Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
Return to Vienna
Have you been back?
Yes, I've been back three times.
When you went for yourreunion.
I went in '58 and I went in '76 and I went in, forthe reunion in '87. And I could have gone now when I was in Portugal, butsomewhere I had lost the desire to go. Because this very good friend, the onewho, who came to us on the Crystal Night he had died and I felt that he was theheart of Vienna as far as I was concerned. I didn't want to go back.
This was the friend fromschool?
Yes. He was my first boyfriend. I was sixteen andhe was sixteen.
When he came to yourhouse what did he say?
Well, he had come in concern to what happened, whathe had heard might happen and he wanted to know how many members of our familyhad been harmed. And he tried to find out where my father was but he couldn't.So he was offering support.
Did he offer to hideyou?
No, no.
???
That would be very difficult. In fact, my aunt, whois not Jewish, my uncle's widow, told me that a friend of hers had asked her tohide them and she said I can't. And she told me that she couldn't because itwas everyday and you would have to take care of them totally. And she herselffelt that she was under suspicion because she was the widow of, of someone whowas Jewish. So she was the only one who-my aunt was totally honest person thatshe would even bring it up. It must have been terrible for the other party. Butmy, my, the patient of my mother's whom I had seen in '58, he had been hiddenby several people a few days at a time. In one of those transfers he gotcaught. But he-there were people who were willing to take that risk. It's anenormous risk. To, to do someone a favor even if it's risky once in awhileisn't bad. But have to do it everyday at the risk of your own family, it's veryhard. I can-it's amazing that any of them found shelter. Really astonishing.And you know that the punishment was very severe. There was no due, due processof law, no recourse. You were gone, you were gone. They would pick 'em up andthat would be it.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn