Betty Boertmann
Interview:
My interview was conducted on April 15, 2006. I interviewed my grandmother, Betty Boertmann. She was born and raised in Bad Aibling, Bavaria . When WWII began, she was about 20 years old. Her brother, Max, was 14 years old when it began, and her sister was close to 30 years old. Her family was directly affected by the war when her brother was forced into the military and never came home.
Question: What was Bad Aibling like?
Answer: It is 35 miles south of Munich near the Alps . There are no factories. There are many resorts, hotels, and rheumatism baths. The rheumatism baths are basically mud baths with the mud from the moors of Bad Aibling, which are said to be healing for joint pain.
Question: What did your father do for a living?
Answer: My father owned a factory, and we lived in a big, three story house at the time. He was a "big shot." The factory produced the wood part of brushes for sweeping. When the depression took over Germany after WWI, he lost his factory in 1928 and we moved into a small house with a little garden.
Answer: What your father a supporter of Hitler?
Question: No! My father was a Social Democrat. He always voiced his strong opinions against Hitler and my mother always said to him, "Someday Hitler get you, and you get locked up!" My father did not allow me to be a part of the German Girls' League. I wanted to very badly because the girls received uniforms with white shirts and black ties. The girls went on field trips and marched in parades. I was a young girl only interested in being a part of the group to have fun. One day, my mother was asked by a neighbor, who was a woman a part of the Nazi Women's Club to join, but she declined. There was no pressure to be a Nazi in Bad Aibling, it was not forced upon us. My sister felt so bad that I could not be a part of the German Girls' League though, so she offered to make me a uniform and I could sneak out with my friends to the parades and field trips.
Question: How old was your sister?
Answer: Anney was older than me and married. She was about 29 years old at the time of Hitler. She had two children, but they were older when Hitler came into power. Her children were not forced into the Hitler Youth or the military as Max, my younger brother, was. She was not affiliated with a party. " Germany at this time was a man's country."
Question: When was Max sent to the front lines?
Answer: Max was first entered into the Hitler Youth in 1936. Then, when Max was 18 years old he was entered into the army. He was in the officer school and before commission he had to spend six weeks on the front lines. Max was a part of the German army sent to Stalingrad . He was captured in the Battle of Stalingrad. The winter there froze their tanks and their equipment was useless. The Russians took this opportunity and surrounded the German army, advancing in on them and leaving no survivors.
Question: Was Bad Aibling as a whole affected by Hitler?
Answer: When Hitler rose to power, the autobahns were created. My father finally was able to get another job as a foreman on the autobahn. Hundreds of people helped build these with my father with nothing but shovels. Fortunately for us, we had a garden, so when food was scarce, we still had what we produced in the garden. Meat was rationed on Saturdays, and each family was given 2lbs on this day. Bread was rationed every morning at 5:00am. Everyone stood in a long line for bread, and about halfway through the line, the bakery might run out of bread. People in Bad Aibling were for the most part against Hitler because they were against the war. "Not everyone was a Nazi, you just shut your mouth."
Question: Did you have Jewish friends or know anyone who went to a concentration camp?
Answer: We were kids. Of course I had Jewish girlfriends, but that did not matter. One family who owned a factory along with my father left for America . Families who left for America would take planes out of France . We thought my neighbor had gone to a concentration camp. As kids, we did not realize what it meant for him to be a Communist. He was a boy whom my friends and I played with on his motorcycle. The war had not begun, but Hitler was in power at the time. The boy was taken away one day and we thought he had been sent to a concentration camp, but ".he never said where was or what happened."
Question: Was your husband from your first marriage a Nazi?
Answer: No, he was a part of the German army, but he did not believe in Nazism. We had three children together. I was twenty years old and he was a pilot in Italy . He was not a fighter pilot, thank God. If he was, then I would not have been able to marry the husband I have now. I would have been labeled a Nazi and our marriage would have been forbidden.