Impressions of Defeated Germans

Interviewer: What was your impression of the German civilians that you came across?

Military jeep drives through city as men and women walk through the streets.

Well, I’ll tell you, actually the soldiers even themselves, prisoners of war, I had twenty of those work with me different days, mechanic types and electricians, on automotive you know. I couldn’t speak very much to them and they couldn’t speak, but I found them, and the civilians as well.... Actually the interpreter on our unit, a German, nice man, and actually he used to be a driver for CPR on the train from Winnipeg I just forget where he told me, but he used to speak good English and that’s why our unit adopted him for interpretation, you know, amongst work people. Him and I were great friends because most things I wanted to know he was always there to help me and every day at 10:30 he used to say, I forget what he used to say.... We used to take the bicycles anyway and go down to his place for coffee. But the civilians that I knew, I found them maybe, I

Men and women working together in the rubble as they pass buckets of dirt and rocks to each other.

don't know, what would you say, two-faced in a way, but I didn’t, I never took any chances, you know what I mean. But apparently they appeared to present themselves well, you know, no anger or nothing towards us, not that you could see really.

Mr. Austin discusses the attitudes of the Germans he met in occupied Germany.

Stephen Austin

Stephen Austin, Sr. was born in Holyrood, Newfoundland on December 16, 1916. He was the second of four children and was raised on a family farm. His father was also a fisherman. In 1936 he started working as a truck driver. Mr. Austin went to England at the outbreak of war and worked in lumber crews. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force where he trained for a heavy engine mechanic. Mr. Austin served first in England, where he maintained the equipment which raised anti-bombardment balloons. After re-certification, his tour of duty took him to post D-Day Europe where he maintained military vehicles during the Allied advance on Germany. Mr. Austin married a Belgium national, and returned to Newfoundland where he worked as a mechanic. He later returned to France, working several years at the war memorial in Beaumont-Hamel.