory worthy of the name.
Um, what did you thinkthe cause of this was?
I don't know, I could never understand prejudiceuntil I came to the States and I had an opportunity to learn how it functions.Because uh, there were so many minorities and you could form prejudicesyourself. In fact, the first time I really found I was guilty of beingprejudiced was in the Arab situation when the Arab students were so hostile. Iwas beginning to generalize. The minute I heard an Arab name I would have areaction which was negative, which I have overcome at last. But I think that'swhat they must have done. They must have trained themselves to overcome, to-theminute they hear the word Jew they see someone who takes advantage of them. Ithad to do with the economics there's no question about that. And the fact that Austriaha- suddenly had a big head and no body. Vienna was two million, Austria wassix. It-Vienna has shrunk since then. I don't think there're two millionanymore. There was a lot of pressure, economic pressure, and when there is economicpressure you look for places. And there were religious feelings too. Many ofthe, many of the priests in Austria, especially in the countryside, were quiteanti-Semitic. It was part of this "you have killed," you know, "the savior"type thing.
There was a housingshortage as well, I think.
Pardon?
There was a housingshortage as well, I think, in '38.
I wouldn't be aware of that, because you see,because those things I had nothing to do with. But there was uh, there wasunemployment, I heard about that.
But when, in November'38 did you know about the murder of Vom Rath and.
Yes. That had been in the paper. Yeah.
So everybody was awareof what the excuse was.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, we were aware of that.
What did your father dowhen he came back from the prison?
Well, he, he was humiliated by the fact thatsomebody else had pleaded for mercy. That even though my father was militaryunfit because he was such a klutz and really unphysical type person uh, but hefelt that when they made them exercise that they shouldn't have pleaded formercy. Apparently uh, one of the men had a heart condition and couldn't do itanymore and he begged for mercy. And, of course, they didn't have any mercy.And my father, that was the first thing I remember seeing, that he was furiouswith this poor man who was sick. And he said they were beasts, that they weredoing things just for spite.
So they made them dothese exercises.
Exercises. And uh, they addressed him as "du" ofcourse you know, no title. In Austria it was so title conscious. And uh, therewas the humiliation but it didn't leave him humiliated. It left him moreobstinate.
Did he know any of theSS?
No, but he went looking for my brother. He thoughtthey had arrested him too, so whenever they came in, a new uh, batch, hechecked to see if perhaps if my brother was among them.
And where was yourbrother?
He was home, he never left.
Oh so your father waslooking in the prison for him.
He was looking in the prison, mm-hm.
Did they know any of theguards?
No. And these were uh, hey were not policeman. Theywere in a police station but they were not policemen, because those he wouldhave known.
They were SS-men.
from his work with the ???.
Stormtroopers, yeah.
Yeah.
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